The first of my Febuwhump 2022 fics (For the prompt "Blood Loss")

I decided to kick off the challenge with some Nanami whump because there's not nearly enough of that. This story is set pre-series right after Nanami went back to being a jujutsu sorcerer.

This is my first time posting a Jujutsu Kaisen fic as well, so let me know what you think! I've got a few more coming through the rest of the month, so if you like it, check back for more!

Occupational Hazards

A Jujutsu Kaisen Fanfic

Kento Nanami was not the kind of man to sit around and cry about his situation, no matter how difficult it might currently be. His typical directive was to straighten his shoulders, and face his problems head on, whether that be quitting a dead-end job that was sucking the life out of him, or taking on a Curse that was doing its best to put him into early retirement.

Today it was neither—well, not completely, anyway. His current problem was the result of a Curse, but not entirely it's fault. He'd successfully exorcised the Curse, at least, which made his situation slightly less dire than it could have been. The problem lay with the fact that Curses liked to hide out around abandoned places, and abandoned places were often dangerous. Of course, Nanami had suffered his fair share of injuries on the job, but getting impaled by rebar was definitely not something he had ever wanted to experience.

And yet, it seemed he was not having the best of days.

It had started with getting paired with Satoru Gojo for the mission and the man showing up to his apartment far earlier than he needed to, insisting they get breakfast before the mission. Catch up, he'd said. Nanami had known it was only a matter of time before he was forced to work with the insufferable sorcerer again, but that morning he'd already been nursing insomnia and a headache and headaches and Gojo were always a bad combination. Of course he could...appreciate…the man's skills as a sorcerer but he was… a lot. And Nanami liked his quiet.

And he preferred to work alone.

At least Gojo wasn't someone he had to worry about during a mission. If anything, the man had too much power and his Infinity meant that getting a hit on him was nearly impossible. Hence why Nanami allowed himself to be annoyed rather than worried.

In fact, he was mostly annoyed that he had been the one to get into trouble after insisting he could handle this Curse while Gojo went after another one in the next building over. And he had, obviously, but now he was stuck in the very difficult position of keeping his pride and getting himself out of here, or calling Gojo for help.

Of course, when Nanami realized his cell phone was smashed on the ground and out of reach, that decision was pretty much made for him.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he took stock of his situation. The breath wasn't easy, as anything more than the shallowest pant put stress on the rebar that was currently through his right shoulder. Too many muscles spasming at once. Blood was dripping in increasingly copious amounts down his chest and back, soaking his shirt and making his skin tacky. The blood loss was the real problem. He could feel it weakening him and if he let it go much longer, his legs could give out and leave him held up by nothing but the rebar in his shoulder. Shoko was a good healer, but he didn't think he would get away with that without lasting damage and now that he was back, he didn't really want his career as a sorcerer to end so abruptly.

In short, Nanami was resigned to what he was going to have to do while he still had the strength to do it.

He took another deep breath, trying not to choke on it as the pain lanced through his body, and focused on the rebar with his power, choosing a weak spot. He pinned it down and brought up his other hand, slamming the heel of it into the rebar.

It broke with a snap of metal and Nanami swiftly pushed himself off the wall and the rest of the rebar before he could lose his nerve.

An agonized cry escaped his throat as he did so, collapsing onto his knees, clutching his arm as he fought against the urge to black out. Blood poured freshly down his arm, soaking through his shirt and jacket sleeve alike, and dripping off his useless hand. A low keen escaped his throat as he gritted his teeth, doubled over. He felt the sudden urge to vomit, his head spinning. He needed to stop the bleeding. Now.

Forcing his good hand to work, Nanami yanked his tie off, holding it briefly in his teeth as he grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket as well and, hand shaking, he reached under his shirt and shoved the handkerchief forcibly into the hole in his shoulder. He let out another groan of pain, muffled slightly by the tie, but it was the only thing he could do. He then took the tie and clumsily wrapped it around his shoulder, tying it as tightly as possible while using his good hand and teeth. The bleeding did seem to have slowed some, so that was a good thing.

Next problem was getting to his feet.

Biting the inside of his cheek, Nanami took yet another deep breath, and started to push himself upright. He grabbed his blade on the way, which he had dropped and staggered to his feet, every bit of him shaking. He clutched his wounded arm close to his chest as he concentrated way too hard on just staying upright.

He had to move though, he would never hear the end of it if Gojo found him passed out in here. If he could at least get back to the car—and hopefully not scare Ijichi to death with all the blood—then he would count that a win.

He took a step, and the next one was easier once he got his momentum going. Soon he was almost at the entrance to the warehouse.

And that was when he caught sight of the white-haired figure jogging toward him, looking way too fresh and peppy for having supposedly been fighting another Curse.

"Nanami!" Gojo called upon catching sight of him, hurrying over. "You all good here? I couldn't get a hold of you."

Nanami stopped, leaning slightly against the open door, trying to conceal as much of the blood as possible.

"My phone broke."

"Ooh, bad luck!" Gojo quipped then stopped, cocking his head to one side. "Nanami, you good?"

Nanami straightened his back, blinking back another overwhelming urge to pass out or vomit—hopefully not both. "Fine."

"You look pale—is that blood?"

Speaking of blood, Nanami could definitely feel the hot, sticky substance dripping past the makeshift bandage. A drop slid down his side, almost tickling, as if refusing to be ignored.

"Just a minor injury," he forced out, tongue getting heavier, the urgency to get back to the car doubling, his vision darkening around the edges.

