Archive of Our Own

Satoru Gojo was always walking around with dark sunglasses, hands in his pockets, sometimes swinging around his ID while running errands or monitoring the halls. He always looked nonchalant, never sparing anyone much of a glance. When he stood still, he propped himself on a wall with one leg supporting him.

His dress mostly consisted of dress pants and button-ups, depending on the weather, a jacket or long coat. His favorite outfit seemed to be a light-blue shirt with dark pants, and it was normally styled with sleeves rolled up to his mid-forearms.

He didn’t seem to be very strict either, he never really disciplined students and defended the ones he liked. Some kids really took a liking to him, calling him the coolest and most chill teacher of the halls.

The thing with all this was, it was all familiar. In fact, it wasn’t surprising, rather, it was expected. He had always been this way, and you only knew that because you’d attended high school with him.

Being on the outside of this story would be confusing. He didn’t interact with you, only talked to you when necessary, but you knew each other previously? Did he hate you? No, he was actually very nice and playful when talking to you, so why?

The truth is, he didn’t recognize you. That may sound harsh, but it makes more sense when you know that you transitioned during college. He knew you as this expressive, yet uncomfortable girl, but now, you were a calm and mostly self-confident man.

Did you want to reconnect with him? Yes, but it’s scary for you. How would he react? What would he think of you? You didn’t want to ruin the good friendship you had in the past, but this also needed to happen if you wanted to be friends with him again.

So, you spent a couple weeks building up your confidence.

—

You hated grading papers, specifically essays. Some kids made no sense, some had terrible handwriting, and some sucked at grammar. Yes, as an English teacher, you were supposed to help with that, and you were determined to do so. You didn’t judge any of the kids, of course, but you were very determined to help them improve.

While you were scanning a particularly messy-lettered paper, Gojo walked in. His head of white hair popped in the open doorway, waving at you with a smile after he knocked on the door.

“Hey there, Mr. Rivers. Grading essays?” he asked, walking in instead of waiting for an invitation, “Just letting you know there’s gonna be a meeting at 4:30 after school.”

You looked at him thoughtfully, since you weren’t yet informed that a meeting had been scheduled, “Thanks, Mr. Gojo. I’ll be there. I assume you will be too?”

“Mhm, apparently they’ve had problems with morale among the students, so they want to plan some trips and events for this school year.”

One and a half 9-weeks had already passed by, and you could tell the students were bummed out. They didn’t have anything to look forward to, so now you realized this meeting was important.

“Ah, yeah. They definitely need a boost, maybe some of these kids will focus on their grades after a fun field trip or something.”

“Right, so, I guess I’ll see you then. Toodles!” He waved a hand in the same nice way he’d done before, exiting your classroom.

He seemed to be in a pretty good mood, and you wondered what made him shift from his cool and aloof demeanor. He was fun to be around, or you still expected him to be. You began to think if he would ever realize who you were, and if you could ever salvage your previous friendship. You wanted to go ahead and bring it up, but for now, it was time to grade essays and enjoy the rest of your off period.

The meeting wasn’t very interesting, as usual, but the one thing you couldn’t help but notice was how hard he was staring at you. You couldn’t tell if he was pissed or not, so you tried to avoid his gaze and listen in to the meeting. You couldn’t get much out of it besides the words, “boost morale”, “monitored field trip”, and “seniors”.

When you heard that, you snapped out of your trance to see a co-worker of yours passing out packets. You took one and flipped through it while your boss finished the meeting. It included a planner, chaperone pairs, rules and extra details.

The only thing the teachers were worried about was having to deal with extra loud and irresponsible kids all week, but you had something else in the back of your mind.

Everyone else was pretty much fine with being paired up with anyone, and you would have been too if you weren’t paired up with Satoru Gojo himself. It’s not that you didn’t want to interact with him for a week, but the fact you were keeping such a big secret from him scared you. Maybe it was time to come clean anyway.

When the meeting finished, Gojo flagged you down, presumably to talk about the field trip. Each pair of teachers were supposed to look after about forty kids, so almost two classes.

