Chapter Text
You grow up in a bustling district of Keiosu, Tokyo. This means a few things for you. It means your tastes and interests are as eclectic as the shops and restaurants you grow up around. They range from small occult specialty stores to anime-inspired cafés. Your favourite shop is an occult coffee shop owned by a psychic couple named Mari and Yuko. Mari always gives you free pastries, and Yuko tells your horoscope for free.
Your district is also notorious for bizarre murders and supernatural occurrences. People go missing often, too. Your next door neighbour, for example, ends up being a serial killer. You aren’t surprised, though. He’s a Scorpio, after all.
That said, aside from some of the decidedly abnormal parts about Keiosu, you love the place and the people in it. While many cities, especially massive ones like Tokyo, are known to be isolating, solitary places where many live entirely anonymously, you grow up with a strong sense of community. The other people on your floor aside from your serial killer neighbour are all good, normal people and you even become childhood friends with two of them, Shoko and Kei.
OK, so, Shoko is not really normal. Kei, who is a Cancer, is normal, if not a tad too motherly, but he’s a Cancer and you know he can’t help it, especially because you and Shoko and disasters. And Shoko? When you and Kei first meet her, you are convinced that she is a witch. When you were both little, you both would often see her carry half-dead animals back into your apartment building. A day or so later you would both see her releasing the now fully healed creatures back out.
When you both confront her, she tells you that she’s just interested in becoming a doctor. Kei, because he is a Cancer, accepts this explanation without question. You hold your reservations because you’ve seen the state that some of these animals were in, and most animal hospitals would simply put the poor creatures down.
You learn that Shoko is Aquarius, and soon things start to make sense. You begin to write off her eccentricities as her, well, being an Aquarius. When you first tell her this, she makes a face at you and asks, “Don’t tell me you believe in zodiacs?”
You nod.
“Do you believe in blood types, too?”
You nod again.
She tries to convince you that it’s all made up, and then stops herself and mutters something you don’t quite catch.
The three of you end up attending the same elementary school and middle school. High school is where you separate. You and Kei first assume that you would all be testing for the local highschool in your ward, but Shoko tells you both that she will be instead attending a place called Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School.
Kei, though sad at the prospect of not being in the same school as her, is happy for her. You, meanwhile, are convinced that Jujutsu High is a front for a cult. After all, what kind of place has the word “curse” in it? And why would Shoko, who lives in Tokyo, be required to live in the dorms of the school?
Despite this, you three remain close friends over the years. Kei goes off to culinary school for his baking and pastry diploma, you head to business school, and Shoko goes to get her doctor’s license. After getting her license, Shoko ends up taking a job at Jujutsu High, further adding to your theory that the place is really a cult.
A couple years after you and Kei graduate, Yuko tells you that she had a vision and would like to sell you the shop. You and Kei become co-owners and convert the shop into a bakery café. You keep its original name, The Witches’ Brew, in honour of the couple.
Your shop does very well, in part because over the years you become a bit of a coffee snob. Your favourites are Ethiopian Harrar and Sidama coffee beans for their respective sweet citrus and floral notes. You even manage to get some high-quality beans imported from two fair-trade, co-operative farms in Ethiopia. Though it’s costly to get the stuff into Japan, it brings a large number of coffee-lovers to your shop, so it all works out in the end.
Kei draws in a high number of people to your shop’s through the indulgent pastry case that is replete with breads, custard tarts, swiss rolls, cookies, and cakes. His special cupcakes of the month also always bring in huge crowds. People love cutesy themed treats, it seems.
You both usually hire a couple of students from the nearby university who work with you both for a couple years before they graduate. There are many graduation photos featuring you and Kei posing like proud parents next to them decorate your small café.
Right now the students working for you both are Taiki, a first-year dance student, and Naomi, a second-year literature student who is on a lacrosse scholarship.
Taiki, a Leo, can be a bit too much in the mornings, and Naomi, a Pisces, feels entirely too much all the time (and especially so during exam season), but you don’t hold it against them. They’re both good kids and good workers, and between them, you and Kei, your café runs smoothly.
Shoko is a regular at your cafe, though she tends to arrive right before you close, and she’s usually drunk. Sometimes she arrives in the morning hungover and needing something to get through the day before she goes to her cult school.
