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"Yeah," He nods when they finally adjourn, when Shoko finally lets him go. "I'm fine."
"All right." Shoko doesn't bother feigning a smile. She was too worn out.
And when they step out, when they start breaking up into their factions, he sees her. For a split second, he catches her gaze. And she quickly averts her eyes. She looks away in a daze, in a fret, and tries to catch up to her students.
"Utahime," He calls out to her.
And when she turns, when she looks back to him over her shoulder, he sees how she's shaking. He sees how her shoulders, her chest convulsed; how the quivering of her lips wouldn't cease.
And he walks to her.
And before she could walk away, stammering about how she should check up on the students, he takes her in his arms. And he whispers into her ear, in a hushed, quiet breath, holding her flush against his chest even as she tried to break away,
"Why are you crying?"
She shuts her eyes. She bites her lip; feeling his hot breath against the back of her ear.
"Let go of me, Gojo." She begged him as her brows creased, as her throat locked up.
She couldn't look at him. She couldn't bare being next to him.
No. She shook. She trembled. And she started to break -
She couldn't be near him without breaking down in tears.
"Please," She tries to bite back her cries.
As she shook, she feels his embrace, his arms squeeze her and hold her tight.
"It's like you're not a sorcerer." He lightly teases her in that quiet tone, in a voice that was just between them.
And she feels his breath against her ear; the warmth of his embrace; his strong arms holding her trembling body secure. And as her eyes close in a pain, in a deep tire, as she feels the loud pounding of his chest against her back, her arms fall to her sides in defeat.
And she starts to cry. She sobs and bites back, "You say that..."
She bites her quivering lip. And her gaze drops, her knees buckling, her body falling limp against his arms, her entire weight supported by his embrace.
"You say that like you're not human." She chokes.
"Stop it." She cried, painfully, harshly. "Stop acting like you're invincible."
She turns to him with her eyes wet with tears; with her face dirtied with dried blood, sweat and tears.
"When you're human." She glares at him, at the deep scar that ran down his left eye. "You're only human too, Gojo."
He raises his brows at her, at the tingling sensation of her hot breath against his lips.
And wordlessly, he dips down and kisses her. His lips chapped, dry. His mouth salty. His face, covered in grime and his own dried up blood; her breath, her cries lost in the walls of his mouth.
Dazed, lost of breath, she pulls away. And he closes his eyes as she peppered light kisses over his dead eye. The deep scar on the side of his face, over his left eye; dark, bruised black and bloody.
And she kisses him. She kisses him all over his face.
And she holds him close; her arms locked over his neck.
And she shuts her eyes as she trembled in his embrace; tiptoed and weak in his arms.
"Utahime," He calls out to as he breathes her in, as he nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck; he tells her, he speaks to her in a whisper. "I-"
"Don't," She shuts her eyes, her brows creasing painfully. And she pulls him down to her; she holds him closer. "-don't say it."
"Don't say something we'll only regret."
"Just hold me." She cries as she tightens her embrace over his neck; as she trembles in his arms. "Please just hold me." And she cries as she feels his arms wind tighter around her waist; as she feels him bury his face deeper against the crook of her neck.
If not tomorrow. Then, the next. If not then, someday soon.
Someday soon, would be the day of their last breath.
Someday soon, they would die.
That's why,
Don't say it -
Her tears ran down the sides of her face as she kissed him; as he held her and breathed in her scent, as he felt her soft body melt against him.
Don't say something that'll only hurt us.
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