“So, we got paired up,” he said, walking beside you. “How nice.” You were on your way to your classroom, and he pretty much guessed that. He decided to follow you there, planning on discussing the trip. You had time, since it was after school. “I’m glad I wasn’t paired with any of those boring or old people, especially the ones that are both.”

You slightly laughed, this was like him. “You shouldn’t say stuff like that, Mr. Gojo.” You continued to study the packet that was given to you on the way to your classroom, “Although, I’d have to agree.”

He smiled at this, letting you walk in the room first. “That’s right, great minds, y’know.” He sat in the nearest student desk to your teacher one, having to look up slightly to you due to the height of the chair. He had too long of legs to sit in it properly, so he sat leaning far back, scanning the words before you began speaking.

“Alright, so, forty kids have to be in our sight at all times, they need to complete at least a few activities while there, and it’ll last five days, or a school week.” You looked up, seeing he was pretty bored already, but was taking all this in.

“Right, they get their rooms, four students each, and we share one. I assume you’ll be taking day and night hours seriously?”

“Of course, I’m very strict when my job is on the line,” you remark casually, but your mind immediately shoots back to what he said, “Wait, the paired chaperones share a room?”

You knew the school saw your official gender marker, which had been changed along with your name. After that bit of thought, you suppose it now makes sense why you’d get paired up with a guy.

“Yeah, they said something about a budget problem or whatever in the meeting, you didn’t hear?” He raised a curious brow, but quickly brushed off your obliviousness, “I’m sure they’re just being cheap, though.”

“That sounds about right. It’s not like our school is so big it can afford a five-day field trip just for a morale boost.”

He half-laughed at that, trying to change the subject to something less serious, “Back to your question though, am I so unbearable that you don’t want to room with me?”

This was pretty funny to hear as his high school best friend, because he could be quite the handful when he got bored or just wanted to hang out, but you refrained from mentioning something familiar until you told him who you were. “Of course not, I was just a bit surprised.”

“Alright then, it’s settled. You act like rooming with someone is the end of the world.”

You shook your head. Of course it wasn’t, he was just exaggerating your surprise.

“No I don’t, I just hope you’re ready to deal with my routine that week. It’s not pretty.” You say that with a bit of a smile, going over your routine in your head.

Wait. There was no way he wouldn’t notice you walking around for an hour without your shirt, waiting for your testosterone gel to dry. Not to mention your top surgery scars. Should you switch to shots before the trip? No, that’s a lot of work for a single week. You’d think of something later.

Gojo flipped the packet back to the front, setting it aside, glad to be discussing the more casual side of this trip.

“What, do you sleep until half an hour before and scramble to get ready? That shouldn’t be too painful for me.”

“You’ll see,” you said, talking with him until you finish grading essays. You appreciated him being there, since double-bodying helped you work more efficiently.

Back in high school, you actually begged him to do this a lot. He would complain about having more interesting things to do before sitting down every time, always ending up having some kind of stupid fun together after you finished up, but most of the time, before.

After you graded papers and straightened up your classroom, there was no reason to stay, so you said your goodbyes and left for your cars. This really made you miss the old times, but you still decided to wait until the right time, whenever that was.

—

“You’re an ass, y’know?” You heard the whisper by your ear, being startled by it. You gladly avoided cursing in front of all the students changing classes, instead letting out a small gasp.

The voice was immediately recognizable though, being none other than your current best friend, Asiya. Not even looking at her, you continued to monitor the halls, “What did I do this time?”

Her sigh sounded rather annoyed. She leaned on the wall you were standing at, pretending to monitor the halls too after rolling her eyes, “Um, I don’t know, ditched me for the music guy?”

It took you a second to think back to what you were doing yesterday, and that’s when you realized. “Oh, right. We were discussing the meeting and trip plans.”

She turned her head to look at you with a glare, but you knew she wasn’t super serious, so you just looked at her from the side before looking ahead again.

Asiya liked to talk while doing boring stuff like you, but she was much more disciplined. She normally took time to plan out her days, and even though she didn’t hate you for having something come up, she wasn’t thrilled by the lack of notice. “Yeah, because some stupid guy that wanted to talk about a trip I am very certain you weren’t planning on running through is more important than our routine grade and gossip.”