Once in a blue moon she’ll come by, neither drunk or hungover, and will give you and Kei objects that will protect the shop. These objects are usually severed limbs, specifically the palms of what you hope belong to a type of monkey and not a very hairy human. She insists they’ll keep bad energy away. Kei keeps them on his desk in your shared office in the back of the store. He thinks the objects go with the witchy feel of the shop. He still refuses to believe the truth, but you think that with his motherly ways, he’d go into cardiac arrest if he realized that Shoko actually joined a cult under his watch.
Outside of Shoko, you have three favourite regulars: an old man named Keiji who arrives right when you open to purchase himself and his wife some fresh bread and coffee for breakfast, Sena, the owner of the ramen shop a few shops away that gives you and Kei free ramen in exchange for supplying her and her staff free coffee, and Nanami, a salary man who always stops by at the end of his workday to purchase some bread and the cupcake of the month.
The sight of this tall, stoic man carrying a small black cat cupcake is enough to make you and Kei come to an understanding that you would die for him. You also would die for him because you think he's a Capricorn, and you know he is magical. You never asked him for his birthday, and keep your interactions very professional, but you know from the way he carries himself that he’s likely a Capricorn. You know he is magical because you're pretty sure he healed Kei's bad shoulder one time. Kei, of course, does not believe you, and when you tell Shoko the story, instead of her usual exasperation, she just looks uncomfortable.
Once, while Shoko was away for a two-week long work trip, Kei started to develop a pain in his right shoulder. It got so bad that you had to start kneading the bread in the mornings. You tell him to go see a doctor, but his doctor tells him there's nothing physically wrong with him.
When Nanami arrives at the shop, while Kei takes his order the man keeps staring at Kei's shoulder with a torn look on his face. As you go to put his order together, in the corner of your eye you swear there’s a flicker of something over Kei's shoulder as he’s showing Nanami some new cupcakes he's planning on introducing this month. You think the flicker is Nanami's hand, but you aren't sure. When you give Nanami his order, he looks as though he's come to a decision about something.
While you don't know what exactly he did, you know he did something magical because as soon as he leaves, Kei’s shoulder is miraculously healed.
After this, Nanami doesn’t come back to your café for a while.
Shoko only tells you about her work at Jujutsu High when she comes to your shop right before closing. She's usually very drunk, and what she tells is often a detailed description of her dissection of a cadaver—at least, you hope it is a cadaver, because she never explicitly mentioned the body being, well, donated for science, or even dead. You start to think that maybe Jujutsu High might actually be a front for a murderous cult. You wouldn't put it past Shoko to become a murder doctor, to be honest. She is, after all, an Aquarius.
You offer her water and whatever leftover savoury item there as she tells you about her workday from her spot by the café bar. After completing her meal and story, she passes out on the counter as you clean-up and close up your shop. She’s usually awake when you’re done, and you both leave together afterwards.
Tonight though, when you finish closing up, she’s still sleeping.
“Shoko,” you say, nudging her with your broom. Back in when you were teens, you once tried to wake her up from a nap and she put you in a triangle chokehold. You have never taken any chances since then. “Time to go home.”
“Oh, it’s you, my favourite barista,” Shoko says, words slurring. Usually she’s sobered by the time she wakes up, but not tonight. She makes grabby hands at you, so you set your broom aside and help her to her feet. “You know, I’m a doctor.”
“I know,” you say, slinging her arm over your shoulder and walking her towards the door.“I’m ordering you a cab.”
"You know, I got my doctor’s license in two years?”
“Good for you,” you say, pulling out your phone and opening up a ride-share app.
“But I cheated,” she says, swaying forwards. You pull her back. “I cheated, did you know that?”
“OK,” you say, because what is there to say to someone who tells you about their healthcare fraud. You don't even really know what kind of doctor Shoko is, to be honest.
“This is why I love you guys," she says, caressing your cheek. She uses too much force and ends up slapping you a little instead. "This is why I've got to protect you guys."
"So it is a murder cult," you say.
"Everyone I know there has died or is going to die, that's why you 'n Kei have to stay away from that world, ‘kay?”
For some reason, this makes you think no back to that one time in your third-year of high school when you saw Shoko walk down the busy streets of Harajuku with two guys. You never quite got a good look at the two guys. You were too focused on Shoko who not only avoided your eye when she spotted you, but actually dragged the guys with her in the opposite direction. You never asked her about it, and she never brought it up the next time you saw her.
