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Nanami had lived a quiet life. He went to his job as a salaryman, stopped by the local bakery a few times a week, and spent the rest of his time alone in his quaint, little apartment. He liked it that way. He liked being able to sit in peace for his morning coffee, to hear not even a sound as he went to bed at night.
He had liked his quiet life so much, but if given the choice, he wouldn’t go back to it.
Sukuna and Yuji Itadori came unexpectedly barreling into his life on a chilly November morning. Their parents had died in a fatal car crash, and by some twisted string of fate, they had landed in Nanami’s care.
Yuji was just a baby when Nanami had taken them in. Sukuna, on the other hand, was four and was overprotective as hell over his little brother. For the first few weeks, Nanami could barely hold Yuji for more than two seconds before Sukuna started punching his leg and demanding he hand over the baby.
Yet, whilst Sukuna seemed to hate him, Nanami was proud to say that baby Yuji seemed to take a liking to the older man. He would giggle every time Nanami was near and had a fascination with tugging the man’s glasses off of his face. If it was anyone else, Nanami would have been annoyed, but Yuji had developed a soft spot in him that he didn’t know he was capable of harbouring.
It had taken Yuji walking for the first time for Nanami to realize that said soft spot existed in him. Sukuna was in Kindergarten, probably terrorizing some poor kid smaller than him, while Nanami was carrying out his job from the comfort of his home. He had been in a meeting when small feet came pattering in the room. It hadn’t even been computed in Nanami’s head that Yuji was walking until said boy tripped over his computer wire and shut down his entire system.
The pink-haired boy had tears in his eyes and, for once in his life, at that moment Nanami didn’t even care about his job. His boss was probably furious that Nanami had suddenly vanished from their meeting, but that was the last thing on his mind.
Not much later, he strapped Yuji into his car seat and picked up Sukuna from school. Once they had gotten home, Sukuna spotted Yuji’s red knees almost immediately. Naturally, he demanded Yuji be given a bandage. Yuji was not bleeding, so he honestly didn’t need one, but Nanami complied and gave the boy a bandaid on each knee anyways. The band-aids were plain and a simple beige colour but did the job as any other band-aid would.
It wasn’t long before Nanami had a cabinet full of multi-coloured bandages in his bathroom. He had dinosaur ones picked out for Sukuna, and ones with cars on them for Yuji. Nanami thinks that the moment he pulled out a green bandage with a T-Rex on it for Sukuna, the boy realized that living with Nanami may not be the worst thing in the world.
Still, Sukuna tended to be a menace in general. Once Yuji was older, Sukuna, while still protective, thought teasing Yuji about every little thing was a wonderful pastime. He even started teasing Yuji about his school work, to which Nanami gave him a firm talking. Yuji struggled to learn his ABCs, unlike the other kids in his preschool class. This prompted a trip to the psychologist due to a suspicion Nanami had about the boy. Thirty minutes later and suspicions confirmed, Yuji was diagnosed with not only dyslexia but ADHD as well.
Sukuna had grumbled out an apology for teasing his brother when Nanami explained to him just what Yuji's diagnosis meant, but that didn’t stop him from teasing the poor boy in other categories. This is why it was no surprise to Nanami when he overheard Sukuna bugging Yuji over something that had happened at school one day.
He had been raising the boys for five years at that point, with Yuji having recently turned six. He had heard his sons bicker countless times over the years, but this time he heard something that made him stop in his tracks.
“Just admit you have a crush already,” his nine-year-old taunted.
“Suku, I told you it isn’t like that,” Yuji whined in response.
A crush? Normally, Sukuna teased Yuji over losing a sports game or the two argued over who got the last cookie, but a crush? Rationally, Nanami knew that it was just some stupid elementary school crush that Yuji would get over in about a week or so, but his dad senses told him that he needed to investigate.
He sat his kids down for dinner. He had made ramen because it was easy to make and Nanami was a busy man. They inhaled it either way, which meant that Nanami had to act fast if he wanted to get down to business in figuring out this crush thing. Otherwise, they would run off and play who knows what until it was time for bed.
