Archive of Our Own ^beta

5 months. 

21 weeks. 

147 days.

3,528 hours. 

211,680 minutes.

And yet Yuji still scurried at the sight of him. Downy fur bristled with the electric shock of anxiety that persisted upon his arrival. Narrowed eyes glaring so fiercely Sukuna could feel the phantom scratches the cat wished to make reality.

In his own home.  

The one he purchased, decorated, lived and fought for when no other dared provide a helping hand. One that he offered to another in need.

The one, yet again, hiding away.

That lazy, insufferable, skittish cat. 

Rotten, stubborn, fang baring -

“Kitten.”

Sukuna tracks through the house, sock feet padding along the halls. His gaze sweeps the space. Sighing at his ignored call.

“Here, kitty, kitty.”

His lip twitches, lazily resisting the rising smirk. There was one tactic he’s learned that would always bring a modicum of success to his mission. That would have Yuji’s tail straight across his back, velvet ears pinned tightly against loose waves of pink. Alert, present, and finally, paying attention to him. 

Mocking. Teasing. 

Driving the feisty thing out of his hiding place to defend his own. 

And if Sukuna truly wanted this charade to end, he would bring out his winning tactic. 

With an exaggerated pursing of his lips, he whistles. 

Lets the sharp noise ring in the seemingly ‘empty’ room. 

It takes a moment. An eerily calm, dragging, moment. 

Then it happens. Slowly, predictably.

Sukuna feels the sweltering glare burning against his neck before the feline finally emerges. He sees a mass of lean limbs unfurl from his peripherals, the hybrid crawling out of the hanging platform installed near the ceiling windows. 

“I have a name, you know.”

“Do you now?” Sukuna takes in the petulant pout on pink lips, the curved dip of the other’s hunched shoulders. “‘Cause I use that and still get no response. Not very well trained of you, huh?”

“Look, I can play the part of a pet,” Yuji’s finger flicks at the silver pendant dangling from the leather collar strapped securely around his neck. Mindlessly tracing the soft texture through his seething stare. “But I am not a dog. Don’t you dare forget that.” 

“Oh, how could I forget when you always react to this,” Sukuna tracks the way the hybrid’s eyes narrow, pupils contracting in a furl of black. Wordlessly screaming “ Don’t you dare!”

 “Pspspspsps.”

Yuji shifts, a subtle flick of a curled tail. Ears twitching, fluttering, pinned back atop tousled locks. Next comes the tremors, muscled thighs contracting before relaxing. Forcing leaden limbs forward with shuffling steps. Resistant to his core. 

Stubborn, troublesome, and burrowed into the jagged crevices of Sukuna’s rotten heart. 

He’s embarrassingly enamored with the little spitfire. With every impassioned response, every hissing remark matching his sharp wit. To the subtle moments of hesitation he spies from the hybrid when Yuji thinks Sukuna has fallen asleep on the couch. Clawed hands nervously hovering, tempted, always tempted to join in the warmth of skin and blankets and repelled all the same.

Yet his patience has wilted. Drained alongside the turbulent interactions and desperate, festering desire, to indulge in kinship with his hybrid. To secure the haven he was promised upon adopting a companion.

When Gojo recommended he add a companion to his life, Sukuna barked in his face. Thunderous laughter sending tremors through the shared space, forcing his towering frame to bend with the sheer force. It was hilarious. Such a dimwitted, generic solution to a problem he did not have. 

Why on earth would he share his life with some undeserving partner? Some filthy pet that would go ignored by him. 

Yet the cracks upon his foundation were made. Despite the vehement refusal, Gojo had continued to whittle away at the virtually imperceptible fissures of Sukuna’s resolve. Those unbearable, azure eyes, seeing far past his defensive sneer and directly into his shriveled heart. 

Companionship had started to feel...desirable. 

Had shifted from a dark unknown to an imagined light. 

Would his companion be sweet? Tentative? Shy but willing to learn their role in his life? Perhaps they would be confident, forward in their aggressive affection. Pawing, simpering, demanding his focus where he would be too stiff in naturally providing. 

A sweet pet to scoop into his arms.

One he could finally redirect his affections onto, uninhibited and unjudged. 