You smiled and shook your head, “You’re right, sorry. But, remind me to fill you in on some context after school today.”

She looked at you curiously, “Woah, wait. What am I missing?” By the way her whole body turned at this, you could tell she wanted to know, “Is there anything important you haven’t told me?” Her voice sounded of disbelief, and her arms crossed as her shoulder was pressed against the wall.

“That’ll just have to wait unt—” the bell rang, making you smirk, “oops, saved by the bell.” She rolled her eyes again, wondering what could possibly have happened without her knowledge. “Enjoy your off-period, Ms. Brewer.”

Your smug smile annoyed her, and she just scoffed as you closed your classroom door behind you.

—

It was nice seeing Gojo in the halls everyday, now that you started talking again. When you passed each other, there was at least a small nod exchanged, and he started casual conversations every once in a while. It never went farther than how your days were or asking the other’s opinion on something.

Too bad you had different planning periods, you wanted to at least see how deep your conversations could get as friendly co-workers.

It took everything within Asiya’s being to wait until lunch and not to force answers out of you, but she managed. You could feel the death stare she was giving you as soon as she walked into the cafeteria with her class.

Even though this setting wasn’t ideal, when you sat down, you knew it would be time to fess up. She sat beside you, both of your classes eating at the same tables in front of you, and demanded, “Spill.”

You smiled at her impatient attitude, although slightly scared. After turning to her, you paused to prepare yourself. “Alright, so, Gojo knows me.”

She looked at you like you were crazy, raising a brow, “I also know you? That’s not context, dummy.”

“Let me finish,” you said in an annoyed tone, adding a bit to your previous sentence, “Gojo… used to know me.”

She paused, trying to figure out what you meant. “Okay? You’re not making any sense, Ronan.”

You sighed, getting quiet so no one else would hear, since you were about to spill some important information.

Asiya has been your friend ever since you got a job here. She may not have been the one to show you the ropes, but when you were too afraid to ask your superior for help, she would fill in. She had only been working here a year longer, so this made you both pretty close co-workers. She knew things about you that you probably shouldn’t have discussed in the workplace, but she became a safe person for you, and you to her as well.

“We were high school best friends, but he doesn’t recognize me.” You wondered if she got the full idea, but just in case, you completed the explanation, “Y’know, because I transitioned in college.”

Her eyes got wide, finally getting the hint. “Ohhh,” she dragged, getting closer to you, “Even if you did, shouldn’t he still see the similarities? I mean, you guys were best friends after all.” She said the last part bitterly, but she wanted you to think about what she just said.

“I dunno, it’s been like, six or seven years,” you shrugged, thinking about how long ago that was, “Plus, I’ve gotten face masculinization surgery and sometimes facial hair since then.”

Asiya sighed before backing up to her original space beside you, “I guess, but you still didn’t have to ditch me.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, I didn’t have any gossip anyway.”

“Oh, you couldn’t have told me this?”

“Please, we still wouldn’t have had much to talk about.”

“I could’ve had something to tell you.”

“Did you?”

“No.”

“Okay then.”

—

The next few weeks that followed didn’t hold much besides more surface-level conversations with Gojo and very antsy kids waiting for the next few days to pass. They became very rowdy, which was expected, but it gave you quite the headache. You took your last weekend to relax and calm your nerves, also sadly putting in the last of your semester grades.

“Mr. Rivers!” you heard Gojo yell from a bit away. He pointed his finger-guns at you in the air, quickly returning to guiding excited seniors in the bus you were about to board. You hadn’t seen him all morning. “Ready for the worst bus ride of your life?”

He had laughed after he said that, and you only shook your head, already feeling how tired you’d be tonight. “Nope, not even close.”

You’d both gotten closer since the field trip meeting, but still not enough to replace your previous friendship. Relaxing around him was easy, you knew him, his experiences, and his childhood. Maybe you relaxed around him too much at times, especially when you looked at him kind of crazy when he asked what college you got your degree at, or when he asked if you had a girlfriend or wife.