The taxi arrives then, and you help her get inside. She's fast asleep again by the time you close the door of the cab.
You expect her to see her up again the following night, but she doesn’t show. Instead, a man dressed in a really bad Kakashi cosplay arrives. He is very tall and kind of hot—and no, you are not going there. No. Not with someone who cosplays a Naruto character, of all things. Never. Maybe Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure because you like the makeup looks that come with it cosplaying the characters.
“One large iced caramel macchiato with fifteen pumps of vanilla syrup, heavy whipping cream, light ice, and extra caramel drizzle, please,” he says, cheerfully.
You stare at him for a long moment. He stares back at you. Maybe. You don’t know because he’s wearing blindfolds.
“There’s a Starbucks down the street,” you finally say.
“I know, but I like to shop local,” he says, and he smiles widely at you. “Plus, I’ve heard good things about this place.”
You sigh and reach for a cup. “Name and roast?”
“Agumon, and a light roast, please,” he supplies, and you blink because it sounds familiar but you can’t put your finger on it. You think about it as you go to pump the vanilla syrup into his cup.
Keiosu is something of a haven for anime-inspired shops and restaurants, so it isn’t unusual to see customers dressed in cosplay, or for them to to give you the name of a character from a TV show or manga rather than their real ones. You like to think that you know most popular shows and manga, but you can't remember this one. Agumon, is that a Pokémon or something?
“That was ten pumps,” he pipes up from the register, and you turn to see him watching you intently. Well, you aren’t sure with the blindfolds he has on. You quickly make his teeth-rotting drink and hand it to him along with a paper straw.
“Thanks,” he says, his smile never wavers as he takes the drink from you.
“Have a nice day, Agumon,” you say, and he chuckles at that.
When he leaves, you remember Shoko. You send her a text.
you: are you alive
She leaves you on read, which means she's not dead, so start to close up the shop.
The Kakashi cosplayer comes back a couple days later. Again, it’s nearing closing time and on a day when you are the only one closing. This time he orders a large white mocha with twenty pumps of white chocolate syrup. You stare at him for a long moment, and then silently go to make his drink of death.
“Greymon, and use a light roast, please,” he adds. You still don’t know what he’s referencing. Pokémon? Yu-Gi-Oh?
When you hand the drink to him, his face never leaves yours as he rips open ten sugar packets and dumps them, one after the other, into his drink. He takes a clean spoon from your counter and stirs the drink, then covers it with a lid.
He is a monster. He’s a Scorpio, probably. You consider why you haven’t hired more staff. You co-owned the place, did you need to also serve people? Why did you insist on working the evening and night shifts? Wait, is he asking you something?
“What?”
“I said, is that your husband? Or boyfriend?” He’s pointing at the photo of you and Kei posing with one of your former staffers, Aki, at her graduation. She’s a public servant now and sends you and Kei weird mugs from the places she visits.
“No,” you say, blinking slowly. “He co-owns this place with me.”
He hums, and takes a sip of the toxic sludge. You feel sorry for the poor coffee beans that were wasted in the making of that affront to humanity.
He isn’t leaving, so you decide to ask, “Why do you always wear the same cosplay?”
“What?”
“Your Kakashi cosplay,” you say, slowly. “With white hair like that, you could be—”
“It’s not cosplay,” he cuts in, his voice deepening a little. Oh, is he annoyed? His annoyed voice kind of sounds deeper. “You think I’m wearing a Kakashi cosplay?”
“This is Keiosu,” you say, which is answer enough given that across the street from your own shop are two anime-inspired cafés.
“You think,” he repeats, “that I’m wearing a Kakashi cosplay?”
“Yes, a bad one,” you add, because your mouth loves the taste of your foot in it, apparently.
He takes his drink and leaves without another word. You’ve offended him, you think. He doesn’t come back again for a few days. You feel a strange mix of guilt and relief. Mostly relief though because you never want to make him another drink again.
You’re in the middle of serving Shoko a dark roast when you start to remember who exactly the not-Kakashi cosplayer has been referencing. You picture a yellow, tiny dinosaur that later transforms—no, evolves into a bigger dinosaur with blue stripes and rhinoceros beetle-like skull on its head. But from what series again?
