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Gojo Satoru was a menace.
He was an annoying older man who didn’t act like he was a teacher at all most of the time. His way of teaching was questionable. He didn’t seem to remember half the time that he did have students, and when he did, he usually just shoved them out of the nest into the wild world of fighting curses. It was one of the worst ways of teaching someone she had ever seen.
But for Nobara, it was amazing.
After being monitored forever, her grandmother watching over her shoulder all the time, being able to fight curses the way she wanted was a relief. Being able to do what she wanted, actually go on missions, be trusted to care for herself – it felt like respect for the first time in her life. And it all was because he was a fucking menace.
And dammit that menace was hot.
There was no arguing that her teacher was an attractive man. Even with that stupid blindfold, with the way he acted, he was a one of a kind sorcerer. There was nothing that could touch him. No curse could stand in his way and no rule could either. He was almost playful with the curses, treating their battles as a game. A minor entertainment for someone who was so much more than the rest of the world.
Not only was his power attractive he–
He treated her with respect. And that’s what it boiled down to. He respected her and she liked that. Not only did he respect her, but he ignored her. And that just made things ten times worse.
When she spread her legs those rare times they sat at their desks, his eyes never drifted. Or at least, she didn’t think they did? She couldn’t see anything behind that damn blindfold but he–
He didn’t treat her any different.
His hand didn’t linger too long on her shoulder. He didn’t lean closer to her when she had a question. He treated her the same as the boys and while normally that’s exactly what she wanted, right now it just pissed her off.
Because she wanted Gojo Satoru to notice her as a woman. And sometimes she got desperate.
She was desperate for his attention. And when the boys were out on a mission– She had to take her chance.
“Gojo-sensei, have you seen my uniform’s skirt?” She asked. He chuckled and she scowled. “If you’re wearing it again–”
“No, of course not! I wouldn’t make that mistake again. But what are you wearing if not that? I thought you said you had sent all your clothes to dry cleaning.”
Kugisaki breathed in deeply, stepping out from behind the changing room wall, her uniform shirt pulled down as far as it could be but still giving glimpses of her black panties between her fingers and the fabric. “I’m wearing what I had. I didn’t realize I didn’t have my skirt.” She looked up under her eyelashes at him–
He wasn’t looking at her.
Her hands clenched tightly around the fabric, so tight it could tear. He didn’t even look at her once. He just waved his fingers, scrolling through his phone. “It’s probably in your room. None of the other students are here. Just run and get it.”
And all of her seduction techniques went like that! Nothing she ever did got his attention when it came to her womanly wiles. But he never went with them to get rid of curses, so she couldn’t even try and seduce him with her skill with her curse technique or the way she moves her body.
And then Yuuji died.
And Gojo disappeared.
And wanting to sleep with her hot teacher didn’t seem as important anymore.
What was important was training. What was important was being stronger. What was important was putting those damn bastards who had put Yuuji in danger– who had wanted to kill him from the start – in their damn places. So landing in Gojo Satoru’s bed was at the very bottom of her list. Especially since that bed was more often than not empty even when she was just looking for the guidance of a teacher.
And then Yuuji came back.
And Gojo had known the whole time that he wasn’t dead.
And something within her snapped.
“What the fucking hell were you thinking?” She snarled, crowding up against Gojo-sensei after running around the forest for hours. She stunk, Megumi was hurt, Yuuji was alive, the school had been attacked while an exchange event was happening, and this man was just standing there, smiling down at her. That frustrating, stupid smile that she was going to wipe right off his face. She reached back to slap him and wasn’t surprised at all when he easily caught her wrist, laughing at her as he leaned over her. “Let me go and let me fucking hit you you conniving, frustrating, horrible liar.”
“Careful careful Kugisaki-chan, you’ll start sounding like Utahime. And then you’ll get wrinkles. Or scars.”
“Oh shut up.” She snapped, pulling her wrist free and stomping her foot. “You knew! You knew the entire time that he wasn’t dead!”
“Mm, not the whole time. I did think he had died at first. And then he wasn’t dead anymore. So here we are. We all know the truth, Yuuji is alive, and you’re wasting time, arguing with me.”
“Wasting time? What could we possibly be doing besides resting after all the bullshit we went through today with the forest and the attack and Yuuji coming back to life and people trying to kill him again already. What are you going to do about all of this?”
“Me, I’m going to take a break.”