When you were younger, you always talked about getting into this prestigious college called Ravenwood University, and right before you both lost contact, you told him you actually got in. You didn’t lie to him about that to cover yourself, maybe there was a chance he’d connect the dots himself.

Since it was pretty common for teens to start exploring their sexualities in high school, it took you a second to realize he didn’t know you were gay or queer at all. Either that or you thought it was weird he didn’t know by your outfit choice.

When all the students were seated, you stood in front of them to announce the rules. Thankfully, you came off very serious due to how much you weren’t looking forward to this, and everyone listened with a few questions and whispers here and there.

The driver then started up the bus, earning smiles and louder talking from the seniors. You had to warn them to keep quiet and stay in their seats a few times, but other than that, the ride was pretty peaceful.

You and Gojo got the two front seats, occasionally talking about your weekend and today’s plans.

—

Nothing would stop you from getting to your room. The kids were so unbearably loud, sneaky, and annoying. You knew seniors at an interactive science museum would be rough, but not this rough.

Maybe traveling to California for a huge trip was too exciting, but you had no hand in this, it was your superiors.

Even though you were speed walking, Gojo trailed behind you. When you slammed the door open and laid across your bed, he chuckled, knowing what you had been through.

Gojo stood slightly off to the side from you. “You’re gonna lose your voice by the end of this trip.” You closed your eyes, picturing the brutal days to come. “I’ll help out a bit more this week, don’t worry.”

You were thankful he decided to help you keep the kids in line, there was no way you could exert yourself this much everyday and still be alive by the end of the week.

Once all the items brought by the two of you were settled, he felt like talking. “What do you normally do in your free time?” He had sat on his bed, the one closest to the door and bathroom in the hotel room. “Don’t tell me you’re secretly boring too.”

You were lying face up, staring at the ceiling with your hands on your stomach. Not your usual sleeping position, but as long as you were resting, you’d be fine. “Surprisingly, no. I actually write, read, and listen to music.”

“Okay then, basic bitch stuff, gotcha.” He laughed, knowing you’d respond to that. He found it even more funny when you sat up quickly, acting offended.

“That’s rude!” you exclaimed, looking at him and then sitting up on the edge of your bed like him. You challenged, “What do you do? Are you even that interesting yourself?”

He smirked, simply waving you off as he got up and circled his bed. You heard rustling, he must’ve been digging through a bag of his. He told you to wait multiple times before he finally fished out what he was looking for from his bag. “I read too, but I also do something much cooler.”

He walked over to you with the object behind his back, only showing it to you once he stood in front of you. “I also make very cool figures.” He dramatically presented it to you, slightly crouching as he did so. “I present to you, Koromon!”

You sat for a second, looking at the small, pink figure in his hand. You blinked a few times before taking it out of his hand. “You… still do this?” You smiled, examining the figure, looking at how nice it was made. Once you realized your phrasing though, you immediately paused and said something different to change your meaning, “I mean, as a… what? Twenty-six year old man, you make and paint Digimon figures?”

You still remembered his interest in Digimon from high school, but the information didn’t surface until he showed you his little work. It was really nice to you that he still made stuff like that, and apparently had improved a ton. His last work you saw many years ago, although blurry in your mind, wasn’t nearly as precise.

You got his age wrong on purpose, since you slipped up too many times already. He huffed and quickly but carefully plucked it out of your hands, “Um, yes? I can’t help you can’t recognize greatness when it’s right under your nose.”

He walked away, childishly patting the figure and put it away with a pout. You only shook your head. “I guess. Do you just carry that around to show anyone you come across?”

“No, even though I should.” He smiled, pulling out another one, but not getting up to show you. He merely held it higher than his bed in his hand, making you look at it from across the room. “This is my current project. I was going to work on it this week, but I can’t trust your talent blind ass to not destroy it.”

Shaking your head again, you let out a breath, crossing your arms. “I’m not gonna mess up your MetalGreymon figure. Also, you have such a bad mouth after school hours.”