“Digimon?” Shoko offers, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Digimon,” you repeat, smacking your hand into your open palm.
Next to you, Taiki stops refilling the cups and frowns. “Digimon? What’s that?”
You and Shoko share a weary look. You are both officially ancient.
Shoyu, the calico cat that lives in Sena’s ramen shop, wanders into your store a half-hour before closing. Though the cat lives (illegally) in Sena’s ramen shop, he is something of a mascot for your corner of Keiosu. There is an understanding among the shop owners that when he stops by their shop doors, he is offered water and treats, no questions asked, and health codes violations be damned.
Shoyu sits down in front of your café counter. You crouch down next him to scratch behind his ears. You consider closing a bit early tonight. No one has come in yet, and it didn't seem as though anyone would in the next thirty minutes.
"What do you think?" you ask Shoyu.
He meows and bumps his head against your hand.
"That's what I thought," you say, rising to your feet.
You're about to go to the door to flip the sign to close, but then not-Kakashi cosplayer enters. He’s still dressed in all black, but today his blindfolds are replaced by a pair of dark sunglasses and his spiked up hair is worn down. You think you see blue peek out of the sunglasses, and that makes your throat go dry a little.
You walk over behind the counter to quickly wash your hands before going to take his order. Shoyu meows at him, and he bends down to scratch behind his ears before heading to the register.
“Welcome,” you manage to say. “What can I get you?”
“A large cold cream vanilla cold brew with heavy cream, light ice, and ten pumps of vanilla, five pumps of caramel syrup, five pumps of caramel sauce, five pumps of white mocha, extra cold cream, extra whip cream, and a caramel and chocolate drizzle,” he says in one breath.
There's absolute silence for a full minute as you stare at him.
“For Omnimon, and a light roast, please,” he adds, smiling brightly at you.
“So you’ve evolved,” you say after another long moment of silence. He seems delighted by you finally understanding his Digimon references. You grab a cup and get to work on his order.
Shoko walks in then, not at all drunk which is a surprise, and frowns when she sees the not-Kakashi cosplayer. Shoyu meows at her and she stoops down for a moment to scratch under his chin before returning her attention to the not-Kakashi cosplayer.
“Satoru?” she says, blinking.
“Oh, hey, Shoko,” he says. “You come here, too?”
“I didn’t realize that you drink coffee,” she says. You want to tell her, no, he absolutely does not drink coffee. You don't say this because you're still working on pumping caramel syrup into his cup.
In the corner of your eye, you think you see Nanami stopping at your door. You glance over and yes, it’s him. You perk up immediately because you haven’t seen him in so long. Shoyu pads to the door, meowing at him. You almost want to cry at the thought of Nanami meeting Shoyu. But then Nanami looks at the not-Kakashi cosplayer, who is waving happily at him, and Shoko, who is staring at him with her dead eyes, and he makes a speedy u-turn and walks quickly away.
“I didn’t know Nanami came here, too,” Shoko says, after a moment.
“How did you think I found this place?” the not-Kakashi cosplayer says.
You freeze mid-pump.
Not you, Nanami, you think miserably. Not you, too.
That night you learn the not-Kakashi cosplayer is named Gojo Satoru. You also learn that he is a teacher at the same murder cult school that Shoko works at, which explains so much.
Shoko arrives one early morning with Gojo in tow. They arrive before you and Kei even have a chance to properly open. You fix Shoko, a dark roast to go, and you make Gojo an abomination to stay. As you pump twenty shots of cherry syrup, you weep for your Ethiopian Sidama beans and consider buying some instant coffee specifically for him. Kei gives you a look that tells you to stop as he makes his way to the back to get started on the bread. Of course Kei would stop you. Not only does Gojo pay for his awful orders, but he tips really well, too. Like a lot. Like so much that it’s starting to concern you a little.
Shoko takes off with her coffee, eying Gojo suspiciously as she leaves, while Gojo sits happily at the café bar nursing his noxious brew. By the time you've finished your opening duties, he's still hanging by the bar with his nearly finished drink, and Kei is still in the back baking, so you go to the register and watch him sip his drink and wonder about his teeth and how they manage to survive so much sugar.
“Hey,” you say, squinting at him. “When is your birthday?”
“December 7th,” he supplies.
“What time?” you ask, because no, there is no way this man is a Sagittarius.
