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Glass bottles clinked together in her backpack as Utahime rushed up the steps to Jujutsu High. The sun began to set, casting a warm orange glow over the school grounds. Summer cicadas buzzed persistently. She was tired and sweaty from her mission that day and couldn’t wait to wind down by drinking.
Now that she had graduated, she could come and go as she pleased. This, combined with the fact that she was the only one in her group who could purchase alcohol made Utahime in charge of sneaking it in.
It wasn’t that she was a strict rule follower as a lot of people were led to believe, Utahime was just smart enough to get caught. She didn’t break rules she didn’t think were worth breaking or that she didn’t think she could get away with. Years of having Mei Mei as a classmate taught her several tricks.
It was late enough that Utahime knew Yaga wouldn’t be anywhere near the dorms now. She slipped in through the dorm building’s doors and made her way in the direction of Shoko’s room. The hall was dark and quiet, the other students having gone to bed. They very rarely invited people outside of their group to minimize the chance of getting caught.
Knocking twice on the door, Shoko opened it a crack at first to check who it was. Seeing it was Utahime, she opened the door wider to let her in. Like it was a secret club meeting and she needed a password.
Shoko’s room was always unusually decorated by teenage girl standards. Her pink bedding and stuffed animals were girly but the posters of human anatomy, stray medical instruments she accidentally brought back, and animal bones displayed on her dresser gave the room a bizarre feeling. It was uniquely Shoko and Utahime much preferred her room over Gojo or Geto’s. It was either posters of skeletons or posters of nearly naked girls.
Geto was sprawled out on her bed, his uniform unbuttoned to reveal his white shirt underneath, his hair loose. Gojo was sitting at Shoko’s desk in a similar state of casual undress. Sunglasses perched on his nose, hair unruly as always. It seemed like he already got a head start on the snacks too, judging by the wrappers left on the desk. Extra pillows and blankets from their rooms were laid around because they were planning on staying the night.
Utahime removed the bottles from her bag and placed them on the desk, making a point to scoop up the trash and put it in the wastebasket. It was mostly beer and a tall bottle of the cheapest vodka she could find. A request from Geto. Shoko and Geto hardly had any money to pitch in for booze and Gojo never drank. Utahime made a decent amount now that she was taking on her own missions but respectfully, she wasn’t going to blow it all on her friends getting drunk.
Gojo picked up one of the beer bottles and examined it. The amber liquid sloshed around as he twisted it in his hand.
“I didn’t bring apple juice, sorry,” Utahime said, sarcastically.
Juice and soda, that’s usually what Gojo drank while his friends got wasted. Making him the babysitter. Gojo was a terrible drunk babysitter though, often encouraging them to do outlandish things. A particularly chaotic event last year that Gojo of course incited was the reason why they only did this in Shoko’s room now and everyone was required to stay the night and not leave the room. Except to puke.
“I want to try it,” Gojo said, putting the bottle back down on the desk.
“You’re not going to like it, Satoru.” Geto sat up on the bed.
“Yeah, you’re just going to waste it,” Shoko added.
Gojo never explained why he didn’t drink in the first place and none of them ever pressured him. There was always an assumption that he might have tried it in the past and didn’t like the taste of it. Even though there were sugary drinks out there that could satisfy his sweet tooth, he most likely never made it past beer. But now he claimed he wanted to try which to Utahime seemed like that meant he didn’t know what it tasted like afterall.
“I’ll finish it even if it’s gross,” Gojo promised.
“If you’re going to drink, you should drink the liquor first,” Utahime said.
“I said I wanted to try and you’re already trying to get me drunk,” Gojo replied in mock aghast.
Utahime rolled her eyes. “No, you always drink the liquor before the beer. You’ll get sick the other way around.”
“I’ll be fine,” Gojo said and grabbed Shoko’s keys that had a bottle opener attached to the key ring. The bottle hissed when he popped the top off.
Utahime noticed that a common trend with Gojo and his antics was that he would assure everyone it would be fine and then it would promptly not be fine. She thought for sure he was going to break his promise of finishing it even if he didn’t like it when he grimaced upon taking the first sip. But then he surprised the rest of the group by finishing it and then cracking open another. Despite Utahime’s earlier warnings, he and Geto shared a shot of the vodka together. The hard liquor made him pull an even more disgusted face than the beer did.
“You need to slow down,” Utahime chastised, extremely aware that she sounded like a mother or an angry school teacher now.
“It’s fine!” Gojo pulled away from her when she tried to grab his drink. His speech was slurred. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Gojo was clearly drunk off his two beers and a shot. Those two beers were supposed to be hers, she only managed to have one. She didn’t bring enough for four people and she hated taking shots. Now Utahime was the lone sober one in the group, taking care of her drunk friends. Which was absolutely not how she wanted to spend her evening.