He looked at you with a surprised expression, his raised hand falling to rest in his lap. “You know Digimon?” His face returned to a casual look. “I guess you aren’t as boring as I thought.” He shook his head at your last comment, getting back up and sitting back on his bed, “Not like you care about language, I got a feeling you’re just as bad.”

You rolled your eyes, settling into your bed to sleep, “You wouldn’t even know, this is the only time we’ve hung out after hours. But, I used to play a bit with a friend when I was younger, it was such a long time ago though, I don’t remember much about the actual game.”

“Cool, I guess,” he dismissed, pulling out his phone, seeing that you were about to sleep. “I’ll see if I can get you back into it this week.”

You only hummed as agreement, settling under your blankets, and rolling over to turn off the only lit up lamp in the room. You settled in a comfy position and drifted off, glad that you wouldn’t be so tired anymore. Today, at least.

This week will be fun. Your conversation with Gojo opened up some possibilities, and you were really looking forward to them.

—

When you woke up for day two of the unbearable field trip, your alarm set for 5:00 am was ringing. You immediately turned it off, forcing yourself out of your very comfortable bed. Gojo apparently was thinking the same thing as you, as your angry classical music clashed with his electronic ringtone.

It wasn’t the nicest mix to wake up to, you both realized, and both started trying to wake yourselves up. Well, you did, at least. Gojo had sat up, but wrapped himself in the surprisingly cozy comforter, his head barely sticking out. He was dozing off, almost falling off his bed before he shifted backwards to the center of it.

You had stood up, knowing this was the more painful way of getting yourself up, but effective. Yawning, you closed your eyes for two seconds before opening them, since you unconsciously leaned over. You shivered at the cold temperature of the room, then shook your head to shuffle through the items in your bag.

When your hand landed on your T gel, you felt yourself rise out of your sleepy state. Shit, you never planned what to do in this situation. You nervously thought to yourself before grabbing the T you needed and your clothes for today. Thank goodness you already planned your outfits.

Walking into the bathroom, you locked it behind you, panicking a little. You closed your eyes and thought really hard for a couple seconds, coming up blank. You sighed heavily, opening them again, to resort to walking around without a shirt for a while. That was, until you spotted a hair dryer on the shelves.

You felt really relieved, thinking this would work out, for at least a week. You applied the amount you needed, and after about ten minutes, you carefully dried it. It mostly worked, so once you felt it was dry enough, you got dressed and continued your routine.

You spent a lot of time in the bathroom. You had to apply your gel, dry it, use the bathroom, get dressed, put on deodorant and maybe some perfume, brush your teeth, and style your hair. It depended on where you were going if you put on makeup or not, and you decided this week was not it. Who would you even impress with that anyway? A museum employee? Of course not.

When you got out at about 5:50, Gojo had fallen back asleep. When you saw him, your mouth opened in surprise, and you slowly blinked a few times. He was gonna miss his whole routine if he needed two hours to get ready.

Slowly walking over to him, you saw his face. Buried in the huge cover, he had leaned so far off to one side that he fell over. A small smile rose to your face when you caught yourself, remembering you needed to wake him up.

“Mr. Gojo,” you whispered, not making any difference. You mentally slapped yourself, of course a whisper wasn’t enough, so you raised your voice to your normal speaking level. “Mr. Gojo, you fell back asleep.”

He wasn’t moving, he didn’t even stir. How hard of a sleeper was he? You didn’t remember. Quickly getting annoyed, you grumbled, raising your voice to a quieter yell. “Gojo. Get up, dammit.”

You could see his eyes slightly squeeze, he struggled to open them even after raising his eyebrows. When he finally did, he let his eyes adjust before responding. “Hi? What are you waking me up for..?”

You were chilled out after he opened his eyes, looking down at him with no particular expression. “Your alarm went off like an hour ago. You’re gonna have to rush getting ready if you need those two hours.”

“Huh?” He looked confused. You guessed he was having trouble processing the situation in his tired state.

Deciding to go ahead and get this over with, you turned away to your nightstand, fastening your watch and usual rings. “It’s almost six, I hope you can finish your routine in time for seven forty.”