“What?”
“What time were you born?” you ask again. His moon was probably in Scorpio when he was born.
“Dunno,” he says, shrugging. “Why?”
“You can’t be a Sagittarius,” you say.
“Is that bad or something?” he asks, leaning forward.
Old man Keiji walks in there, ready to order his usual two coffees and bread. You got to help him, and a pained smile on your face. Your own star sign is very compatible with Sagittarius, but Gojo simply cannot be one.
A few days later, Gojo arrives again before you and Kei have a chance to properly open, though this time he's without Shoko. He swings the door open, and shouts out, "I'm here for my daily fix of hugs and kisses!"
You stand by the register, staring at him. At your silence, Gojo raises his hand up in surrender.
“Alright,” he says, “I guess then I’ll just take a large—”
You don’t hear his order. You refuse to hear his order. Your ears reject the sounds coming out of the man’s mouth. Taiki, bless his heart, arrives then, and you tell him that you'll be taking an early lunch. You head out the door before he can even ask why you're taking lunch so early in the morning.
It's still well before the morning rush, so you wander the empty streets of Keiosu and greet the odd shop owner you happen to see outside. A few minutes later, Gojo appears next to you, sipping on the abomination that Taiki probably made for him.
“I like sweet things,” he says, unprompted.
You glance at him. “How do you still have teeth."
He smiles at you and you think maybe he’s got dentures. “You know, Nanami didn’t actually tell me about your shop,” he says, taking another sip of his drink. “Well, not, directly. He’s a bit of a foodie. I follow him on Instagram, and he posts a lot about this café.”
He pulls out his phone to show you. You are delighted by the fact that Nanami’s account is dedicated to cutesy baked goods, and several of the posts include Kei’s creations. He will lose it when you tell him.
You stare at the page name and force yourself to develop photographic memory so that you can follow it afterwards.
“You can follow him,” Gojo says, and you think he’s winking at you behind those sunglasses. “I won’t tell him I told you about his account.”
You nearly pull out your phone and do it, but restrain yourself. How hard would it be to memorize the username nmni__0089? Wait, why is he telling you this?
“I’m helping him out,” he says, and he smiles mischievously. “He’s my kouhai, you know.”
What the fuck. You wouldn’t wish that on anyone, much less poor, sweet Nanami. Wait, what did he just say before that?
“Yeah,” he says, nodding to himself. “Shoko told me that you and that baker guy really like him.”
“No,” you say, because how do you explain to him that you would die for Nanami, but in the same way that you also die for Shoyu, the ramen shop cat?
“Oh,” he says. “Really?”
You nod.
“Well, then, here,” he hands you his phone, and you see the IG search bar is open. “Add yourself.”
You blink.“Why?”
“Well, you make good coffee,” he says.
As you go to add yourself you want to tell him how would you know? What you drink isn’t coffee.
Almost as if it's an afterthought, he adds,“You're pretty cute, too."
You hold out his phone to him, dumbfounded. “Are you flirting with me?”
“I’m always flirting with you,” he says, leaning in a little too close as he takes his phone back. His blue eyes peer out at you from underneath his sunglasses and you feel something burning in the middle of your chest. You wonder, for a horrifying moment, if it's heartburn from drinking too much coffee.
Later, you realize that adding him is a mistake. His account name is 666eyes. You wonder if he’s added you to his finsta.
He seems to be a big fan of IG live, too. He broadcasts a live video almost every day. You don't watch them for fear of what you might see. You don't know what kind of unhinged person uses IG live when they have a private account with, like, ten people following it.
After the morning rush, you find you have a lot of downtime with both Taiki and Naomi working the same shift. You decide to tune into one of his live videos.
“One of my students died,” he says gleefully to the camera. There are three people watching the live video, including you. “But for reasons I can’t share here, he’s back! His classmates are about to find out!”
The camera pans over to a large box. You witness a teenager with pink spiky hair burst out of it. The camera then pans to a dark-haired boy, a girl with orange hair, and incredibly, a panda. They are all in various states of shock and, in the case of the orange-haired girl, anger, as they stare at the pink-haired boy. You stare mostly at the panda, amazed at how the creature is capable of such a range of expressions when you realize there's a panda at the school.