Gojo kept rubbing his eyes under his sunglasses and blinking a lot. She suspected his eyes were bothering him. Being drunk was disorienting enough with regular eyes, with the amount of detail the Six Eyes could see at all times it was surely rough for Gojo now.
Shoko and Geto were no help, leaning on each other on Shoko’s bed, giggling and whispering to each other. Utahime managed to get a glass of water into Gojo’s hands. He tipped his head back and some spilled, soaking the front of his shirt. She could sense Infinity flicker on and off around him, like he couldn’t control it. Gojo was holding his hands up to cover his eyes completely now, his sunglasses lay forgotten on the desk.
“Room spinning,” he mumbled.
Utahime reached out to touch his back when Infinity flickered back on. Her hand hovered over him, unable to get any closer. The faint sound of energy humming as it was active. It was a strange feeling, being pushed back by an invisible force field. Then the humming ceased and Utahime was able to place her hand on his back. The contact made him peer at her through his fingers. He had a dreamy expression on his face. Suddenly she was knocked off balance, Gojo lunging forward to wrap his arms around her.
“Gojo! Get off!” She scolded, regretting getting close to him.
“You’re going to crush her,” Geto snickered.
He was squeezing her tightly. Utahime wiggled and managed to free one of her arms and tried to push him away but his grip was strong. He nuzzled his head against her like he was a cat. Utahime could feel her face heat up especially when Shoko let out another giggle.
“I like Utahime,” Gojo cooed, which caused Geto and Shoko to share a look between each other that only they could understand.
Utahime managed to push Gojo off and moved away from him before he could latch his arms around her again. He swayed in his seat, his goofy expression turning into a puzzled one, his brows knitted together. Utahime knew that look, she’s seen it from nearly everyone she’s ever drank with. Gojo was going to throw up.
She quickly grabbed the trash can and put it under his face. Gojo took the basket from her and held it in his lap, looking into it like he might find his salvation amongst the snack wrappers and tissues. They really needed to get him to the bathroom but Geto was in no shape to take him. Taking drunk people out into the hallway seemed like a good way to get caught too but Utahime knew when Shoko sobered up, she would not appreciate her bedroom smelling like vomit.
“I’m going to take Gojo to the bathroom,” Utahime announced and carefully helped him to stand. He clutched the trash can to his chest like it was a life line.
“Okayyy…I’ll miss you!” Shoko called and then burst into more uncontrollable giggling, leaning on Geto.
Gojo and Utahime made it out into the hallway, her hand on his arm guiding him, making sure to walk slowly. He kept blinking rapidly, his eyes still bothering him. When Utahime was drunk, having the room spin with her normal eyes was awful enough but with the eyes that could detect every molecular detail, she was surprised he wasn’t puking already with that level of overstimulation. He had left his sunglasses behind but with how much he was rubbing his eyes earlier, they didn’t seem to help much anyway.
Utahime pulled her white ribbon out of her hair, letting the strands drop loose around her shoulders. The material was thick enough to cover his eyes. She tied it around his head snuggly so it blocked as much light as possible.
“Better?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, stopping suddenly and holding the basket closer to his face.
She thought that was going to be it but after taking a few deep breaths, he seemed to be fine again. They made it to the boy’s bathroom, Utahime held the door open for him and he went into the largest stall and dropped to his knees in front of the toilet. The trash can falling out of his arms, it landed on its side with some of the contents spilling out.
It was in her nature to comfort anyone in trouble and she did feel a tinge of guilt that she was part of the reason why he was so miserable right now. She did warn him though.
Utahime dropped to her knees beside him and gently rubbed his back soothingly. He could no longer manage to keep Infinity up. His elbows were propped up on the toilet seat and he held his head in his hands. Not that she wanted to actually see him throw up but he probably would feel better if he did.
She dropped her hand for a moment and Gojo mumbled something.
“What?”
“Keep rubbing my back,” he said louder. “I like it.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Utahime brought her hand up to continue.
Her arm was getting tired but it seemed to make him feel better. Utahime reminded herself that she needed him calm so they didn’t get caught and she wasn’t doing this because in some way she actually liked touching him. He leaned on others and invaded people’s spaces all the time but it was rare for him to willingly let someone into his space.
“Utahime, I need to tell you something,” he whispered with head still down.
“Please don’t,” she said, knowing what happened when drunk people started babbling and confessing things. It was for as much as her sake as it was his.
“It’s a secret.”
“So don’t ruin it by telling me.”
“But it’s my secret,” he said, grinning.
“I don’t want to know.”
“You’re pretty,” he said and then let out a drunken laugh.
Utahime hated that it made her heart flutter to have him compliment her. His usual comments were always something along the lines of her being weak, uptight, or a nag. It was foreign to her that he'd say something nice, something he’d definitely wouldn’t so readily say if he was sober. Maybe Gojo did think she was pretty or maybe he was just drunk.