Nobara stared up at him, gaping at him like a fish before she jerked her head to the side. “Maki was right. You’re useless.”
“You’re coming with me.”
Snorting, Nobara shook her head. “I most certainly am not.”
“Oh, suddenly no longer interested because I lied to you?” Gojo was suddenly crowding her space now, making it hard for her to breathe as he lay a hand on her shoulder. He turned her head towards him as he smirked. “I thought you knew that people lied, Kugisaki-san. Or were you lying to me about how interested you were in me?”
She huffed, though the air seemed to catch in her lungs. “Oh, now you notice all of that.”
“I always noticed, I just didn’t think we had time. After all, you have so much to learn.”
“And now?”
“You’ve learned there’s no time in the world at all to hesitate. You’ve got that anger at the right people. So we can take time to ourselves now.”
“You make no sense. Where are we going?”
The smile that grew on his face had her heart racing And Nobara turned her head away, scowling. But she stepped closer into the curl of his arm as he draped an arm around her shoulders. “Wherever I choose. Shinjuku? Shibuya? Ginza?”
“Are you trying to buy my forgiveness?” Nobara snapped as she leaned her head against his chest. “Ginza. And you’re paying.”
His laughter rang in her ears as they moved faster than sight, faster than knowledge. It made sense, she supposed. He was the most powerful. Why shouldn’t he be able to be everywhere all at once? She kept close to him, her hand in his, her ear half-listening to his words, her eyes moving across all the clothes she made him buy her. That he carried. As though he was truly trying to ask forgiveness. Or maybe he just knew how short her temper was with him.
“Is this serious or are you just playing another joke?” She asked towards the end of the night. The district lights sparkled across her skin, but they didn’t compare to the sky blue that settled on her when he lifted those bandages to stare down at her. His eyes took her breath away and it felt like he could see right through her.
“Can’t it be both?”
“No, not with me. It’s either for real interest or you take me back to the dorms and I never feel another ounce of admiration or longing for you.”
He bent down slightly, his lips brushing across hers. “Well, then I guess I’m serious, because you’ve given me quite the appetite Kugisaki.”
Nobara felt her heart racing. After all this time of trying to get his attention it was her fury, her hatred that drew him to her? That couldn’t be healthy. She should pull back, she should slap him, she should have more respect for herself than becoming the play toy of a sorcerer of Gojo Satoru’s caliber.
Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, their lips meeting more firm than the gentle brushes he had tempted her with. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she held him in place as she shamelessly deepened the kiss. Then, just as they’re pulling apart, she gently nipped his lower lip. “That’s what you’re going to lose if you fuck this up.” She breathed. Her eyes shone bright with hope though. With triumph.
She had succeeded.
And the oddest thing happened once they got back to the school, once things leveled out.
It stopped feeling like a victory lap.
It started to feel like how it was always meant to be.
Sure they had to hide away a lot of their relationship from those around them. She wasn’t sure how Yuuji would react, but she was sure Megumi would scowl and huff and comment on how she could do better than an immature brat like Gojo. But– That attitude, that way he made sure that she was enjoying life, embracing every breath she had, it felt good. It made her happy.
And there was always that added thrill. The breathlessness of being kissed senseless in the common room of the dorms. His hand sliding around her waist, holding her close as his lips trailed down her neck as Yuuji and Megumi’s voices came from just down the hall. And yet even they seemed far away when he held her close and made her remember just for a moment what it felt like to be wanted and to care about wanting to be wanted.
Rare as they were, the softest of moments took her by surprise too.
She learned it was unusual for Gojo-sensei to be soft. As though softness was a foreign concept to one that no one could touch. It was almost a shame. Almost. She couldn’t call it a shame when she was the one who got to hoard the soft brush of his fingers across her cheek, her forehead, pushing away her hair from her eyes as she gazed up at him. It was her who got to be wrapped up in his infinity, kept safe and with his lips pressed against hers in a soft warmth that held no burning fire behind it.
She came to know his curse energy well. As well as her own as she slipped in and out of the protection he wrapped around himself. It was curious how comfortable she could get with power not her own. Just like she could get comfortable with the feeling of her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat as she spoke of Sayori and he talked of a friend lost long ago. And she knew, she knew she was giving more than she got but–
But it wasn’t so bad to give and not worry about being weighed down by the woes of another. One day, maybe, he would trust her with all his aches and pains as well.