You try to take a screenshot to show Kei, because surely this is enough proof for him that at the bare minimum Shoko's school isn't normal, but then the broadcast abruptly ends.
You decide to DM Gojo.
you: why does your school have a panda?
666eyes: For legal reasons, I can’t tell you!
You try to show Kei the messages as you tell him about the weird broadcast, but he ignores everything you say and instead keeps wiggling his eyebrows at you and commenting, "Wow, so you're DMing the guy now, huh?"
You end up messaging Gojo a few more times after that, mostly to gather more evidence against the murder cult, but you stop when you catch Kei watching you.
“Who are you messaging?” he asks in a sing-song voice.
You give him the finger.
When Shoko arrives at your shop at closing, she's surprisingly not drunk again. You offer her a dark roast and ask her if she has antacid tablets, and she pulls a bottle out of her coat pocket in a fashion similar to a shifty individual selling stolen goods from their trench coat.
You tell her you think you might have been developing heartburn because of all the coffee you drink, and she asks you a few questions, like what symptoms you feel and when you started to feel them. You tell her the past few weeks you’ve been feeling burning sensation in the middle of your chest, and the last time it happened was a couple days ago when Gojo ordered The Drink That Shall Not Be Named.
Shoko frowns. “Any other symptoms?”
You tell her that sometimes your mouth goes dry, or your heart pounds really fast and—
“Let me guess,” Shoko cuts in, “Satoru is usually there, too?”
You frown. Well, now that you think about it, yes. Were you developing a stress-induced illness from having to make so much awful coffee?
“No,” she tells you, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It’s not heartburn or anything. Don’t worry.”
You sigh in relief. "Oh, by the way, why did you tell Gojo that Kei and I are interested in Nanami?”
Shoko shrugs. “To mess with him.”
“Why?”
She sighs. “I don’t like him getting near you and Kei.”
“Is this related to that murder cult of yours?”
“It’s not—” she stops herself, and sighs again. "I'm just being a little overpro—never mind."
"You sure?" you say. "You can tell me anything, you know."
"I know," Shoko says, and she smiles a little. "But don't worry, it's fine."
"OK," you say. "But wait, I still don’t understand how you were messing with Gojo though?”
“You are a dumbass,” Shoko says, her smile widening. “Never change.”
“You are calling a—” your phone buzzes, cutting you off. It's a DM from Gojo.
666eyes: Nanami is out of town and I’m supposed to be taking care of his pet fish, but this and that happened and its tank broke and the fish is dead. Please help me replace both so he won’t notice.
You blink. Why would he ask you of all people?
“You should help him,” Shoko tells you, her chin resting in your shoulder as she peers at your phone. You think there’s a look of resignation in her eyes as she looks down at the message.
You frown. "Why?"
She launches into a very sad story about Nanami and this pet fish of his. You find yourself tearing up because god, this man has gone through so much and you didn’t even know.
Shoko hands you a tissue.
you: fine
Gojo sends you a wall of emojis and tells you that he’ll meet you at your shop in twenty minutes. Shoko decides to head home after waiting with you for a little bit. A few minutes after she's left, Gojo waltzes into your shop. When you ask to see the fish he needs to find, he shows you a screenshot of a Google Image search of a small brownish yellow fish with four vertical black stripes and red fins and snout. The search bar above the image reads ugly patterned yellow fish.
"It's called a Tiger Barb," he says when you squint your eyes at him.
You think maybe he’s lying to you about the whole fish thing, but then again Shoko’s story was just so sad, so profound, you swallow your doubts. Plus, what would he get out of lying about killing poor Nanami’s fish?
At the first pet shop you visit, you're able to find a tank similar to Nanami's original one, but the store doesn't have the type of fish he had. You’re walking to the pet shop owned by Takeda, a drinking buddy of yours and Kei, when Gojo takes your arm and pulls you to the direction of the old tiny purikura that sits in front of Sena’s ramen shop.
“I haven’t seen one of these in ages,” he says, and he actually manages to squeeze himself inside the machine. He gestures for you to join him. “C’mon!”
There isn’t enough space so you end up half-way sitting on his thigh. He wraps an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer so that the camera can catch you, too. This close, you can smell what you think is his cologne. It's sunny and sweet, and you think it might be bergamot mixed in with something you can’t put your finger on.
