Another JJK fic for today, this time with some Gojo whump :)

This is for Febuwhump's Day 10 prompt "How Long Has It Been?"

This story is set before the Hidden Inventory arc, so we have student Gojo & friends :')

Also, I'm still trying to figure out all the powers for JJK so I'm just playing here and I hope it makes some kind of sense lol.

Friends and Other Idiotic Things

A Jujutsu Kaisen Fanfic

He'd lost count of the days, honestly. What with the couple snatched hours of sleep he'd gotten during the course of the mission and the fact that it still wasn't over, it didn't really matter anyway. Gojo had a job, and his job was to make sure they weren't being followed on their way back to Jujutsu High. He couldn't afford to let his Six Eyes power lapse yet. There was too much at risk and this mission had already been full of more complications than anyone had expected.

Gojo, Geto and Shoko had been sent out on a basic mission to exorcise a Curse—which had gone as planned, but on their way back, they had gotten a call that three first years had stumbled onto something that they hadn't been prepared for and Gojo's group was the closest to offer aid. Leaving Geto and Shoko with the contained Curses, Gojo headed out solo to the rescue.

Honestly, it was possible he hadn't been prepared for this mission either. In fact, the Curse the first years had been fighting when he showed up had to have been one of the most powerful Curses Gojo had faced too. (He blamed a combination of surprise and the fact that he had already been exhausted from the mission he and his classmates had gone on for the fact that he had let his guard down for a second—just a second—and in that time, something had gotten through his defenses and scored a hit. It didn't matter, it was just a scratch.)

That had started a three-day (he thought?) period of all of them trapped inside a veil they couldn't leave, hunted by an elusive Curse, that they were only able to track the movements of thanks to Gojo, which is why he hadn't slept. They couldn't call for help while trapped in the veil, so it was up to them to figure it out unless more help arrived.

Finally, Gojo and Nanami, who had been one of the trapped first years, had been able to hunt down the last curse and exorcise it. When the veil didn't lift instantly there had been another desperate search, until it finally seemed to lift at random.

They'd gotten out of there while they could, but Gojo could still detect a trace of cursed energy, and was convinced another Curse or Curse User was out there somewhere. But he had injured students to get back to Tokyo, and there was no time to worry about the burning in his side because he was fine.

He was still extremely glad to see Geto and Shoko rolling up to the rescue with one of the assistant managers.

"There you are!" Shoko said, relief obvious in her eyes.

Gojo nodded, grinning. "I told you we were at the park."

"Yeah, and you're terrible at directions," she retorted.

The manager came up as Shoko went to see to the other students' injuries while they got settled into the car.

"Were all the curses exorcised?" she asked.

Gojo bit his lip, still looking around, rubbing a crick from his neck as he did so. "Something's following us. Whoever it was who cast the veil around the place that wouldn't let anyone out was not someone we came across."

"Then we'll need to get that taken care of."

Geto came up with a nod to the manager. "Gojo and I will handle whatever it is. Just get the students back to the school."

The manager nodded and returned to the car. Gojo exhaled slowly, adjusting his sunglasses higher up his nose, a headache increasing behind his eyes. He longed to be back on the school grounds where he could finally let his guard drop, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, so he pushed back the encroaching exhaustion, using his Six Eyes to search the area, still feeling the nagging of Cursed energy somewhere nearby.

"Where are we going?" Geto asked him.

Gojo squinted. "North."

Geto nodded. "Let's do this then."

They started off in the direction Gojo had named, but Gojo quickly lagged behind the other student despite his long legs. His headache was only increasing, and he was beginning to feel nauseous, sweaty—his side was aching. The sudden sensation of vertigo overcame him and he was forced to grab onto a lamppost in order to keep himself upright, sucking in a breath. He really should let up on his Infinite but with an unknown enemy around, he really couldn't risk it.

"Hey, you good?"

He looked up to see Geto had turned around, staring at him with somewhat uncharacteristic concern. Gojo waved him off and started forward again, pushing past his companion before Geto caught him by the shoulder, and turned him around. (Gojo wished he hadn't done that, it really made his head spin.)

"Hold on," Geto said, trying to stare past the dark sunglasses. "How long has it been, Satoru?"

"Hm?" Gojo asked, another breath grounding him a little more.

"How long has it been that you've been keeping this up?" Geto asked knowingly.

"Haven't stopped," Gojo replied honestly. "It was too dangerous to let my guard down while I was in there with the first-years."

Geto scoffed. "Satoru, you've been out here for five days!"

Five? He really had miscounted. He shrugged it off though. "I'm still good. Let's just go finish this so we can get back to the school and I can actually rest." He started forward but wasn't able to keep from swaying.

"Are you serious right now?"

"I'm fine," Gojo insisted, giving a tight grin before a drop of something slid from his nose. He reached up to rub it away with a finger, blinking at the smear of red. That was when he felt everything start to spin uncontrollably and he pitched forward.