Allowed to be awkward and inexperienced in a way he had not been in decades. 

Regardless of his daunting persona, Sukuna desired closeness like any other. He wanted, no, he craved, the ability to gather another body into his arms and pin them to his own. To weave dexterous, calloused fingers through silky fur, dragging nails till purrs or growls filled the space. 

Instead, he gets a spit-spraying, hissing, furball that steals his sweaters and lounges on his favorite chair without the decency to share. 

To this day, he curses Gojo. That duplicitous, lying, furby looking bastard. He had planted the concept in his mind, fed it, drowned it with running water till all debris in his thoughts flowed out. 

Left flooded plains with only one untouched thought.

Get a hybrid. 

The persistence should have warned Sukuna of disaster. 

The creeping smiles tugging glossed lips far too high. 

Those manicured nails impatiently tapping the table with precise beats, playing a song, a fool , to a rhythm Sukuna could not hear when the topic was strategically brought up. 

Gojo had set him up. Happily offered to join him in finding the ‘perfect’ match in the rescue shelter. And Sukuna, blindingly trusting in one of the few humans he begrudgingly calls a close friend, a confidant, shared in his desire. 

He had already been swayed to get a hybrid companion, what more was it to verbally confirm he wanted skinship and a soul to dump his awkward affections into?

Apparently, too much. 

It was the killing blow. 

An unknown piece that Gojo needed to enact his plan. 

Yuji was not a spur of the moment pick. Not the randomized encounter leading to a tearful meeting.

In fact, Sukuna had gazed upon the hissing hybrid for a split second and resumed walking. He did not care for bared teeth and agitated growls. He received plenty in his daily life from students and wayward fools. Inviting that to his home would only dissolve the peace he had created once locked behind closed doors. 

Yet he was swindled. Emptied of his pockets by Gojo’s deadly persistence. 

“Sukuna, walking around in circles won’t help you pick one. Why not just go back to the start and choose the first one you see? Oh! I know, how about that pink haired one?”

Gojo’s whining protests draw Sukuna’s gaze away from the slumbering bunny hybrid. The stroke of color along its pristine white fur was intriguing. Visually interesting in the way it’s sleeping inaction was not. 

“Whatever plan or thought you are having, stop. I don’t need this ruined by some absurd intervention or scheme.”

“Oh, come on! What evil scheme could I have set up? I’m just being a supportive friend, no scheming.”

Sukuna gives Gojo a lifeless glare. “One truth, and one lie. You love your riddles, Gojo. I’m almost having a hard time guessing which is which.”

He grins as the other sputters, a faint flush of annoyance painting Gojo’s high cheeks.

“First off, both were true. Second of all, just pick the cat already. We both know you don’t want something that will make it boring.” Gojo points to the now awake bunny hybrid, his tongue jutting out to mock the cold stare the hybrid throws his way. “Huh, would you look at that, one truth, no lie? Crazy.”

“You’re the worst.”

“And you're stubborn. You want a cuddle buddy soooo bad but are too much of a coward to admit it. Not to worry! I can shout it from the rooftops for you.”

Sukuna feels the immense rush of heat invade his skin, bubbling his blood till it rises across his face, dipping past his neck. “That was told to you in confidence, you six eyed bastard!”

“Hehe, is that another truth? That you trust me? Or that I'm a bastard?”

His fist is flying before his mind recognizes the movement. It’s a useless strike, hand colliding with pressurized air as it makes contact with nothing. Always millimeters away from truly smacking its target. 

Instead, Gojo returns the effort. Lithe fingers snatching Sukuna’s outstretched arm. He uses the momentum to pull the snarling man forward. Dragging Sukuna back towards the cat hybrid’s display in an impressive display of strength. 

“Look, Yuji is going to be your perfect fit. He’s spunky, young, can be the sweetest in the right circumstance, and loves-”

“How do you know so much about that hybrid?”

“I, what?” Gojo flounders for a second. A blimp in his composure that has the hulking man doubling down. 

“I said,” Sukuna plants his feet, the abrupt stop forcing Gojo to stumble. Despite the other man being closer to his towering height, Sukuna’s bulky frame would always overpower. “How do you know so much about him? Hell, they don’t even have names listed on the display.”