After all they had shared, she knew his curse energy as well as her own.
In those busy streets, overrun with civilians who only knew that dread had settled upon them, curse users who didn’t really know mercy or control, and curses that dragged them all down with the chains that wrapped around their own sorry forms or taunted them relentlessly with their too human faces, she felt his curse energy. She felt it swell, she felt it rage.
She felt it blip out.
And then it was back.
And he was back.
And they were back home, safe in the school.
And his quarters were quiet as they walked through them. Silence hung between them, heavy and somber as they both stopped in the middle of the room and stood across from each other. Her eyes stung and he couldn’t seem to see. With quick steps that she didn’t bother to silence, she moved to him, closing the distance that was always between them. Nobara’s hands cupped his face and she gently, oh so gently, as gentle as she had never been before, turned his face to hers. “Let me help you, Satoru.” She whispered.
Let me know what hurts you, she didn’t say. And he didn’t offer it up. He didn’t tell her what he had seen in the subway system of Shibuya. And she, as usual, didn’t push, didn’t ask. His past was his past and his future –
She had to show him his future was with her.
“Tell me what to do.”
For once she acquiesced. No fighting, no arguments, just her young face earnestly upturned towards him. He caught her wrist, lifting her hand for a second before pressing his lips to the palm of her hand. The blood on his face, in his hair, dripped between them, staining her cheek red, dripping under her eye. She didn’t move to wipe it away, only stood taller, stood closer, and slid her hand down until their fingers laced together. He didn’t say a word, and she chose to take that as his consent to let her do as she pleased. A gentle tug on his hand and she spoke, “Come with me.” And together they moved towards his bathroom, quiet without a single joke from him about how he was finally getting to see all of her nude. She undressed and then with slow hands, telegraphing her every move, she undressed him.
His silence was unnerving, but not unforgivable. Turning on the spray of the shower, she guided him to the seat and gently helped the blood run off his body. Her own hands were not clean, but the red from both of them ran together into a pink on the bathroom floor. She watched it swirl around the drain before she turned to him again. “Let’s clean up. You smell like a trash bin.”
That earned her a small smirk in response. “You smell like a rotting garden.”
“Better that than whatever the hell you have going on.” She replied, with a snippy tone to her words and a smile on her face as she reached for the soap. It was his – of course it was, they were in his quarters. She would exit here, smelling of him, head held high and hand in his. She scrubbed the sponge across his chest – flawless, clear of scars, because of his Infinity, because of his friend. So much of his life hardly left a mark on him.
She would leave her mark. She had to. She refused to be forgotten.
She didn’t want him to forget her.
She didn’t want to lose him.
“I don’t want to keep us a secret any more.” She said into the spray of the water. She drops the sponge and watches the suds slide off of him under the hot water. She looks up at his hair, stained pink with blood, dripping into his face as his blue eyes stare at her. “I don’t want to have to steal moments, as thrilling as they are. I want all day with you. I don’t want to waste a second without knowing that if I need you, I can turn to you and not pretend. I spent my whole life waiting to be ready for the world, I don’t want to spend the rest of it waiting for the world to be ready for us.”
“The world doesn’t matter here. We’re in a world of our own.” He spoke softly, turning his gaze up to her as she stood. Her hands moved through his hair, filling it with bubbles as the shampoo took hold. He leaned forward, eyes closing as he rested against her toned stomach. “Can’t we just relax here Nobara? Forget the world?”
“I don’t want to forget the world. I want the world to know us.” She shot back, her fingers catching in his hair sharply before soothing his scalp. “Please, I don’t want to hide anymore.” She tried not to sound like she was begging. “What can they do to you anyway?”
What could they do, she wondered, or what would he do to himself? Who did he see when he saw her and him in public, around others? Did a ghost haunt him, because it surely was not the opinions of others. She rinsed his hair as he was silent. With a bit too much force she conditioned his hair as well as he wrapped his arms around her, wet hands digging into wet skin as he let her hold him up. “C’mon old man, it’s not that bad of a request.”
“Alright.”
The singular word had her smiling wide enough that she could taste the shower water running over her lips. Strangely metallic, a little sweet – ignorable as he tilted his head back to let her finish rinsing his hair as he watched the soap slip from her body as well. She bent her head to kiss him, and he kissed back like a drowning man and her lips held the only fresh water in the salty sea around them.
