Work Text:
Nanami sighs as he walks into his apartment. He knew the higher ups weren’t amazing, to say the least, but back to back missions for a month straight was a little ridiculous even for them.
He sends a quick text to Yaga as he toes off his shoes in the entry, a quick inquiry to make sure the higher ups hadn’t just been distracting him to try and secretly kill off another student. He rolls his eyes as the message gets read and receives no response. Everyone was probably fine then. Yaga would have reached out in some regard if the higher ups were planning something. If only to get help in dealing with Gojo’s reaction to it.
He tosses his phone onto the couch and walks into the kitchen, he could check in on everyone after having a proper meal. An additional downside to constant missions was that it was almost impossible to get a proper meal. Traveling constantly, on top of staying alert for curses, meant that he was lucky to get a decent night’s sleep, let alone decent food. Now that he was home he could quickly make something for himself, then pass out long enough to catch up on all the sleep he had missed.
Then wake up and make himself something that was actually nice.
But for now he could settle with whipping together whatever he had available. He was already exhausted, and his usual cuisine standards could stay on the back burner until his eyes had been closed for twelve hours or longer.
He pulls open his fridge, already trying to think about what he could make and eat within the next hour. He could probably find enough to make something decent, but would it be worth the time to make something better than decent? Maybe he’d sleep better if the food was—
His thoughts are stopped by the state of his fridge as he finally peers into it.
He blinks as he stares at it. This... wasn’t right. There was almost nothing in it, only a few bottles of sauce, a pack of sausages, and a half opened can of... something that had obviously gone bad. But that couldn’t be right because he had been here last week, and sure he had cleared stuff from his cabinets and fridge out, but only because he was going to restock after. He had cleared out the fridge, eaten what he could, laid down for a nap, and then he had...
He sighs, and lets his head fall into his hands. And then he had received another mission from the school, and instead of going grocery shopping, he had gone on the next train to Miyagi to fight what was supposedly classified as a grade 2 curse, but had ended up being a grade 1. Then he had gotten another assignment, alongside Ino, and had found himself preoccupied until now. Leaving him with an empty kitchen.
After another five minutes of fruitlessly checking the rest of his kitchen, he accepts that he has two options: order in or try and make the fastest grocery run of his life. Ordering in was the obvious choice, he would have to wait, but it would take less effort and less time than going out and cooking himself.
An easy choice then, just grab his phone and call the nearest place with delivery, stay awake until it arrived and worry about real food once he woke up later. He had been eating whatever he could find for the past month already, he could handle it for one more day.
He... he could handle it.
He could.
He stares at his phone. Then breathes in and pinches the bridge of his nose. 20 minutes, 25 at most. He already had a dish in mind, if he grabbed everything quickly and the lines weren’t horrible he could be back home in 25 minutes. Then he could cook himself actual food and sleep for the next 20 hours before properly reorienting himself in his apartment.
Exactly 7 minutes and 39 seconds later Nanami finds himself outside of the nearest grocery store, ready to grab a basket and buy the bare minimum for a single meal. He could figure the rest out later, he’s sure his future self will curse him for it but he can cross that bridge when he gets to it.
4 minutes and 17 seconds later he’s rounding back around to the produce section of the store when he sees Kugisaki.
It’s a testament to her aura that Nanami instinctively freezes when he sees her. Or a testament to how much he does not want to spend any more time here than he has to.
She’s standing in front of what seems to be an assortment of salads and Nanami has no idea what she could be doing this far off campus when, last time he checked, the school had a perfectly functioning cafeteria and kitchen. Still, it’s not his business and if he wanted to get home and get to bed before the hour he would have to ignore her.
This is what he tells himself as he sneaks past a 16 year old girl in the grocery store. He was being completely reasonable. This was a completely reasonable, and adult response... and if it wasn’t he would blame it on the sleep deprivation.
He grabs what he needs, and ducks out, telling himself that the only reason he was headed to the other side of the store was because that is where his next ingredient was, not because he was running away.
3 minutes and 24 seconds later he’s back next to the produce section wondering if maybe he should just switch out what he planned to eat for something else. He had forgotten to grab everything he needed while he was there the first time (rookie mistake) and Kugisaki was still staring at the salads. Why, he wasn’t sure, but what he was sure about was that sneaking around the produce area twice in one day was too much for one meal.
He, sighs, accepting his fate and just walks back in to grab what he needs. If Kugisaki decided to try and strike up conversation he would politely turn her down, he’s sure she would understand fatigue from overwork.