“Well, they don’t call me six eyes for nothing!”

“Gojo.”

“Ugh, fine!” Gojo drops his grip, arms jutting outwards with his frustration. “You’re no fun. Yuji is a foster hybrid case. I might have, sort of, fostered him and got him connected to this shelter. He’s a sweet thing, just troubled. I’m sure you know how that is.”

“I don’t.”

“Oh there you go lying again, you big softie. Do I not recall someone saying ‘I crave companionship that-” 

Sukuna’s massive palm slams against Gojo’s mouth, fingers flexing at the warm puffs of breath blocked by his hand. This time, he makes contact with his target, making sure to dig into supple cheek in warning.

“Enough. Stop broadcasting what I said or the next thing I do in confidence is rip out your tongue.” 

Gojo’s shrugs, not bothering to remove the offending hand from its spot. Instead he talks into the hollow depth of Sukuna’s palm with humid breaths. It brings disgust to wrinkle Sukuna’s face at the sensation.

“Believe it or not, this isn't some set up. You want a hybrid that can tick all the right boxes? Then Yuji is that hybrid. I wouldn’t be pushing him as your choice if I didn’t have all the inside knowledge. You have to trust somewhere in this process, Sukuna.” 

Fucking useless trust. 

It’s what got him here, fending off a hissing hybrid. Though he will admit, the high blush tainting the tan skin of Yuji’s scrunched face will never not be sweet. 

It wasn’t Sukuna’s desire to rile up the hybrid solely for fun. While it was a side effect to his actions, the truth was proximity. While Yuji preferred to strike when he thought Sukuna to be distracted, he always pounced when actively provoked. 

Normally with this routine, the hybrid came close enough that Sukuna could playfully grapple the other. Most times the interaction ended with muffled giggles from Yuji, the hybrid pretending to resist but poorly masking the genuine enjoyment of their exchange. Once he would catch the mirrored grin from Sukuna, he would freeze, pupils dilating at an alarming rate, before sharp teeth clamped onto the nearest limb.

Sukuna would be left tending to a new wound and calling after a disappearing cat. 

This time, his tactic has changed. He allowed Yuji to grow comfortable. Allowing the cat hybrid to enter his space but never pursing, never reaching. Always moving out of the range of strikes but never striking in return. 

Months of this randomized dance had led Yuji into complacency. Steps predictable and sloppy. Movements noncommittal, merely habit. 

And it provides the exact opening Sukuna had waited months for. The opening to finally make an advancement in their companionship.

As the cat hybrid bounds forward, claws raised, Sukuna side steps. Watches the others' amber eyes widen in confusion, then wider yet in understanding. The trap was set and he had leaped into it. 

With practiced speed, Sukuna reaches for Yuji’s neck, scruffing him gently. His other arm is quick to embrace the narrow waist just as the hybrid begins to drop with dead weight. It's only for a moment. He dare not scruff for longer than was needed to secure his prize. That and the sheer fury he imagines the hybrid would have wouldn't bode well for what little bit of relationship they had developed. 

He powers through regardless, bundling the limp limbs into a bridal carry. “Listen, ‘cause I know you’re going to try and claw my face off the moment I let go.” Sukuna gazes into crystallized amber, admiring the doe eyes drowsily returning his stare. “We’ve played the same routine you’ve wanted for months. Now let me try mine.”

Sukuna lands on the couch with an exhausted groan. Careful in how he lays Yuji across his broad thighs. He rests the other's head against the junction of his shoulder and neck, grinning at the delicate ears flicking against him. 

“I’m going to let you go now. You can leave at any time.” He removes his grip from Yuji’s neck, readjusting to rest his palm against the other’s head. His fingers dig into the silky hair, making contact with a warm scalp that he begins to massage in circular motions. The other hand wanders, curling around the hybrid’s waist once again, comfortable as he tightens his hold. Fingers smoothing the fur around the cat’s bristled tail till it rests calmly against the appendage. “If you want.”

And Sukuna, well he was nothing but determined and thorough in his hedonist pursuits. He had read endless articles on the best methods to cuddle your partner. Had left scribbles of madness trying to understand what zones to pet on a feline and where to avoid gnashing teeth and frenzied claws. He was left with an essential guide, underlined and highlighted at each advantage he could utilize. 