“Yuji, how was school today?” he started off simple.
“It was fun, I learned how to-”
He was rudely cut off by his older brother, who barked out a laugh. “You wouldn’t believe what I saw when I went to get Yuji today!”
Sukuna and Yuji attended the same school. It was close enough to their house that Nanami felt as if they could safely walk home together. He motioned for Sukuna to continue his story despite Yuji attempting to shut the boy down.
“When I got there I tried to get his attention so we could leave, but he just kept staring at some kid the entire time. I thought he was daydreaming but his face was all pink!”
“Was not!”
“Was too!”
Nanami simply told his son that his story was interesting and thanked him for sharing. Yet, the only thing going through his mind was that he needed to meet this kid. Nanami would consider himself a chill father so to speak, but Yuji having a crush sparked many possibilities. What if she broke his son’s heart? What if she publicly humiliated him? He needed to assess this girl before getting comfortable with the idea of his son having a crush on her.
So, Nanami took the next day off work for familial reasons. He walked with his kids to school, dropping off Sukuna at his class first before making his way to Yuji’s class with a mission in mind.
Once he arrived at the classroom, he pushed up his glasses and walked to the cubby area with Yuji in tow. He hung up his son’s Cars 3 backpack before doing a quick scan of the room. A few kids had already arrived, making Nanami wonder if one of them was the object of Yuji’s adoration. He briefly considered the possibility of it being Yuji's friend Kugisaki Nobara, but Yuji once told him that Nobara had kicked him in the shin for stealing her lego, so he let the idea go.
“I don’t think we’ve met before,” a voice interrupts his thoughts. She was a woman who looked about his age, though maybe slightly older. She sported a concerning-looking scar over her face but he knew better than to ask where it was from.
“No we haven’t,” he held up his hand to shake. “Kento Nanami, Yuji’s dad.”
She took his hand in hers, but before she could introduce herself, Yuji’s small hands tug on the hem of her skirt. She bent down until she was at eye level with the boy and waited for him to speak.
“Miss Utahime, will Megumi be in today?”
“Sorry, Yuji, but Megumi has caught a pretty bad cold and won’t be in for a few days.”
Megumi.
Nanami supposed that was the name of the girl that Yuji liked, but he couldn’t help but think that it sounded oddly familiar. He had a brief memory of one of his friends introducing him to a Megumi, but he couldn’t place a finger on who. It had been a while ago whoever it was, and through balancing work and two kids, Nanami’s mind had been a jumble the past few years.
Yuji pouted after the news before hugging Nanami goodbye and finding his place next to his friend Todo, who Nanami had met once or twice before. He was a nice kid if not a bit weird over his obsession with Idols.
For the rest of the day, Nanami had done something he was a tad ashamed of. Now, social media stalking wasn't a crime per se, but it still felt odd to admit to. He scrolled for hours through the school's Facebook page but a Megumi wasn't featured anywhere. He then tried looking through the pages of the many moms following the school, but none of them had a daughter named Megumi. This meant that his search was ultimately meaningless.
He couldn't just take another day off of work to drop Yujij off again and meet Megumi there, not so soon anyway. Nanami was almost at a loss when an idea suddenly popped into his mind as if a light bulb had gone off.
“Why don’t you invite Megumi over to our house when the sickness goes away?” Nanami had suggested to Yuji when he had gotten home from school.
Obviously, Yuji was thrilled at the idea and immediately stumbled over to the house phone to dial a number Nanami didn’t even know the boy knew. Yuji hadn’t had any friends over for playdates before, so he was clearly excited. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any friends, but Junpei wasn’t allowed over at anyone’s house and Todo insisted that they always play outside when they hung out.
Besides his sons, the only kid that had been in his house was one of Sukuna’s friends named Uraume. The kid was polite and generally quiet which opposed Sukuna’s chaotic personality. Uraume was also perhaps the most picky person Nanami had ever met, which meant every time Uraume was over they were reduced to grill cheese and the occasional cheese n' crackers.
