Work Text:
When Utahime leaves for three months to go to Kyoto Tech to do her courses in teaching, no one had foreseen how much it would affect Gojo.
Except maybe Mei-Mei
Because Mei-Mei had an infallible nose for situations where she could make money. Like bets, of example. They hadn’t even finished waving goodbye at Utahime from the platform of the train station when Mei-Mei speaks.
“I bet 10,000 yens Gojo doesn’t get through the week without saying her name”
This spiked Shoko’s interest.
“It’s Friday”
“Uhu”
Shoko scoffs and smiles as she waves her hand at a tearful Utahime from the train “You’re so gonna lose”
The next morning Gojo enters the common room where both of them are eating breakfast and looks around.
“Where’s Utahime?”
Shoko drops her spoon in the cereal bowl and clenches her fist in silent rage as she slams it repeatedly against the table. Gojo gives her a confused stare before looking at Mei-Mei, who smiles sweetly at him.
“She went to Kyoto, remember? How we threw her a goodbye party? How you would stop pestering her not to go because, and I quote, ‘Who would want to have a teacher that is weaker than them?”
Gojo scratches his head, avoiding her gaze.
“I never said that” and leaves without eating anything.
*...*
It's been a week and a half since Utahime left when Gojo approaches Shoko.
“You have Utahime’s contact info right?”
His friend, who was reading a magazine while swinging her legs, responds absentminded “Uhu”
“Can I-“
“No”
Gojo frowns “I didn’t even finish!”
“I don’t care” responds Shoko’s as she passes a page “Utahime specifically told me never to give you her phone number”
Gojo growls at that stupidity. Why wouldn’t she want him to have her contact info? If it’s about that time he sent her a dick pic, well excuse him! It wasn’t his fault that the girl’s surname he was wooing that week started with an “I”. Mistakes happen.
Not giving up yet, he comes closer to Shoko and uses a deep voice as if he was concerned “Ok, but what if there is an emergency?”
Shoko-who doesn’t even turn to look at his direction- , scoffs and smiles at the magazine “What kind of emergency could happen in Kyoto for her to need you?”
“Something can happen! You never know, and it will be your fault that I can’t provide Utahime with back-up!”
Shoko passes another page, not bothering to answer him.
Gojo continues to insist until he realizes that he won’t get anything out of her. So he changes plans and runs to the place where Nanami and Yu usually hang out. Nanami flat out told him that he didn’t have a cellphone, even though he was holding one in that moment right in front of him. So Gojo ripped it off his hand, ran off and went through his contacts until he found the one he was interest in.
He may have lost Nanami’s respect that day -and gotten a huge punishment by Yaga- but he won something far better.
It didn’t matter that Utahime ignored his texts. The fact that he had some sort of communication with her was enough.
*...*
He doesn’t know what he’s feeling.
Gojo catches himself looking at the bench Utahime always used to read outside.
He walks around the places in the school she used to hang out with Shoko and sighs when he doesn’t find her there.
He finds himself attached to the three white hair ties that he had stolen by pulling them off her pigtails as he laughed, waving them the elastic bands in front of her face before running off, never returning them.
Those elastic bands are the only material thing he has of Utahime, and for a moment, his heart clenches painfully.
*...*
Gojo hardly did any missions together with Suguru after the incident with the Star Plasma Vessel. It was rare the occasion when he found him at school, and even rarer when he found him in the dormitories. He had noticed a change in his friend-he had lost weight, he looked tired all the time, he didn’t joke with him anymore- even though Suguru insisted that he was fine.
So he doesn't push him for an answer. Gojo knew how much Riko’s death had affected him.
Even as they stand next to each other in the bathroom sink, there’s a heavy silence that is only bearable by the sound of brushing their teeth. Suguru splashed water in his face and extended his hand at him, his eyes closed to prevent the soap from getting inside.
“Can you pass me my hair tie?
Gojo stares at his best friend hair-long, black and it’s Utahime’s hair for a moment- and he’s tying it in the same hairstyle she had it in the day she left, but without the white ribbon.
By the time he’s done, Geto is giving him a look of pure confusion.
“What the fuck”
“I don’t know” he answers sincerely.
It takes half-a-carton of orange juice for Gojo, and a cigarette for Suguru, to explain what he has been feeling all this time since Utahime’s departure to Kyoto. His friend, who has kept the hairstyle-but tied the half updo into a knot- smiles weakly at him.
“That’s called longing, Satoru”
Gojo tilts his head.
“What’s that?”
“It means that you have a strong desire to see Utahime”
Gojo gives him a confused stare before finishing his juice in a single gulp. Suguru takes a drag of the cigarette without moving his eyes from the stones of the pavement.
“I think you’re in love with her”
Gojo chokes and spits the juice loudly. Suguru, unfazed, just pats him on the back while Gojo coughs his lungs out. It takes a moment for him to regain his normal breathing, still coughing for time to time, tears flooding his eyes. He takes off his glasses and wipes them, annoyed.
He shakes his head vigorously “I don’t love Utahime!”
“Then why do you yearn for her?” asks Suguru, calmly.
“I don’t yearn for her! I just....I just wanna annoy her!”