He braces himself for her questions when he walks past her, but she stays quiet. He raises an eyebrow but continues walking, perhaps she rather avoid confrontation as well. He glances back towards her as he grabs the last items on his list, she still hasn’t moved. He’s fairly sure she hasn’t moved from when he first saw her, now almost 5 minutes ago.
He tells himself that she would be fine, urging himself to walk back past her to the register. The lines weren’t long, and if he left now, he would get home quickly and get to bed even faster. He starts moving past her, her eyes never leaving the assortment of salads. He stares at her before reaching over and grabbing a salad he absolutely didn’t need.
No reaction.
He sighs. Fine. He would just ask her if everything was okay, just to make sure. She was probably fine anyways, but it would be good to ask and then he could go home, eat, sleep, and worry about this whenever he woke up.
“Kugisaki,” He begins, doing his best not to react when she jumps. “Is there an issue?”
“Huh?” She eyes him, eyes lingering on his glasses, tie, and what was showing of his holster. “Nothing’s wrong,” She hesitates, “...Nanami?”
Nanami raises an eyebrow. It was increasingly obvious that if she knew who he was at all, it was all second hand. Not that he was much different, only having heard of Kugisaki through the rumor mill when the school was having issues with her application.
“Is that why you’ve been sitting here for the past five minutes staring at salads?”
She scowls at him, thinking of something nasty to respond with most likely. But before it comes out she hesitates and glances back at the salads, she looks back at him. “I’m just... considering my options. Shopping is an art that requires both your soul and mind.”
“Do you need help then?” He asks before she can continue on about the requirements of shopping. He bites his tongue immediately after the words leave his mouth, and mourns any chance he had of getting home in the next ten minutes. She tenses, looking ready to reject him. But then she looks at er empty basket and looks back at him and his almost full one. She clenches her teeth but nods, straightening up and crossing her arms, and giving him an expectant look.
He sighs as Kugisaki agrees, well he has officially done this to himself. He wants to tell himself it won’t take long but he was already planning out what meal she could make for herself and they would have to go around the whole store again to get everything. He lets her decide on one of the containers of salad and then leads her to another area of the store.
“So,” He starts, glancing at the prices— why were these onions so expensive? “Is there a reason you’re shopping at the grocery store over 30 minutes away instead of the one down the road from the school?”
“I don’t know, why are you shopping at the grocery store 30 minutes away from school?”
Nanami raises an eyebrow in her direction as he grabs what he needs, “While it may come as a surprise to you, I do happen to be an adult who does not have to live at school.”
She grumbles as he grabs more ingredients, she could handle menchi katsu couldn’t she? He wasn’t sure about her skill in cooking but as long as she wasn’t as bad off as Megumi, it shouldn’t present too much of an issue. Even then, he’s sure at least one of the staff there would help her with it if she asked.
He pauses in the middle of grabbing a small bag of sugar (she wouldn’t need much but he didn’t want to risk the school not having any supplied) watching her follow sulkily with a pout, still whining over whatever verbal victory Nanami had just achieved. He would have to remind to ask for help if she needed it before they left.
“You know, you still haven’t answered,” Nanami points out as he tries to decide which box of breadcrumbs to buy, why did they have so many different brands of this?
Kugisaki huffs and crosses her arms, “I don’t see why it’s any of your business, maybe I just like this store more,” She peers into her basket. “Why do we even need all this anyways? What are you trying to get me to make?”
Nanami hums as he puts the breadcrumbs in the basket, “You were looking at the salads earlier weren’t you? Maybe this is an incredibly elaborate salad.”
“Right, because the two things everyone wants on every salad are flour and sugar,” Kugisaki holds up the two bags in question. She brings the flour up to her face, “I didn’t even know they sold small bags of flour, I thought it was only those huge ones.”
Well she had him there, maybe he should look around later to see if there are any salads with sugar and flour. It could be an interesting combination (if not one he wasn’t sure he was crazy about yet).
He changes the subject, “Did you cook at your home?”
Kugisaki shrugs, trailing behind him as they move on, “Sometimes with my grandmother. She would bring me shopping for food too and I would wander around if she took too long with anything.”
“Have you shopped without your grandmother around?”
Kugisaki takes a little longer to respond this time, “...Not much, I was just eating in the cafeteria until recently, but Itadori started cooking again so I figured maybe I should too.” She purses her lips, “I... didn’t really want to run into anyone, which is why I came here.” She glances up at him, “Don’t tell anyone I came here.”
