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1.
It hits Gojo that Nanami has grown a lot.
Not that he's ever seen Nanami all that young, especially with how mature he acted back in school, but since he's come back to the Jujutsu world some things have changed. He supposes that change is bound with time, you can't get one, without the other but it's really showing.
Now that he sees Nanami unpack his stuff in the flat he rented for him, for the purpose of living a bit closer to the school, he seems more like an responsible adult, and less like his precious kouhai.
"Are you excited to see Shoko again?" Gojo asks, not because he wants to know, but because the quiet was getting a little too loud.
"More than I'm excited to spend time with you again" Nanami doesn't pay Gojo any attention, just takes a mirror out of the box.
Something inside Gojo stirs, he chuckles.
"Ouch Nanamin, haven't you missed me?" He slams his hand on his heart and acts a bit dramatic, but Nanami sees through it all. He pauses for a moment taking in the invisible tension that has suddenly found place between them. Nanami knows better than anyone else alive, he sees right through every laugh, every smile, every sentence and right now he hears the underlying bitterness in Gojo's nonsense as if it was spoken aloud.
He turns around and sighs quietly and takes his glasses off, folding them neatly then placing them on the newly built dining table. He looks Gojo dead in the eye despite them being covered and Gojo sucks in a breath.
"What is it really Satoru?" He asks, his voice a little less stoic than usual.
In an instant Gojo is mere inches away from Nanami, and for a moment he notices everything he missed before.
Nanami's eyes are dark, but not lifeless and right now there is a glint of something soft in them. His skin is awfully smooth despite him looking so old sometimes, his jaw clenches a little and Gojo has to suppress a little smile. His lips are chapped, any girl would be jealous of the fullness of them.
He'd love taste them, and he contemplates doing so when he notices the blush dusting his cheeks ever so slightly but a glint in Nanami's eyes tell him that the pause is getting suspicious, and that it might become awkward if he doesn't do anything soon, so he chickens out and wraps his arms around him instead, dismissing the previous thought as the pink on Kento's cheeks vanishes as well.
"I've missed you, Kento"
"I'm here now"
----
2.
Gojo thinks that Nanami is becoming smarter.
He really doesn't regret letting him guide Itadori, especially not when he is met with a stronger version of yuji every time he sees him. The effort does definitely not go unappreciated.
Yuji doesn't only get stronger, he gets smarter as well and Gojo sees how Yuji not only hesitates less, but makes more thought out moves.
"Yuji is getting stronger, don't you think?" Gojo says, flicking a grain of rice at Nanami who is enjoying a sandwich on the other side of the table. It lands on Nanami's beige blazer, and he smiles widely as Nanami narrows his eyes and look at him with a unimpressed look.
"Don't flick food at me Gojo, and it would only make sense, he is very passionate and an easy learner after all" Nanami replies, flicking the grain of rice from his shirt to a napkin and aims at the trash bin, Gojo yells an obnoxiously loud "GOAL" when the tissue lands in the bin.
"He's smarter as well" Gojo continues looking out the window at Yuji and Nobara fighting while Megumi eats a bento box in the background. If they don't stop after this fight Nanami will probably tell them to go eat like the responsible adult he is, not to mention smart.
Nanami keeps quiet, not really for any particular reason, or so he thinks. It's hard to read the man when the his stoic facial expression usually never faltered.
"I'm praising you Nanamin, you're the one who taught him after all!" He says cheerfully, taking another bite out of his egg while eyeing Nanami closely watching for any reaction, anything at all.
"I don't need praise, I did my job" The other simply replies after a while, and it was almost so believable, that if Gojo had not noticed the tip of his ears going red, he would have fallen into the lie. He really has become smarter. A warm feeling tugs at Satoru's lips, the blush spreads a bit to his delight and he almost leans in and does something he might regret later if Itadori hadn't almost knocked the door down.
"Nanamin! Gojo sensei!"
----
3.
Gojo definitely thinks that Nanami is emotionally strong.
After all, loosing both Yu and Geto is hard, and after all those years it must have been even harder to return to the horrible place of Jujutsu high where the souls of his once alive friends haunt him every day.
He respects Nanami, much more than he shows and he doesn't a single shit that the feeling isn't mutual. He understands why Nanami doesn't feel the same way about him in regards of respect, after all he used all his young years teasing and clinging to his poor kouhai despite Nanami's efforts to get away and hide.
He definitely thinks that Nanami could be an excellent role model for many sorcerers, even though he himself doesn't like his lifestyle Gojo is sure that the world could use of more people as grounded as Kento. He wouldn't mind either.