He breathed in deeply, rubbing his face and sitting up, looking like he was still in a daze. “Uh, yeah. I can. I don’t really need to be up until six thirty, I don’t even spend all that time getting ready.”

You just stood there for a couple of seconds, staring at your bag in your hands, realizing your mistake. Of course. He just wanted to make sure he was up, maybe wanting the illusion of extra sleep. You could’ve sworn he had a whole self-care routine, though.

“Oh, right. Sorry, I just didn’t want you to be late,” you said in embarrassment, placing your hand on your forehead.

He simply laughed. “I get it, those kids gave you so much PTSD that you want to make sure I’m with you.”

You were glad he wasn’t aggravated, so you laughed it off, watching him surprisingly get out of bed. “What are you doing? Not gonna get those last forty minutes of sleep?”

“Nah,” he stretched, pulling the blanket with him off the bed as he searched for clothes, “I won’t worry you, sweetie.”

You raised your eyebrow with an amused smile as you turned around to face him, seeing him on the other side of his bed, “You must be some kind of tired, calling me sweetie.”

“Maybe~” He smiled, tucking some of his clothes under his arm, sadly getting out from under the blanket as he walked into the bathroom.

Feeling bad, you decided to make him a cup of tea, extra sweet, just how he liked it. Even though you haven’t made him tea in years, your brain suddenly recalled how much sugar he put in it. You didn’t care if he thought it was weird you knew how to make his tea, he always ate really sweet stuff in front of you anyway.

—

Upon arriving at the hotel lobby where the students were told to gather, you waited until exactly eight o’clock to begin announcing the schedule.

“Alright, since everyone should be here, I’m going to fill all of you in on the activities for this week.” You sighed, knowing you were about to talk a lot. You told them they would finish the museum today, visit a national park tomorrow, go to an amusement park Thursday, and bus back home Friday.

This school really must love their seniors, because when you were in high school, your senior trip was a three day trip to Hawaii. It was really fun though, so you couldn’t complain.

After what seemed like an entire lecture, you finished up, “This may be a fun trip, but if you don’t follow the rules, there will be some serious trouble.” The only thing left to do was to snap and point out the door, and all the kids rushed outside.

You got a notification during your lecture that the bus driver had arrived, so they were loading by themselves.

As Gojo passed you to also head outside, he patted your shoulder, saying a simple, “great job” with a smile. This made you feel better, so you walked out right behind him.

Getting everyone settled was pretty easy compared to yesterday, and you were thankful. Today, you listened to music instead of talking, but Gojo seemed okay with that.

During the day, Gojo kept his word. He actually had to raise his voice one time. He had your back, and you decided that you were both a pretty good pair, but you already knew that.

—

It was Thursday, the last day of planned fun. But, it would be the most hectic. The school rented out a small amusement park for a day, and all the students were very excited.

The trip here was the worst yet, contrasting heavily to the decently calm Tuesday. You let it go, already tired and understanding. You would’ve been much worse with your high school friend group.

On your arrival, you and Gojo made a team effort to get the entirety of class A, your assigned group, off the bus and checked in. They were given wristbands that were color-coded to their class. Chaperones were instructed to walk the park while students rode attractions and had fun, to keep an eye on their behavior.

Gojo tagged along with you while doing the rounds, since he didn’t really like the other chaperones. He kept the conversation casual, liking the nice walk. “What’s your favorite thing to do at amusement parks? I’m a teacup guy myself.”

You laughed to yourself, knowing what he’d do if he got in one of those. Anyone that dared to get in with him would get slung off. “I’m a fan of the chair swing.”

“Nice.” He smiled. “A man of culture, I see?”

You both went into a good amount of detail about the best parks and even zoos you had visited, until a student with a red wristband walked up. He was a rough one, you knew from experience.

“Hey, Mr. Rivers, Mr. Gojo!” He called, flagging you both to walk to him.

Gojo humored him, responding with a, “what is it?” before curiously walking over, until the kid stopped in front of us.

“Ride the roller coaster of doom! Prove you’re worthy teachers!”