1. Get the hybrid close, when he strikes, reach for his neck and apply light pressure. Scruffing will momentarily allow an opportunity to restrain. In some cases will leave the hybrid docile and calm.

2. With the sudden stunning, gather the hybrid and redirect to the couch. 

3. Use a soft tone, letting vocal chords squeeze to mimic the rumbling purr of authority. 

4. Be quick to massage and pet, focusing on the delicate nerves located by the base of the ears and tail. 

5. Pray that Yuji will melt into the soft affection instead of exploding at it. 

To his surprise, Yuji does not immediately spring from his hold. He does not melt either. Rather predictably, he stiffened. His tail swings with subdued agitation, accidentally curling around Sukuna’s playful fingers at each winding turn.  

Cute.

They remain in silence. Somehow peaceful despite the slight tension emanating from the hybrid. It does not read as charged, but...uncertain? Whatever it may be, Sukuna prays that the moment can endure past it.

“I don’t understand...” 

“Hmm?” Sukuna hums noncommittally. Acknowledging the whispered words mumbled against his shirt.

“Why do you insist on this... on me?”

His fingers pause, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. He hadn’t assumed Yuji could ever be docile enough to initiate a conversation. Let alone show any level of vulnerability. But the desire for connection has Sukuna responding with genuine interest.

“I have been told by others that companionship can alleviate some of the worst life has delivered. And I have been in pursuit of that since.”

“Oh. I hadn’t really thought about it like that. Gojo-san never really did this.” Yuji squirms in his hold, moving to readjust and mold himself marginally closer. Whether it was intentional or subconscious, Sukuna will mark that in his tally of victories.

“This?”

“Um, scruffing me? Being persistent with skinship. He usually just smiled but left me alone. Maybe laugh and try to pat my head when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.”

Begrudgingly, Sukuna feels a smile tugging at his lips. Can visually imagine Gojo’s disregard as the feline swats at his offending touches. 

“The scruffing part won’t be the norm. I just needed a chance to show you. If you weren’t so stubborn I wouldn’t have needed to.” 

Yuji bristles, all the smoothed out fur Sukuna had spent grooming turned to ruin. 

“It’s called boundaries! How was I supposed to know your intent when you’re the size of a monster and just as loud and mean.”

That draws a sharp laugh from Sukuna. Head shaking side to side in amusement. 

“Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time someone adopts me with bad intentions.” Yuji crosses his arms, shrugging his shoulders as he digs himself deeper in Sukuna’s embrace. His collar jingled with the motion, a chiming reminder of his current ownership. “I have to keep my guard up. Just cause you hadn’t done something didn’t mean you wouldn’t.”

“So hissing and spitting in my direction was your solution?”

Yuji yowls in complaint. A sharp note that has Sukuna snorting, bemused. His fingers resume their path along the other’s hairline. His own body sinking against the couch, lulled by the warmth of the hybrid. “Like I said, how was I supposed to know! It’s not like you ever said anything to change that.”

“And what could I have said to make you listen when you didn’t even want to respond to your name? Was I using the wrong one? Would you have responded to pretty kitty instead of Yuji?”

Yuji tried to hide his blush, soft cheeks squished against Sukuna’s unyielding pectoral. But he cannot escape the laser focus Sukuna gave to every subtle breath, movement, and noise the other produced. If the hybrid believes himself stealthy, the quiet rumble of a revving purr against his body gave him away. 

“Oh. So am I right? You would have?”

“S-Shut up! Or I’m leaving!”

“Relax, I'm only joking." He wasn't. The moment he had his fill of soft affections, he would be stepping into the nearest store and adjusting the name on Yuji's collar. "Just enjoy the moment.”

He emphasizes his command by firmly massaging the base of the hybrid's ears, tracing the delicate curve of soft ears in between. Reveling in the steady purr that gradually grows in volume. 

For once, Sukuna could finally grasp the fleeting concept of companionship. Could enjoy the tangle of limbs pressed against his own, the velvet sensation of a shy tail curling around his forearm quietly begging-'let's stay like this.'