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Utahime spots Gojo above the steps of Kyoto Tech, waving at her in great big motions, looking down at where she stands, at the grounds near the entrance of the school.
She hears him call her name in the distance, maybe he even shouts the word senpai, but the chances of that happening are practically non-existent.
It would really suit him - Utahime thinks - to use his legs to walk downstairs, if he really felt like joining her. But the man leaps into the air theatrically, tiptoe-ing off the landing before floating the rest of the way, settling himself down next to her gently, with the damp crunch of the pavement under his boots when he does.
She narrows her eyes at him, regarding him up and down. He had been tired when he came in, stopping by her office to kill the minutes he had before his meeting with Gakuganji. Now he looks as chirpy as ever, almost glowing, and Utahime has to ask him flatly whether he killed the Principal.
"Well Utahime! I never! The nerve! The gall for you to suggest such a thing? Oh my-"
"No that's not it! It's just...You're not, uh-" she thinks about how she could explain what she means. "What I mean is, you're way too...perky."
"Perky?"
"Yes, perky. You're usually in such a mood after those meetings." She tells him. Which is true, because he mostly ends up at her office after them, draping himself over the chairs, throwing his head back in exhaustion and irritation, going on rant after rant, as she checks her students homework.
"My my, Utahime," he bumps his shoulder into hers."So you do pay attention."
Utahime steps out of his way, folding her arms over her chest, gazing at the school grounds.
"I'll have you know," Gojo continues, "I'm perky because my mission to the coldest country on earth got delayed by a week! And you bet I fought with that old geezer! It was quite the battle of wits - from my end of course - and I won. Left the old man speechless, hah!" He laughs. "So yes, I am feeling quite - as you put it, perky."
He steps forward to join her again, and doesn't bump her shoulder this time. "And y'know, the weather here is nice, and uh-" She catches him shooting her a glance "Yeah. That's that. A rainy day in a deadly summer like this is the best isn't it?"
"Well it's not raining anymore." Utahime observes. She had come out to take a break. It had been raining all morning and into the early afternoon. Now the sky is clear and bright, and the trees are glistening green, flashing gold when the breeze pushes them into the sun. Even the sunlight is comforting - which is rare in the oppressive summer days that Kyoto has. It sheds a soothing warmth on her skin that Utahime really, really likes.
"No it isn't." Gojo agrees in a light voice. "And uh- hey, thank you for the tea today, before the meeting I mean. I really needed it. Perked me right up!"
Utahime almost responds to the most sincere thing he's said to her today- his excessive use of the word perk aside - but Gojo opens his stupid mouth again, to remind her of his idiocy perhaps.
"And you didn't throw it at me! I have to say Utahime, you may have a chance with men yet!"
"If you worry about my hypothetical suitors so much Gojo, why don't you marry them?" She bites out. "Weren't you just leaving?"
"Why? You in a hurry to kiss me goodbye Utahime?"
She makes a face at him, and he laughs, running a hand through his hair.
"Relax. I know you won't. I'm so cool, no has the guts to try with me. No one makes the first move, not on my watch."
Utahime knows that's the most unattractive thing to leave his mouth yet. She knows that what he deserves is a cold bucket of water over his head, and maybe someone to smack him hard.
Grinning, Gojo takes a step away from her, stepping into a bright patch of sun - it seems to make his hair glow - he flicks his hand at her in a goodbye. The air begins humming with his cursed energy.
Maybe it's because he acts like such a pompous know-it-all. Maybe it's the fact that she can still see his grin as the air around him ripples, the edges around him softening, distorting in waves.
Maybe it's the safe knowledge that he will leave in the next instant, and be leagues away. Utahime follows the impulse that rises within her, quickly stepping forward, resting a light hand on Gojos chest.
"I'll be the first then." She tells him, kissing his cheek, before Gojo vanishes into thin air, and all that's left is the fading echo of the surprised, incoherent noise he makes when he does.