You knew this was really childish for a senior, so you were skeptical. Then a memory flashed back to you; you told them at the beginning of the year you were afraid of heights. The boy saw the look on your face, grinning evilly, so you denied him, “We really can’t. We’re teachers, we have to—” or so you thought.

“C’mon now, Mr. Rivers,” Gojo teased, “you aren’t scared, are you?” He had a stupid grin on his face, practically identical to the one in high school he used to challenge you with.

When you were younger, you weren’t afraid of heights. It only really kicked in as you got older, after you almost fell off a railing when you were drunk at a bar. You weren’t a really heavy drinker, but celebrating your top surgery felt too good.

“No,” you lied, trying to appear confident, “we just have a responsi—”

“Mhm, let’s go!” Gojo pulled you by the wrist, and you hopped on a roller coaster with a bunch of students in it. You and Gojo got the front seats, others either too scared to sit there or wanting to hear you scream to the top of your lungs.

Neither of you got the chance to read the warnings, so just to be safe, you buckled yourself tightly and gripped the metal bar in front of you to keep your arms from flying up.

The ride soon started off, and Gojo looked at you, chuckling after seeing how white your knuckles were on the railing. You really should’ve read those warnings, because there were so many things that made you scream, you were sure you’d lost your voice. Not only were there slow, vertical climbs, but insanely high drops, anxiety-inducing tunnels, and nauseating loops.

Gojo got off laughing so hard he was almost crying, trying to help you get off with wide eyes and a trembling frame. “Did you hear how loud you screamed after that one drop? It wasn’t even that bad!”

“Well,” you said a bit loudly, “I would’ve if my ears didn’t endure winds of like a thousand miles per hour.”

“You’re so dramatic,” he sighed, smiling. “I’ll buy you something to eat and drink for your troubles,” he said sarcastically.

The both of you walked around until finding a concession stand, sitting down and ordering lunch. “What do you want, scaredy cat?” he asked amusedly, secretly monitoring you to check if you were actually okay every once in a while.

You shot him a look, then dropped it to answer him. “Lose the nickname. I want a pretzel and an Icee.”

He smirked, satisfied that he got to you. “Of course, trembling tree.”

“Okay, now that just sounds stupid.”

“That’s what makes it funny.”

—

You don’t think you’ve ever come in here without flopping on your bed to recover for a minute, burying your face in your abnormally hard hotel room pillows. Gojo always seemed to be fine, sighing every now and then to break the silence.

After finishing your nightly routines, you didn’t really want to do anything, so you turned on the TV to passively watch. You were pretty tired, you could feel your eyes closing on you, but you didn’t want to just lay there for hours.

Gojo was laying on his bed, above his blankets with one leg up, scrolling through his phone like he did every night before bed. One thing he didn’t normally try to do was start a conversation while you were laying down, but he did. “I know you’re tired from this week, but what did you think of the field trip?”

Not moving except for your eyes slowly closing, you answered. “I could tell the seniors liked it, that’s all that really matters.”

He slightly looked over to you without turning his head, his vision settling on the left corner of your bed. “Would you have liked it for a senior trip? I mean, I don’t think many schools go to three different places in a week for a group of kids’ morale.”

Your eyes were completely shut, and you rolled to your stomach to get comfortable. You could feel how close you were to the edge of sleep. “Maybe. I uh—” you yawned, “—I probably would’ve caused a lot more trouble than we did in Hawaii.”

Gojo’s eyebrows knitted together, taking a second to process what you said. But, before he could speak, you continued. “I mean, the most we did was get on those huge rocks on the beach and throw stuff at people in the water.”

There was no mistaking what he heard, so he had to take his only opportunity to ask, “Wait, what high school did you go to?”

He was undoubtedly disappointed to look over and see you fast asleep, lightly snoring before you answered his question. He had propped himself up on his arms to look at you, as if to detect a lie on your face. Laying back down, he wondered how this was possible. What questions he could’ve asked you to reveal this sooner. Why you didn’t tell him.

Instead of staring up at the ceiling in defeat, he thought up a little idea. A mischievous plan, if you will. He was definitely going to have fun with this.