It’s not a question, but Nanami responds anyways, “I won’t. I know Gojo has a nasty habit of showing up when you least want to see him.”
“That implies there’s ever a time that I want to see Gojo,” Kugisaki scoffs, but the tension has left her almost completely now and she goes back to staring at the contents of the basket they have. “Okay but what is this supposed to be?” She starts pulling out random contents of the basket and bringing them up to her face. “Menchi Katsu?”
Nanami chooses a random box of breadcrumbs and puts it in the basket, “Yes, but I’m adding a little extra. It’s good for you and something my grandparents made me from time to time. It shouldn’t be too difficult for you to replicate.” She opens her mouth, doubt already forming and he quickly adds, “I’ll send you the recipe they used if you’re worried.”
“I wasn’t,” Kugisaki responds with a hmph. She pauses,“But thank you.”
“It’s really no problem, but I hope you don’t mind waiting a bit to get it because our cookbook has been buried somewhere in my apartment for years and I also haven’t slept properly for the past month,” Nanami sighs, checking his watch. He sees Kugisaki tense again and continues, “But it’ll be nice to be able to find it again, it’s been too long since I’ve had danish cuisine.”
Kugisaki accepts the words easily, understanding that Nanami is doing this willingly, that she wasn’t a burden for him. She’s digging through the basket again, interest rekindled now that she knew what they were making.
“Do we really need this for menchi katsu?” She asks, pulling the whipping cream out of the basket. She hums as she squints at the other contents of the basket, “Is it for the potatoes?”
Nanami nods, “I’m getting what you would need for the addition to the menchi katsu, it may seem a bit indulgent but I’ve found the combination of the two to be quite a wonderful comfort food. Neither are particularly fancy but I have a feeling you may enjoy it.”
Kugisaki nods, putting every thing she had pulled out back carefully as they walked to the cashiers, “My grandma would make me menchi katsu sometimes. Never for any big occasions, but it was nice to have something to rely on out there in the middle of nowhere.”
Nanami has a feeling that last part isn’t just about the food. He can tell there’s probably more behind that, but the middle of the line for the lane 2 cashier isn’t the place to unpack it all. Nor is he the best person to do the unpacking itself. Especially in his current state.
So instead he nods and lets the line move forward, “Then I’m glad I’ve managed to find something familiar for you to recreate. It shouldn’t be impossible, but I hope you remember there are others at the school who can help if you need it.”
Kugisaki glances up at him, “Does that include you?”
Nanami blinks in surprise, “If you want it to, then yes. I’m not a teacher, but I’m not Itadori’s private mentor either.”
Kugisaki starts to smile, eyes crinkling, “Did you give Itadori secret cooking lessons? Is that why he’s so good at it? Did you manage to find time between killing curses to make him cook you his weird meatball things? Have you been hiding this secret side to your teaching methods?”
Nanami rolls his eyes, aware any formality had officially left the air.
“I did not give Itadori any cooking lessons, but if you would like for me to help you I wouldn’t be against it,” He helps Kugisaki load the groceries onto the belt, adding his own as well. He could pay this time, his salary as a sorcerer was enough that groceries hardly made a dent in his wallet anymore.
Kugisaki sends him a sharp smile as their groceries get bagged, “Hah, by the time you stop by the school next I’ll already be a master chef. But I’ll let you cook with me anyways.”
Nanami doesn’t roll his eyes, but it’s a near thing. They leave the store on that note, Nanami waving as Kugisaki walks back to the train to the school. Kugisaki doesn’t turn around, but holds up a peace sign as she walks away. Nanami does roll his eyes at that.
He begins the walk back to his apartment, no longer as rushed as he was on the way here. He shifts his bags and wonders if Megumi has it in him to start to learn to cook. It was probably about time anyways.
He smirks at that, the day Megumi found his way around the kitchen would be the day Nanami quits as a sorcerer. But if Kugisaki did learn properly he would be outnumbered by the rest of his class, Kugisaki didn’t seem like the kind of person to let a friends culinary inability to go untreated once she had overcome it.
He chuckles to himself, it seemed that Jujutsu Tech had quite the culinary storm coming. Whether for better or worse.
He smiles and shifts his bags again, pushing down a yawn. Maybe he would have enough energy to unearth his grandfather’s cookbook before he passes out. His smile grows, the warmth from the day finally settling in, that would be nice.