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“Shokooo!”
“You’d say the menu has non-alcoholic drinks, right…?”
Gojo spoke to her in a whiny tone of voice, as Shoko dragged him off towards a bar she happens to be a regular at.
“They sell sweets here, of course they’d sell non-alcoholic drinks too.”
She mutters at him, slight reassurance in her tone as she brings him inside of the bar.
There’s a barely noticeable giddiness in Shoko’s voice, one that the average person wouldn’t notice. But he’s been a close friend of hers for years now, staying by her side for so long.
Therefore, he automatically notices any change that there is to Shoko’s behavior, her attitude, her mannerisms.
Shoko’s giddiness brings a soft smile to his face, making himself feather-weight so she can drag him more easily.
Gojo eyes the decor of the bar as they step inside, it’s not too shabby, the bar is adjoined to the wall by the center, with numerous tables tucked to the side, there’s an empty space as for live performances, with the bathrooms tucked into a far away corner.
In a way, the bar seems ‘homey’ as in, it feels lived in, it’s not like the posh, sleek, crystal clear ones at gatherings and events between the clans, nor is it a dingy, small, hole-in-the-wall, cheap spot.
He chuckles as Shoko drags him off to sit at the bar, he’s a giant in his seat, taking up a large amount of space at the bar, Shoko sits right next to him, to his left.
“This place is nice.” Gojo tells her as he watches as Shoko calls up a bartender.
There’s a hint of familiarity and recognition as Shoko chats up the bartender, a woman who seems to be around her late thirties.
Gojo watches the bartender go off somewhere else.
“That’s Arisawa-san, she’s been working here for years, she’s nice.” Shoko tells him as the woman walks off.
“Menus, right?” He asks her, she simply nods at him in response.
They watch as the woman comes back with two menus in her hands, she first hands off one to Shoko, then one to Gojo.
Gojo skims through the menu, eyeing the non-alcoholic drinks first before anything else, his senses immediately pick up the hushed conversation between Shoko and the bartender, but he pretends to not notice it.
“Didn’t know you snagged a good one, you haven’t stopped by here in a while and you’re out here with a boy—!”
Arisawa-san tells Shoko in a hushed tone, giving her an amused look, simply teasing her as Shoko’s face goes red in embarrassment.
“He’s not my—” Shoko manages to tell the woman, embarrassment as clear as day in her voice.
The woman just laughs, walking off towards another pair of clients, waiting to order.
Gojo pretends to not find the ordeal between the two funny, fingers lightly tapping against the hardwood surface.
—— —— ——
They get the drinks they ordered, do a little cheer, and proceed to drink them.
Gojo gets an overly sweet fruity mocktail, meanwhile Shoko just gets a regular beer in a large glass jug.
They talk, some about the usual, some about Shoko’s family, some about how overbearing the Gojo Clan can be.
At some point, they end up leaving, after four round of drinks before Shoko drags him off to another bar.
This second bar is much smaller than the previous one, less tables, less cluttered, less crowded.
Shoko guides him to a secluded table by a wall, there are framed photographs on the walls, showing what the bar looked like at its humble beginnings.
And… in a way, Gojo feels nostalgic for something he never had, something he never got to experience.
Sometimes, Gojo wonders where he’d be if he wasn’t a sorcerer, if he wasn’t born as the sole heir to the Gojo Clan, if he wasn’t born into riches with an unbreakable diamond spoon shoved up his ass.
What if he had grown up like Shoko…? Small town, loving family, working to make a name for themselves from the ground up.
He’d have to work his way to leave that small town behind to go into the bustling city of Tokyo, Shoko managed to do that after Yaga scouted her as a child due to her cursed technique.
He truly wonders if that would be the same for him.
Gojo keeps his thoughts to himself as he sips his drink, an icy pineapple non-alcoholic drink that caught his eye.
Shoko is currently going on about the possibility of experimenting on cursed corpses akin to attempting to make something like The Human Centipede come true.
She then babbles on about the possibility of making real-life Saw traps, and proceeding to use them on cursed corpses.
He lets out a giggle at Shoko’s words.
He’s known her for so long that it doesn’t phase him anymore, Shoko’s insane amount of knowledge on everything that is grotesque and gorey.
By this point, Shoko’s drunk enough that she doesn’t care about personal boundaries, her hand is currently resting on his arm, casually.
She’s nursing a strong-smelling whiskey in her right hand, the glass is almost empty, and Gojo can feel Shoko’s drunk breath from where she speaks to him.
“Let’s go to another one… Satoru….”
Shoko whines at him drunkenly, extremely uncharacteristic of her, his breath hitches as he meets her gaze.
She’s giving him a pouty look, her eyes half-lidded, and her cheeks unusually red from all of the alcohol she’s been drinking.
“Alright, whatever you want Sho.”
He tells her sweetly, his voice warm and soft towards her, fondness clear in his tone of voice.
Gojo lets Shoko drag him off to another bar, they end up getting another round of drinks there. And off they go to the next.
At some point, Gojo is just tagging along with Shoko as if he were a bodyguard, keeping an eye on her so she wouldn’t end up too drunk to not be able to get herself home on her own.
After they end up leaving said bar, he watches as Shoko slumps on his chest, using him as a makeshift pillow or a recliner.
“Thanks… Satoru… I’m glad you decided to come with me here.”
He pretends to act like his heart didn’t just skip a beat at hearing Shoko slip up and call him by her first name.
“Hah… no problem Sho…! Totally—!”
Satoru watches Shoko in fondness as her eyes get droopy, it’s clear that she’s tired, and he needs nothing else than to see her rest.
He extends his hand out to her, intertwining his fingers with her own, and proceeding to pull her into his embrace.
“Shoko, let’s go home.”
That’s what he tells her softly as he teleports them back to his place.