Utahime can't help but laugh at the air, to release the sudden rush in her nerves. It's so stupid, what she just did. So dumb, even though a lightness bubbles in her chest, manifesting itself as a smile on her face. Gojo should know better than to be so... arrogant. So cocky. Too cool huh? He thinks she's soooo predictable, isn't she? Well Ha!Ha! That'll show him. Idiot.
She takes in the empty space Gojo leaves behind. Lush and green, the sun throws leafy blue shadows on the damp pavement, and the dappled light shifts around her feet. The wind is picking up again, the shrubs start to rustle, and there's a soft, subtle little hum that Utahime senses, growing and growing, almost as if-
"Utahime! Y-You-!"
Gojo materializes in front of her, sputtering with a pale hand pressed to his incredibly red face, and the other pointing at her. The line of his mouth is set a little shaky, and he is so close, so suddenly that Utahime loses her balance when she steps back.
When Gojos arms hook around her waist - as her hand clutches at his shoulder to seek purchase - she gets a real good look at the flush on the tips of his ears too.
"Utahime, what," Gojo begins, with great effort between breaths. "Did you just do?"
"W-Why are you back?" She returns, because it's easier than answering, easier than admitting in words what she did, and that she might have wanted to. It didn't even occur to her that he would bother coming back, she had been more than fine with one-upping him without consequences thank you very much. Even though in hindsight, all she can think about is how stupid she had been to kiss him at all.
"Because you kissed me Utahime!"
"For goodbye, like you asked!" She insists. "So goodbye already!"
"Seriously?" He scoffs. "Look at where you are, Utahime."
"Exactly." Utahime huffs, painfully aware of the pressure of Gojos fingertips at her waist, and his whole arm supporting her back. It takes alot for her to ignore the fact that she's quite literally, in his arms. "These are school grounds. We're outside."
Someone will see us, now let me go. Is what she means.
Gojo clicks his tongue irritably, and his arms shift around her, and just when she thinks he's going to loosen his hold he tightens it, setting her upright and standing, before muttering something about interruptions and the word stupid.
Then the whole world around her lurches forward, whizzing around her in a blur. A sudden dizziness is rising within her, in her head, and up her throat. The sunlight warps, and disappears, the green vanishes to uniform, solid panels of wood and pale stretches of white.
"Problem solved." Gojo announces as Utahime realises that they are back in her office. She's still in his arms, still dizzy from shifting through space. It's funny how the warm afternoon light has followed them here. It's more muted inside, quietly falling through the panes of the window in her office, glazing the sides of their faces. If Utahime had checked the shadows that stretched across her office floor she would have seen both of theirs joined at the hip.
Gojo opens his mouth to say something, but Utahime almost loses her footing again because her head lurches in a dangerously nauseous way, so she quickly presses her forehead on the flat back of her hand where it clutches Gojos jacket, at the space where his shoulder meets his chest.
"Don't move or I'll kill you." She tells him, and Gojo clears his throat to speak- his voice is so close, it reverberates above her, and beneath her hand - as he sheepishly apologizes for teleporting without warning.
"Yeah well, whatever." Utahime straightens, lifting her head and hand off of him, feeling his own hands lifting off of her slowly to be back by his side. She can feel now, that the momentum of whatever they were on the edge of is broken. The hammering in her chest had twisted into that dizzying sick feeling after all. Maybe Gojo had been right about interruptions being stupid.
Gojo lets out a long breath, hanging his head.
"Ahhh. Damn, all that teleporting gave me whiplash."
"Well who asked you to come back anyways?"
Gojos head snaps up immediately.
"I had to! You did such a terrible job at sending me off, after all."
Utahime thinks thats a funny thing for him to say, especially considering his sputtering self earlier when he materialized, as if he couldn't believe that it had happened in the first place.
"A terrible send off is what you get for being so insufferable."
"As if, Utahime! Why bother? No goodbye kisses are supposed to be that dry, or non-existent."
"Non-existent? Yet somehow enough for you teleport back here?"