Stepping out of the shower they wrapped themselves in towels and fell into his bed. He put his blindfold on and then rolled over to lay on his back. His head came to rest on her lap and her eyes settled on him again. Now the world felt far away but in a softer way. Her fingers trailed through his white hair. It was soft, softer than she had imagined and it barely moved as she combed the stray locks. She leaned forward, staring intently down at him until she could sense that he had opened his eyes. “We don’t have to hide from anyone anymore.”
“Yes, I’ve already agreed to that.” He chuckled, poking her cheek.
“I can kiss you whenever I want. In front of whoever I want.” She pushed.
“Of course.”
“And you don’t need to protect them all. You don’t have to be the most powerful all the time. You can just be a weird man. My weird man. Not the world’s, not the sorcerers', mine.” Her fingers held his cheeks in place as he laughed at her. Her lips pulled into a pout and he pulled her down to kiss her slow and sweetly in response. But he didn’t agree, and she felt that ache in her heart. “I think I might love you.” She said softly.
“That’s quite a declaration from you Nobara. I never thought I’d hear you say it.” He teased.
“I figured you could stand to hear it before anything else happened.” She whispered against his lips as she kissed him again. Soft, unhurried, tender. It was novel and sweet and it left a pit in her stomach.
In his stomach.
There was a tugging feeling, a sense of vertigo, and then the sensation of snapping into place between one slow blink, between one breath shared and the next. And when Gojo opened his eyes it wasn’t Nobara leaning over him and it wasn’t his nice, lavish bed that he was laying on.
Megumi’s usually stoic face had the barest hint of a smile, the signs of new stress, and exhaustion. Behind him Yuuji was whooping, arms up in the air as he high-fived a one armed Toge. Gojo pushed himself up, his body aching and his curse energy lower than he had ever felt it. “Right, what’s going on?” He asked casually. There was nothing casual about this scenario. His senses drifted over his students. They looked – rough. Router than they had any right to look. As their teacher he knew how rough they should be and this–
This was too rough.
His hands clasped at his sides as he listened to the tale they told. It seemed ridiculous, impossible. For him to get trapped– For them all to deal with so much of this.
To have the last peaceful moment really have happened across the span of months. To have that peaceful moment not be real–
“Where’s Nobara?” He slipped up. He knew he did by using her first name, but there’s a grating noise between his ears. There’s no sense of her curse energy no matter how far he searches with his limitless power.
His students are silent.
He turns and walks away.
The tiny village feels wrong for her. Gojo’s thoughts are possessed by that minute detail as he stood at the gates of the cemetery. This was where her family plot was, so this was where she had ended up. And it was wrong. He should have pulled some strings (how? A voice whispers. you were trapped. you were useless. you left them all alone. you left her). He should have made sure that they had all updated their wills and their desires because being a curse user was always – dangerous.
He had never lied to them about that. And they had never acted like they didn’t know. But he was the strongest. He was supposed to–
keep them safe? keep her safe? you could barely keep her happy.
The wretched voice that had plagued him since he had awoken was ringing in his ears. He rubbed at the side of his head and strolled into the cemetery. It wasn’t hard to find her grave. It was the one with all the presents, new and still shining, not worn down by weather. He sat in front of it, clapping his hands together as he bowed. “Nobara.” He greeted. “I’m sorry it took me so long. I didn’t know where to find you.”
He sighed as he tipped his head back. He had spent a week working up the time to escape here. He had missed so much and the world had functioned without him, which had been a blow. But now that he was back, everyone wanted a piece of his time. Ten times more than before actually. And it was annoying. All he had wanted was some time to himself.
Some time to properly say goodbye.
But now that he was here, he couldn’t find his words.
His fingers gently traced the etched characters of her name and he sighed. He pressed his forehead to the stone and closed his eyes. Slowly he relaxed his Infinity until the cold of the stone seeped into his skin. “I’m sorry we never got around to seeing all the sights you wanted to see. I always planned on showing you more. Taking you places where no one would know who we were, so you could kiss me all you wanted in front of a hundred eyes who couldn’t take me from you.” He murmured softly. The words felt heavy as he spoke them, mimicking words she had never really said to him. “I’m sorry we never found Saori, even though I promised to look. I had really wanted to meet someone so important to you.” Gojo swallowed thickly, leaning forward to press a kiss against the cold stone. “I love you.”