"If you could jump into an alternate universe, where Yu and Geto never died or turned evil would you?" Gojo asks, he tries to sound like he asks that question just for the sake of it but it comes out a bit quieter than anticipated.
Silence follows, but not as much as Satoru had thought.
"That depends" The other simply says, but something lies beneath and Gojo doesn't have to ask for it to be delivered.
"One small change can alter the future completely, we have no idea of what situation we would be in right now if they never passed, in the worst case the someone else could have died.." He trails off and Gojo looks at him. Nanami looks a little lost, he never does but he seems to find his words again when Gojo lifts his blindfold and looks at him with those eyes.
"I'm not saying I don't miss them, I do, but.. " he swallows thickly, his voice gives out.
"I get it" Gojo mutters, he drops the blindfold again and looks upwards as if something was up there. Then he looks at Nanami, despite him having his glasses on Gojo can see he's tense.
He knows that if he were to ask him he would say something along the lines of the fact that they shouldn't fuss over dead people, that's out of the question, he won't be lectured today. He wants to kiss his problems away, but the fact that he still isn't sure of what Nanami thinks of him yet stops him, he doesn't want to loose Nanami like he lost the others, he's all that's left not that he sits lower than the others did. But Gojo is persistent, he's not in the mood to walk out of this building knowing Nanami sits depressed with a newspaper somewhere at home thinking about dead people, instead he decides to try to lift the mood.
"I'm hungry, come Nanamin! lets go get lunch" He says cheerfully standing up, Nanami looks at him and something is in the way.
"On me, of course" Gojo finishes off in a softer tone, he smiles.
Nanami sighs as he lights up a bit, he takes his glasses off and Gojo grabs his wrist and pulls him out the door humming a obnoxious tune while Nanami's lips lift up a bit, much to Gojo's delight.
----
4.
Gojo thinks Nanami is more amazing than he once thought he was.
"Satoru" He says with that deep voice of his, Waking Gojo from his slumber. He rubs his eyes and lifts his head from his pillow to find Nanami towering over him with a takeaway bag in one hand and his glasses in his other.
"What time is it?" Gojo asks as Nanami tosses his glasses to him, which he happily accepts.
"7 in the evening, you weren't at work" He says sternly.
"Aww, you care about me Nanamin!" Gojo says, he notices how Nanami's face lights up pink at the sound of his raspy "morning" voice, god he'd love touch that face right now.
"Someone had to check on you, what have you been doing all day?" Nanami sits on the side of Gojo's bed, taking off his glasses setting them on Gojo's nightstand.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Gojo says cocking his eyebrows and smirking as if he was flirting, was he? No one would know. Nanami just stays quiet but looks at Gojo unamused, which Gojo responds to be sticking his tongue out. Then he notices Nanami reaching out for his phone, he almost stops him but just for entertainment he lets him take it.
Nanami finds the background to be a group picture they took some months ago in the courtyard of the school, Itadori stands in the middle as the main character he is with Nobara and Megumi on either of his sides, he has his arms around them. On one side is Inumaki and Maki, and then Panda who hugs them both impossibly tight making them both squirm and go red. Principle Yaga stands in the far corner besides the three students looking like some kind of proud father. On the other side is Shoko who looks very grey in non artificial lighting from the clinic and Ijichi who, for once, looks at peace. Him and Gojo stand in the corner, Gojo has a bright annoying smile and his arm wrapped around Nanami who seems not so pleased, it tugs at his lips.
Everyone in the picture has been drawn into an animal, Megumi is drawn like his dogs, Yaga has turned into an Owl for some reason, Panda, well, just has bamboo now and he and Gojo are cats for an unknown reason, Nanami narrows his eyes at them. Big fluffy ears for them and tails double the size of a normal cats tail with hearts all around them and for some reason it doesn't surprise Nanami at all.
"What is your password" It's set up as a question, but really its more of a demand. Gojo cocks a brow.
"I can't tell you that, that's private!" He says so arrogantly turning to face the ceiling instead with his blanket all the way to his chin. No problem for Nanami, he puts the screen directly in front of Gojo's face and the facial recognition worked instantly, Gojo gasped dramatically.
"Nanamin! how could yo-" He can't finish his sentence before Nanami tosses Chinese takeout at him and he realises how hungry he is. Gojo looks at Nanami looking at something on HIS phone, then looks back at the neatly desplayed food in front of him and decides that food is more important than his privacy.
Gojo digs into his food as if he had never eaten before while Nanami looks at Gojo's screentime statistics.