Suguru gives him a look, raising his eyebrow.
“So you want to annoy her. Specifically her and no one else?”
Gojo nods repeatedly “Uhu, you know why! Because she’s weak! And you said we have to protect the weak” Gojo looks down, trying to ignore the sudden and overwhelming sensation of worry “But who’s going to protect her in Kyoto?”
His friend stays an abnormal amount of time quiet. His gaze is filled with a sentiment that Gojo identifies but makes him confused.
The gaze of his best friend is full of hatred.
Suguru crushes the cigarette with his foot-he wasn’t even half through it- and immediately picks it up to dispose of it later. His voice comes out coldly.
“I did say that. But I don’t think that anymore”
Gojo blinks “You don’t think Utahime is weak?”
Suguru lets out a tiny scoff and shakes his head.
“Utahime is weak. But I don’t think we should protect the weak non-sorcerers” the hand that is holding the crushed cigarette clenches to the point its knuckles turn white “After all, they don’t care if we die”
A deafening silence falls between them. But none break it.
*...*
Maybe Yaga was tired hearing complains, or everyone else just made a formal request that he do something about the terrible mood of the third-year brat who takes weeks to complete a single mission. In Gojo's defense, the further away from Jujutsu High he is, the less he remembers Utahime.
So Yaga, as newly appointed principal, announces that the Goodwill Event would be held next week and the first-years and second-years better be in their best behavior. Gojo was the only third-year, as Geto was dispatched to a mission in a village and Shoko was a non-fighter, so she could just skip the whole fighting section of the event.
The day before, Gojo can hardly sleep from the excitement. The feeling is akin to that when he was promised a trip to Disney Tokyo as a child.
Kyoto Tech was coming to Jujutsu high.
That meant Utahime was coming back to him.
At the meeting point in the stairs, Gojo zooms past the wave of Kyoto students that try to declare themselves winners of this year’s event, and goes straight to the woman that stands behind the group. Utahime makes a face as soon as she sees him as she clicks her tongue.
“Gojo Satoru”
Hearing her voice is enough to make him smile wider and can't help but wrap her in a tight hug as he rubs his face against her “Utahime!”
The woman utters cry of disgust and tries to pull him away with all the force she can muster.
“Goddammit Gojo, leave alone! Get off me, you damn brat!”
Oh, how he had missed this.
Her smell. Her anger. Her touch.
He had deactivated Infinity as soon as their bodies made contact. He shouldn’t, but for Utahime, he would always make an exception. He can't help but smile stupidly as he wrestles with her, trying to push their bodies even closer than they already were.
“Utahime, did you miss me? You did, didn’t you?”
“No!”
“I missed you too!” He nuzzles his face against her hair, inhaling its smell-she changed her shampoo- and ruining her neat hairstyle. Utahime yells angrily and tries with all her might to push his face away, causing Gojo to tighten his grip in her waist. They wrestle among themselves for a while until a voice interrupts them.
“Is everything alright here?”
A guy about his same age is staring at them, giving Gojo a sharp smile.
“Yes” Utahime says irritated as she keeps trying to push Gojo’s face way “Everything is fine Naoya-kun”
Gojo’s eyelid twitches.
‘Naoya-kun? As in his first name?’
The ugly emotion that installs in Gojo’s stomach makes him secure his hold on Utahime, with her back pressed against his chest, ignoring how her nails clawed his forearms.
‘Who the fuck does he think he is to casually come near them?’
“Who are you?” is what comes out of his mouth.
Utahime sighs as she tries to get away from Gojo’s gripping hold “He’s Zenin Naoya. He’s one of Principal Gakuganji’s star students”
Gojo can’t help but to make an irritated face.
Oh great. Another Zenin.
The Zenin guy- Naoya - keeps smiling at him.
“I have heard a lot about the great Gojo Satoru. Maybe we’ll see some of your strength at the event?”
Gojo’s about to answer him when Utahime replies rolling her eyes “The only thing you’ll see is Gojo being a lazy-ass”
“Utahime, you meanie!” Gojo pouts, offended “We always win because of me!
“Is that so? We’ll see that this year” Naoya walks towards them and stares at Gojo in the eye “After all, they now count with me”
Gojo resists rolling his eyes at his useless statement when Yaga shouts for them to join the group to give announcements. Utahime takes the opportunity to escape from Gojo's suffocating grip and begins to climb the stairs with Naoya by her side. Gojo follows close behind, still pouting at the fact that Utahime didn’t think of him as an active participant. It wasn’t his fault he was good at everything and everyone else was too slow to catch up with him.
He’s about to comment on Utahime’s crocked ribbon-maybe that was partially his fault when they wrestled- when he sees Naoya’s hand hovering Utahime's back to guide her walk. Then, Naoya turns to him and gives him a smug grin.
Yaga's speech is drowned in the back of his mind as it takes place in front of the group of Jujustu High.
“Nanami” Gojo takes off his glasses without looking away from Utahime standing beside Naoya “We’re going to crush Kyoto Tech this year”
The second-year sighs and rubs his temple “Just remember that we can’t kill each other”
He knew. What a pity that was.
But he would make sure Naoya’s words were shoved deep down his throat.