“You can’t even see me right now,” she deflected.
“I can see you,” Gojo replied, turning towards her. His eyes were covered but even through the fabric she could feel his gaze fixed on her. “Utahime is soooo pretty.”
“Are you going to puke or not?” She demanded, not wanting to sit on the cold tiled floor of the bathroom while Gojo spouted nonsense.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He seemed a little better but things could rapidly change if he stood up.
“Well decide. I don’t want to sit in this stall with you all night.”
“Do you wanna make out?” He asked suddenly and Utahime blinked, scared he might lean forward.
“Absolutely not.”
“Aw, come on,” he pouted.
Utahime stood up immediately, needing to put some distance between the two of them. His drunkenness was forcing her to come to terms with feelings that she preferred to ignore. That touching him, Gojo calling her pretty, and the suggestion of kissing were all things she very much wanted deep down but this was not a good situation to have those realizations. And she wasn’t even sure if he was serious.
She knew she wasn’t going to find out either. Gojo would become sober and not remember anything he told her. It was probably funny to him actually.
“You’re drunk,” she reminded him.
“I’m not that drunk.” He stood up, unsteady on his feet. Utahime had heard that one before and it was never convincing.
“Ask me when you’re sober and we’ll see,” she said and Utahime wasn’t sure what came over her. Maybe it was the little bit of alcohol she consumed influencing her.
“I’m sober enough,” he argued.
Utahime saw the crackle of energy at his fingertips. In drunk, uncoordinated fashion, he waved his arm around while he spoke and when Utahime realized what was about to happen it was too late. She was already backing up out of the stall. Red light blinked at the edge of his fingertips and when his arm started to come back down, a contained blast of Curse Reversal Red hit the toilet with a loud bang. She turned and covered her face, a piece of porcelain flew off and thankfully hit the wall and not her. It left behind a dent. Water was spouting out of it, soaking her, Gojo, and the entire floor.
Gojo stood there frozen in shock as water poured out. His fingers were still pointed at the space where there used to be a toilet. Adrenaline banishing the effects of alcohol immediately. The security alarm that went off when it detected large amounts of cursed energy on campus blared through the dorm building. Announcing to the entire school what just happened. It would be pointless to run, Gojo’s curse residuals were all over the place. Utahime should’ve known that something like this was possible when he struggled with his eyes and Infinity flickered erratically.
Yaga was in the doorway, clad in his pajamas, looking furious. Jaw clenched. His sunglasses weren’t on his face and Utahime shrunk under his harsh gaze. They were busted and Utahime’s streak of being too sneaky to get caught was over.
“Satoru, I know you’re in there,” Yaga said harshly.
Gojo stepped out of the stall, looking guilty and ridiculous with her ribbon tied across his head. Utahime prayed that Yaga couldn’t tell he was drunk. He seemed to hold himself slightly more coordinated than before.
“Good evening,” Gojo said in an attempt to seem casual and Utahime wanted to smack him.
“What the hell is this?” He gestured to the mess, a vein in his forehead popping out.
“I don’t know,” Gojo said and Utahime could practically see the wheels turning in his drunk head. “It just did that.”
“It just did that,” Yaga repeated. Utahime wished she could evaporate right there and not have to witness this.
“Yes,” Gojo replied, sticking to his story.
“You blew up a fucking toilet!” Yaga raised his voice and Utahime felt herself shrink. “What the hell were you two doing in there?”
“Well…” Gojo said, his voice trailing off in a suggestive manner.
Utahime wanted to both die and kill Gojo at the same time. She knew what it looked like to Yaga. That they were hooking up in the bathroom stall. She could not decide what was a worse fate for her, caught drinking or caught doing something she wasn’t but was arguably more embarrassing.
“Get out.” Yaga pointed towards the door. “I’ll deal with you later, I need to get this cleaned up.”
Utahime didn’t need to be told twice, she rushed towards the door, her shoes soaked from all the water. She knew Gojo was right behind her. The moment they were out in the hall, she turned and grabbed him, pushing him up against the wall, her hand fisted in the front of his shirt.
“You’re awful,” she gritted out. She was a head shorter than him but that didn’t stop her from getting in his face. “I am never giving you alcohol again and you owe me for this. They could suspend me from missions for this.”
“You’re really pretty when you’re mad,” Gojo whispered, clearly still drunk.
“Stop saying that,” she said, her cheeks were warm.
“You should push me up against the wall more often,” he teased.
“Ugh, come on,” she said, releasing her grip and stepping away from him.
They needed to get back to Geto and Shoko to warn them that Yaga was on a rampage and they needed to get rid of all their evidence and go back to their own dorms. She wouldn’t let Shoko get in trouble for her mistake.
Gojo was never going to drink again and she would make sure of that.