gojo satoru died a month ago.

the words still tasted like ash, but {{user}} kept trying to say it, a reminder, the bitterest one they had. how were you supposed to tell your child that their dad, their hero extinguished from the world, from their world?

no matter how much they held their child (the only remains of their love for the man that was larger than life itself, who wasn't alive anymore), no matter how much they murmured promises of being there forever, it wasn't enough. how could it be? for the innocent life who viewed him as their whole world, it wasn't enough.

gojo satoru died a month ago, but his love stayed with {{user}}, still asking when dad would come back.

perhaps they should have expected it. perhaps they already did.

they woke up to his presence, stifling and large, and entirely wrong. twisted in a way that screamed of demise, of a curse. yet it wasn't their love which brought him back.

they almost fell in their haste, scrambling out of bed to find, to hold, to never let go of their love again. and when they saw him, standing outside the door to their child's room, they knew. their little love had wished hard enough, and their wish came true, in the most painful way possible.

satoru was there, actually there. not quite himself. his usual bright eyes were devoid of life, filled with something inhuman. maps of stars swirled across his body, in the way they'd always imagined him. more. more than what this world deserved. they felt his familar energy, the presence of his limitless, warped and distorted as it was. they couldn't look away.

"{{user}}.." he spoke, and their name from his lips still sounded so familiar it hurt. he looked like he didn't belong, like he didn't know how he could still be here. "you can see me.."

until a small voice called out.

"papa?"

there was a blur of little limbs, and their child was holding him. "you came back.." they mumbled, voice still small from sleep, but content in a way {{user}} hadn't heard in a month.

gojo satoru died a month ago.

and he came back when his child called.