"Smile," he tells you, pulling you from your thoughts. For the first photo he makes a face, then for the second one he puts on a cutesy expression. You join in, and even steal his sunglasses to wear in one photo.
You laugh when you retrieve the photos. They end up having too many sparkles and rainbows, and in one the two of you are wearing tacky twinkly diamond tiaras. Your breath catches in your photo when you see the photo of you wearing his shades. You, expectedly, look really cool in his sunglasses. But it's him that catches your attention. His eyes are a gorgeous mix of blues that you find yourself getting a little lost in them. You feel that not-heartburn feeling in middle of your chest again, and you tuck the photos into your bag.
You turn to Gojo and see that he’s staring at you with a grin. You feel your face burn, so you quickly walk past him and avoid his eye.
“Let’s go,” you say.
When you enter Takeda's pet shop, he also tells you that his shop doesn’t sell Tiger Barb. You almost think that this fish isn’t real when Takeda tells you that you’ll probably be able to find it a specialty pet store about an hour away from here. You're about to turn to tell Gojo good luck because there was no way in hell you’d go anywhere that took an hour by public transit, but he quickly thanks Takeda and steers you out of his store before you can get a word out.
“It’s fine, I drove here,” he says, leading you, presumably, to his car. When you get to it, he opens the passenger side for you.
He drives with one hand and you think he kind of looks a little cool, but then as soon as he pulls out of the parking lot, his foot pounds the accelerator there are no longer any thoughts in your head. There are only screams. No, wait, you are actually screaming, not just mentally. You clutch onto the handlebars so tightly that your knuckles turn white. He swerves suddenly, and you nearly topple into him. You grab onto his free hand and hold it like your life depends on it.
“You’re kind of crushing my hand,” he says, though he’s smiling widely.
“Shut up,” you wheeze, and squeeze his hand even tighter. You hope it breaks.
When you finally find and get the fish, you almost make a break for it when you realize you’ll have to return to his car. You’re thinking about the best way to ditch the fish (sorry buddy), when you see Gojo heading to the backseat to get the fish tank.
”Nanami lives ten minutes from here,” he says. “Do you mind the walk?”
You want to throw the fish at him. You instead silently follow him to a very nice-looking condo building. When you arrive at Nanami’s apartment door, when Gojo sets down the tank, instead of finishing for a key, he reaches for the door handle.
“Don’t you have a key?”
“No,” he says. “We’re breaking in."
Before you can even open your mouth, the door opens, almost as if it wasn't locked in the first place. You blink. Nanami, who you are almost certain is a Capricorn, would not seem the type to just leave his apartment door open like that.
"After you," Gojo says.
You spend a half-hour setting up the fish tank with Gojo. When you finish, you shut off the lights and you both sit and watch the Tiger Barb swim around in its new home.
Now that you have a chance to properly look at the fish, you see that it has a stern, almost stoic-looking face. You want to cry. It's the perfect fish for Nanami. God, you just want the best for that poor, sweet, stoic man.
"You crying?" Gojo asks.
"No," you say, wiping at your eyes. Then you squint at the tank. Something is missing. "We forgot something."
"No, we didn't."
"I'm pretty sure we did," you say, but you don't know what's missing. The tank looks complete, yet somehow it does not.
"I'm pretty sure we didn't," he replies, stretching out his long legs in front of him.
“How would you know? Can you even see under those?”
He sticks his tongue out at you.
“Why are you even wearing them? It’s night.” You crawl over his legs and you push the sunglasses on the top of his head.
Your hand ends up freezing on either side of his face when you catch his eyes. They glitter under the light of the fish tank, and you feel like you're drowning in all the shades of blue. You start to say something, and his eyes flicker down to your lips. He leans in, and you’re not entirely sure what you're waiting for him to do, and you never will know because the sound of something flopping next to you tears both your attentions away from each other.
It’s the Tiger Barb, who has leapt out of the tank that you forgot to cover with its lid.
A few days later, Nanami returns from his week-long mission. He's exhausted and ready to sleep. He's about half-way to his bedroom when he's stopped by the sight of a fish tank in his living room. There's a striped yellow fish inside, and it swims right at the glass to look at him. There’s a long silence as he stares at the fish. He doesn’t know why or how it got here, but somehow he knows Gojo is to blame.
He decides that this will be something for future Nanami to deal with and continues his walk to his bedroom.