Yuji informed him a few days later that Megumi was feeling better and was ready for their playdate. Yuji had also told him that Megumi would be dropped off by her dad, so Nanami made sure to clean up his apartment to impress the father of Yuji's first crush.
When the doorbell eventually rang, Nanami straightened out his clothes and made his way to the door. Yuji had beaten him to it, eager to see his friend, but was too short to reach the doorknob which left Nanami with the task.
The person at the other side of the door was not who Nanami had expected.
Tall, white hair and piercing blue eyes covered by sunglasses, who could it be other than Gojo Satoru?
He had attended high school with the man and there wasn’t a single day where he wasn’t annoyed by him. Gojo had done to him what Nanami would call harassment. His senior would regularly draw lewd things on Nanami's papers when he wasn't looking up until the day he graduated. What was worse, was that Nanami had the sudden realization that Yuji liked Gojo’s kid, which was possibly the worst thing that had ever happened to him, including the various drawings of genitals.
He internally chastised himself for being so forgetful. Gojo had introduced him to him and his husband’s adopted son, Megumi, just after Nanami had adopted his own sons. With both their lives then-on getting rather eventful, the only time the two had to chat was over text, which meant Nanami had completely forgotten the name of Gojo’s son entirely. In his defense, he mostly ignored Gojo’s texts anyways. After all, he saw no reason to reply to the twenty GIFs of The Office he was sent daily.
“Nanamin! So good to see you!”
Nanami braced himself as the older man pulled him into a crushing hug. Gojo, unlike Nanami, had remembered that Yuji was the name of Nanami’s son and was almost as excited as Megumi was for their little playdate.
The blond was so caught up in trying to get himself away from Gojo that he didn’t add up one small detail.
Son?
Megumi was Gojo’s son. The very same Megumi that Yuji was seemingly infatuated with was no girl but rather a boy. Not that Nanami minded, of course, he was friends with Gojo after all.
Sure enough, Yuji was showing Megumi around the apartment with sparkles in his eyes and a light flush on his face. Nanami hadn't seen the boy so excited since his first car show. He couldn’t help but express his fondness.
“Woah, Nanamin, you’re capable of smiling?” Gojo teased him.
Nanami thought that in a perfect world, Megumi wouldn’t be related to Gojo in any way and they could all be happy. At least Megumi’s other dad, Suguru, was a lot more tolerable than Satoru was.
Megumi, and Gojo, had come over for a lot more play dates since then. Sometimes Suguru tagged along, and other times Sukuna would join the younger boys' games and effectively crush their spirits of winning along with a good cackle. They continued to do so for years, and when Yuji was too old for playdates, they started simply hanging out almost every day instead. Though, the adults weren't invited to those hangouts like they had been the playdates.
Gojo had tried once. Key word tried because as soon as he had burst through Megumi's door with a Turbo CD in hand he had the door promptly slammed on his face. Somehow, during the midst of it, he lost the CD as well. Nanami had heard the story later from Gojo over the phone and had to refrain from chuckling.
Megumi and Yuji continued to be best friends through high school and before he knew it, what Nanami had once called a stupid elementary school crush, had blossomed into a relationship. Yuji had come out to him and Sukuna when he was fifteen. He brought Megumi to their house and officially introduced him as his boyfriend with shaky hands and a nervous smile plastered on his face.
Sukuna made sure to comment how it was extremely obvious and they all saw it coming long before even they did. While Sukuna was 100% correct, Nanami didn’t acknowledge the remark and brought his son into a hug instead.
His boys were growing up so fast. He remembered when Yuji’s first tooth had fallen out, and now the boy had his first partner. He remembered when Sukuna first learned how to ride a bike, and now he was graduating high school.
Sukuna and Yuji Nanami had unexpectedly crashed into his life on a chilly November morning. His quiet life now a distant memory waiting to be forgotten.