Gojo eyed him—or whatever he did past his blindfold. "Alright, well, let's get back so Shoko can look at it, okay? Should have figured you might be a little rusty."

Nanami somehow forced himself to start forward again, trudging with immense concentration a step behind Gojo, feeling the darkness encroach further and further, more and more blood seeping into his shirt under his coat. His shaking was getting harder to hide, and he swallowed thickly, blinking back the impending unconsciousness. He could see the car up ahead, Ijichi waiting for them. Just a little further…

That was when his foot struck something and he staggered.

Gojo instinctively reached out to grab his shoulder, steadying him, but it had to be the injured one.

Nanami let out a shameful howl, his legs finally giving out completely.

"Nanami!" Gojo cried. "Shit, I'm sorry. Here, let me…holy—"

Nanami couldn't pull away in time to keep Gojo from pulling his coat open, revealing that pretty much Nanami's entire right side was soaked in blood, more still seeping from under the makeshift patch-job. He somehow reached up with his good hand and yanked the coat closed again.

"It's fine," he gritted out from between clenched teeth. "Just…give me a hand up and let's get back."

"You think it's fine that you lost this much blood?" Gojo demanded, one side of his blindfold peeled back, probably assessing way more than he should be.

"Occupational hazard," Nanami gritted out, though his voice was far weaker than intended. He tried to take a breath, but the act sent a surge of agony through his shoulder again and he found himself slumping further.

Gojo carefully took hold of his good shoulder and his right side, keeping him steady. "Easy, do you think you can get to the car?"

Nanami didn't have the breath to speak, so he just nodded once.

"Okay, I'm gonna pull you up on three. One—two—"

Nanami tried to help push with his legs, but they weren't working very well anymore, feeling more like weak noodles. He was useless.

Gojo still heaved him up, and started them forward as Nanami tried to help. He blinked and realized he was suddenly lying in the back of the car as someone leaned over him. He must have blacked out for a second.

"We need to stop the bleeding!"

"I got it, see if there's a blanket or something in the back, he's going into shock."

The sound of a zipper proceeded a shadow falling over Nanami's face and then agony as a crushing pressure was suddenly put on his shoulder.

He gasped, struggling, but a firm hand on his side stopped him, pressing him back.

"Sorry, but we have to stop the bleeding. I promise I'm not gonna let you die, Nanami."

"Here, an extra coat."

"Great, now get in here and drive, I've got him."

Nanami was shifted slightly, something tucked around him, staving off the deeply imbedded chill that was settling in, as his head was propped against something warm. (He did not want to think that he was lying in Gojo's lap, that would be too humiliating, but luckily he was too far gone to care at the moment.) Two car doors slammed before the pressure returned to his shoulder and Nanami finally decided it was a good idea to pass out.

He woke to the soft light of mid-morning, birds singing out the window. It was a long time since Nanami had slept past dawn, and even longer since he couldn't remember going to sleep or dreaming.

He craned his head curiously to look for a clock and his right shoulder twinged painfully, reminding him exactly what had happened.

He pushed himself up against the pillows with monumental effort, seeing the bandages padding his shoulder and wrapped around his chest.

"Hey, you're finally up."

Nanami glanced over with a brief silent sigh to see Gojo sitting in a chair in the corner, a magazine open across his knee. He slid down the sunglasses he was wearing to fully meet Nanami's eyes.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

Nanami shifted slightly. "Alright. Sore."

Gojo stood. "Shoko said you should rest up for a few days. She did what she could for your shoulder but the blood loss is what took it out of you. She had to give you a transfusion and everything. Said that the rebar hit an artery." His mouth was slightly pinched as he said, "You were lucky we were as close to Jujutsu High as we were. It was a close thing."

Nanami looked away. He didn't need to be scolded. "Just doing my job," he muttered.

"Yeah," Gojo said slowly. "But that doesn't mean you get to hide injuries."

Nanami sighed. "No, you're right. It was foolish. I just…" he bit his tongue, not wanting to admit to his own pride.

"It's been a while, I get it," Gojo said. "You just got back and you don't want to look like a rookie. There's no shame in admitting it. Just promise me that next time you're literally bleeding to death you'll give me a head's up." He met Nanami's eyes fully, and Nanami found himself pinned by the unnerving ice blue gaze. "I don't like losing comrades either, Nanami."

Nanami instantly looked away, hands clenching in the blankets at his lap. He refused to have this conversation right now.

Luckily, Gojo seemed to have no intention of continuing. Instead he pushed his glasses back up his nose and shoved his hands into his pockets. "How about some breakfast? You're probably feeling a little queasy from the blood loss, so getting something in your stomach will do you good. Any requests, or do you want me to surprise you?"

Nanami sank back against the pillows. "Whatever is available is fine with me," he murmured, honestly too tired to care.

"No problem," Gojo said, and headed toward the door. "Just don't go to sleep again before I get back, okay?"

Nanami huffed and glanced out the open window, watching the birds flit through the trees. Maybe it was the blood loss and whatever pain medication he was currently on, but he found himself thinking that maybe Satoru Gojo wasn't the worst person to be stuck with. Or even the worst person to call a comrade—friends was a bit of a stretch.

With moderation anyway, Nanami found himself adding, as Gojo reappeared with a huge tray of food, talking way too loudly now, back to his old annoying self.

Oh well, it was never a bad thing to have constants in one's life, Nanami supposed.

I'm also on Tumblr (at: lady-wallace) and Instagram (at: ladyofinkandpaper) where I will be posting art to go along with these fics as well. Don't be afraid to come say hi :)