"14 hours on hay day..?" He says, so disappointed the words cut like paper. Gojo pauses for a moment, Nanami is beautiful when he's annoyed, that little 'v' between his eyebrows deepen, he wants to run his thumb across it and kiss his frown away and honestly he would throw the food out the window right now if it meant he could taste those lips instead.
"Maybe?" He says after a little too long, slurping his noodles in like a vacuum.
He appreciates that Nanami is willing to keep him fed and make sure he's okay, even though he has been playing Hay day for 14 hours and missed work because of that. Needless to say he will make sure to at least give Nanami some eggs in that game to thank him.
----
5.
Gojo thinks that Nanami is a lot of things.
He didn't know how much paper it would take to describe it all, and it seemed like every time he saw Nanami something new he hadn't thought of pops up. It's impossibly hard to get to him though, and he prides himself in how long he has come since the beginning.
"Nanamin! lets get lunch together, there's a new sushi place downtown and the reviews say all sorts of amazing things!" Gojo exclaims as he follows Nanami.
"No thank you, I promised Itadori to review some work today" Nanami states coldly continuing up the hallway. Gojo pouts a little.
"Well then what are you eating?" Gojo pouts.
"I'm figuring that out later, I don't have any missions today, only a report"
Gojo lights up like a lighthouse on a dark night, and happily skips along Nanami's side.
"If I buy you some sushi will you then eat with me later? you said you weren't busy today!" He purrs noticing the 'v' between the others brows deepen signaling that he's becoming annoyed.
Rookie mistake, Nanami thinks to himself, never tell Gojo you're not busy cause he will definitely be taking that very serious.
"Fine but don't eat my portion" He gives in seeing Gojo's smile turn impossibly wider.
"Ah Nanamin I could kiss you!" Gojo shouts to the whole world, Nanami's world stops for a second.
He stops and looks at Gojo with furrowed brows. Gojo notices the stare and realize he may had gone a bit far, but that's not something he can take back now, perhaps he was being too confident. Nanami lets his eyes linger for a bit too long before words actually come out of his mouth. “Yeah yeah, sure you could” He murmurs before stepping outside with Gojo following him suit.
----
6.?
Nanami thinks Gojo is annoying, but perhaps he can love him despite that.
Getting hurt sucks, being saved sucks even more, especially if it's Gojo.
"Aww it's just like the old times! My precious kouhai needing to be saved by his senpai!" Gojo chirps sitting in the chair by the bed Nanami is laying in, Nanami scowls, he would rather have died (not really though).
"Please leave me alone"
"noope~"
Nanami sighs, as much as he would like Gojo to leave and stop teasing him this instant he can hear the sadness in his voice. So what else can he do as a coworker and a friend than to at least let him stay? He knows this is Gojo Satoru's way of caring for him, even though it doesn't get unappreciated, Nanami would be very thankful if Gojo found another way of taking care of him than teasing him and now making him share his bed.
"Come on Nanami, scoot over!" He chimes, his voice is empty.
Nanami stays quiet, he doesn't really know what would be appropriate to say, after all this doesn't happen a lot. He wouldn't like for it to happen ever again, he can't bear it, the fact that Gojo's breath drags a bit longer than usual, that his eyes have a glint to them that's visible to Nanami despite the coverage and he definitely does not like that he's this quiet.
"Don't you have a mission to be on?" He decides to ask, looking over at Gojo who has switched his blindfold with a pair of glasses, for the sake of comfort he guesses.
"I really can't go anywhere now that you're hurt can I?" Gojo teases.
"Satoru"
Gojo's breath hitches and his defense falters
"What are you really doing here" Nanami speaks softly. Gojo turns his head and to his surprise, he takes the glasses off.
"Kento you're the only one I have left" He says, the eyes holding onto something more than Nanami can grasp and then suddenly everything falls into place.
Nanami realizes a lot of things, First he realizes that he has been a fool to not notice the glint of hope in Satoru's eyes every time he saw him, but he also realizes that Gojo is an even bigger idiot for not noticing Nanami's reciprocating feelings. He realizes that Gojo was afraid he would die, and he feels stupid for ever complaining about him being here, then he realizes that they're very close. He realizes that they have been close for too long, and he closes the gap.
It's sweet, a little cheesy maybe but neither of them care. He has been longing for this, and by the way that Gojo moves his lips against his he can tell Gojo has been too, he wishes he had noticed sooner. They pull apart for air, finally.
"I've been waiting for that" Gojo smiles, no emptiness this time.
"Hm, me too" Nanami replies as he lays down again, this time with Gojo wrapping his arms around him.
"Don't die on me Kento"
"I won't Satoru" Gojo sees Nanami smile for the first time in a while.