He briefly heard Geto swear as he moved to catch him. Gojo felt the impact, tried to hold on, or push himself away, but couldn't do either. His legs didn't want to work anymore, and he was forced to squeeze his eyes shut against the assault of swirling surroundings. It was only a second later that the darkness came up to meet him, swallowing him whole. He couldn't say he was exactly upset by it right now.

Everything felt…awful. And that was putting it mildly. Gojo wasn't entirely sure he had ever felt this bad before. His entire body seemed to be doing its best to reject every bone in it. At least that's what it felt like because of all the aching. One that was particularly concentrated in his side and…

Gojo gave a strangled cry as something prodded the area, and he tried to twist away.

"Hold him," a voice growled.

Hands descended on his shoulders and Gojo struggled more, blindly reaching for the implement of torture that would not let up its assault on his side and finding cool, soft fingers beneath his.

"Satoru, hold still! I'm trying to help."

He cracked his eyes open, instantly blinded by the light that seemed to be coming from all directions, but he could make out Shoko bent over him, a cloth in the hand Gojo had captured, hovering over his side.

"Hurts…" he whispered.

She scoffed, pushing his hand away, which he was ashamed to admit was way too easy right now. "No shit it hurts. How long ago did you get this? It's going septic! You can't even take care of a simple injury?"

Gojo groaned, reaching down to prod the spot himself, seeing the inflamed patch of skin around the partially scabbed wound right above his hip. Shoko quickly snagged his hand back before he could touch it.

"Stop! You're just gonna make it worse! Let me do my job."

"Just try to rest," Geto's voice filtered in, patting Gojo's shoulder where he still had a good grip on him.

"With her butchery?" Gojo croaked.

"Hey!" Shoko snarled and scrubbed particularly hard against the wound, gaining a yelp from Gojo. "You don't get to complain anyway, idiot! You should have been up front about how bad off you were before you agreed to go on another mission."

Gojo brought a hand up to press against his aching eyes. It was more than just a physical ache, he knew. He wasn't sure he had used Six Eyes for that long in one period before and hadn't quite realized just how draining it was. Especially when he paired it with Infinity, as he had the entire time as well, fearing a surprise attack at any moment.

"Not used to getting hurt," he murmured.

Shoko scoffed again and turned to one side, rustling through more supplies. "Yeah, we know. That doesn't give you an excuse to be stupid."

"The mission…"

"Someone else is already on it," Geto told him. "I called in as soon as you passed out."

Gojo sighed, trying to stay still as Shoko continued to clean his wound, deliberately refusing to use her reverse curse technique yet. Or maybe it just didn't work on infections. He felt terrible, though, in general, that he had thought he could finish the mission in his condition. He had been stupid.

On top of everything, he was still feeling nauseous. Maybe that was because of his aching head, or maybe the fever.

Shoko taped a bandage to his side and straightened up. He heard water running. Gojo still wasn't sure where they were, but figured they were probably back at the school. Actually…

A brief instinctive use of Six Eyes confirmed that he was in his dorm room, but it also brought on a splitting headache and caused him to break out into a cold sweat. Gojo inhaled sharply through his nose and let out a groan, raising an arm and resting the crook over his eyes.

"Hey, take it easy," Geto said and Gojo felt him shift to his side. "How about you drink something?"

Gojo let his friend raise his head and press a glass to his lips. He drank several deep swallows, extremely thirsty. He licked his lips when it was pulled away for a second, replaced by Shoko pressing pills against his lips before the water came back so he could swallow.

"Can you…close the window?" he asked weakly.

"It is closed. There's hardly any light on in here," Geto said.

Gojo groaned, pressing his arm tighter. He didn't know where his glasses were, but didn't think they would be enough right now anyway. Maybe he could just bury his face under a pillow. It was always easier to suppress the Six Eyes power when he had something covering his eyes.

"Hold on," Shoko said and rustled around again. She returned and tried to pry his arm away from his face as Gojo resisted.

"Don't be a baby," she said and he allowed her to move his arm, squeezing his eyes shut. He was surprised when she started wrapping bandages around them, layering them on thick until no light shown through. A few seconds later, something blissfully cool pressed against the bandages and Gojo gave a contented sigh.

"Better?" Shoko asked, her voice actually somewhat soft.

"Mhm," Gojo murmured, lips curled in a smile. "Maybe your bedside manner isn't terrible—agh!"

A prod against his injured side had him flinching away. "Maybe I should bandage your mouth shut too!"

"Stop abusing the patient, Ieiri, he's been through enough," Geto said, and Gojo just knew he was smirking. "You should sleep, Satoru. Principle Yuta said you don't have to report to him until you're feeling better. So take the time to rest."

Gojo wasn't going to protest that right now. He could feel unconsciousness pulling at him, numbing the aches in his body. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off and he had taken down his guards, it was a lot easier to relax and think of sleep.

The last thing he was aware of was someone pulling a blanket over him. Between that and the cool press against his eyes, he sank completely into the mattress and felt himself drifting off almost instantly.

He wasn't sure if he could promise that he wouldn't overdo it again, but at least he knew that he had friends who were there to pick him back up.

Despite the fact that he could be an idiot sometimes.