Gojo flushes a deep red, Utahime continues.
"And dry!? Dry!??? How dare- I'll have you know that my lips are nothing but completely moisturized at all-"
"Oh! Like I'd ever know that!"
"Like you ever would! So don't even try guessing. Idiot."
"Then send me off properly why don't you? So I don't have to."
"Oh is that right?" She says, her hands on her hips, almost teasing. "Why? You thinkin' about me Gojo?"
He doesn't answer, even though she watches his lips parting, and registers the sound of his breath catching before seems to think better of it, and his mouth straightens into a flat line. For a moment he seems so serious she really thinks she's unknowingly offended him, which has never really happened before.
That, and there's that habit she has weirdly developed, an acute awareness of all the times he's not being stupid, or idiotic, or smiling. The absence of these things - his smile being the most prominent - usually sets her on edge, makes her think that maybe something is off kilter, but the there's only so much she can gauge from his face, with his blindfold on.
Even though this from him feels different, something she can't puzzle out. It feels guarded, but not in the way that she's used to, especially with the abruptness with which he didn't bother to answer, or bicker back.
Why her mind fixates on the fact that he didn't say no feels like something she will think about alot, later. For now it makes her a little curious, a little brave, and she steps towards him, eyes fixed on his face.
"Okay. I'll send you off, and you're sure you won't come back this time?"
"Absolutely not. I am busy you know." He crosses his arms.
Utahime rolls her eyes. "Alright then. C'mere."
She rests a hand on his arm - unlike when she first did this - thinking for some reason, about propriety at a time like this. Unlike before, the air isn't warping around Gojo, there's no sunlit haze, no grin softening his edges. There's just him, waiting - thinking about God knows what else - which makes her incredibly nervous. The only thing she's certain of is the last time she used her chapstick, and that thought is at least a little comforting.
She takes a step forward, unsure of how close would count as close enough, now that she's been held by him and let go. It only takes the upward tilt of her head when she closes her eyes shut, and gently, briefly presses her mouth to his.
Gojo is so quiet and still when she pulls away, - she doesn't think he's ever been so silent for consecutive seconds like this - it makes her smile, and she finds herself touching his cheek.
"There. Good riddance, you."
"And to you." Gojo returns softly. "Utahime."
And they just- stand there, and Gojo is still unmoving - arms still crossed where they were - looking at her. The seconds drag on, so much so that the aftermath of everything is starting to set in, and the collar of her kosode feels like it's chafing against her neck, and her face feels hot. She lifts her hand off his face, crossing her arms defensively, mirroring him without meaning to.
"Well?!"
"I'm thinking."
"Go think back in Tokyo please."
"Why?"
"Because I-" she trails off, blushing, wringing her hands and glancing at the floor.
Because I need to think about this too, and I can't, not with you here.
Gojo rubs the back of his neck, turning his head to scan the room, he looks so awkward and shy for a moment that it's quite - dare she validate the thought? - endearing.
"Alright then, I'll uh- be off. I um-"
Gojo finally unfolds his arms, and before she knows it he's wrapping them around her shoulders. Suddenly she's being pressed into his chest and with her chin resting in the crook of his neck, Utahime forgets to return the embrace - surprised by the weight of him, the warmth - but manages to get an arm around him, resting her hand between the space of his shoulder blades. When Gojo is done hugging her, he presses a quick kiss to her forehead.
"Alright. Hah." Gojo breathes, stepping back again, with his hands on her shoulders. "Good riddance and goodbye Utahime."
"Good riddance and goodbye, Gojo." She says - with her heart beating in a wild frenzy, now that he did all that - hoping she doesn't sound as dazed as she feels. She doesn't think he hears her.
He flashes her a dazzling grin nevertheless, unbirdled and sincere. He even lifts up his blindfold, winking at her with a crystal, sparkling eye - before he vanishes for good.
And just like the first time, Utahime finds herself letting out a laugh when he does.