—

The next morning, it was time to pack. Call time wasn’t until after lunch, so the students could get ready and hang out in the lobby, so you didn’t wake up until eight. Since you delivered all the announcements, other chaperone pairs were in charge of monitoring the students.

You slept really hard, still feeling pretty drowsy after waking up. Prying yourself away from your pillow, you sat up, rubbing your puffy eyes.

Gojo had already woken up, unlike usual. He was walking around the room, collecting his things and bringing them to his bed. When he turned around to pack a few things in his bag, he saw that you woke up. “Morning, sleepy head. You definitely slept well.” You could hear a laugh in his voice, watching him draw a line on his cheek, gesturing for you to look.

Keeping up eye contact with a confused look, you mirrored his action, touching your cheek. You immediately got embarrassed, feeling the drool. You went into a mini-panic, rubbing it off of your face quickly. He just chuckled, looking down to continue putting his things away.

“You actually woke up before your alarm. You can go back to sleep, if you want,” he said casually. He zipped up his bag, tossing it to the side of the bed. “I’m heading down to the lobby, want something to eat?”

You smiled thoughtfully, waving your hand dismissively. “No, I’m not really a breakfast guy. If you see coffee though, could you grab me some?”

Nodding, he grabbed the keycard to your room and walked to the door, holding the handle. “You want it like usual?”

“Mhm,” you answered simply, taking your phone off of your nightstand to check the time. “Thanks, I’ll pay you back.”

“No need,” he said cheekily, making him sound suspicious. You couldn’t question him before he shut the door behind him, making his way downstairs.

After a second, your eyebrows knitted in confusion. Did he even know what the usual was? Had you been that obvious about it, making it or drinking it in front of him before? You couldn’t remember, deciding not to waste your energy. How important was a cup of coffee?

You went ahead and woke up anyway, seeing that it was seven thirty, half an hour before your alarm was set to go off. You forgot to plan an outfit last night, so you went with a comfy sweater that was slightly oversized and some nicely fitting black pants, contrasting with Gojo’s usual business casual look.

Right as you were coming out of the bathroom, Gojo came back, the doors almost hitting. You shook your head and sighed, taking your coffee out of his hand when he offered it. You really needed it, after safely closing the doors and sitting down on your bed again.

Gojo did the same, being completely ready to go, unlike you. Once he took a long sip from his coffee, he said, “That reminds me of that time we stole our teacher’s lesson plans. The doors hit so hard when the principal came out of her office and the teacher tried to chase us down at the same time.”

Hearing his slight laugh made you want to laugh too, you remembered that. “Yeah, we got suspend—”

Wait.

The word died on your tongue as your eyes widened. He just mentioned a memory. He knew.

You didn’t know what to say or do, not being able to break eye contact with him. He didn’t break it either until he smirked. “You should really keep from exhausting yourself during the day,” he had looked at his coffee, then returned your gaze, “You tend to get more… relaxed, when you’re tired.”

All you could do was look down at your coffee. “I— uh, slipped up, huh?

“You may have mentioned our senior trip.” You couldn’t help but notice his tone stayed light, not seeming to be aggravated. Despite that, you couldn’t help but feel ashamed that you didn’t tell him yourself, not directly anyway.

“I’m sorry, I just—”

“Don’t be sorry, I’m sure there’s more to this than I know about.” He gestured at you with his hands, most likely referring to your transition. “I do have a question, though.”

You didn’t feel much relief, even after he told you that. You couldn’t help but think he’d ask something like, “when did you decide to be trans?” or something. You knew better, but it still nagged at your mind.

He continued, placing his coffee down on his nightstand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

You knew the only excuse you had wouldn’t make sense to him, and right now, it didn’t make much sense to you either. Why did you wait so long? “I… guess I was waiting for the right time to say something.”

He had the look on his face you expected, but much milder. It was only slight confusion, and he refrained from making this feel like an interrogation as he raised a singular brow. “When wasn’t the right time? I mean, I would’ve been happy if I got the news my first week.”

That’s when it hit you. You really had been keeping this under wraps for a long time. This was his nineteenth week of teaching here, since the second nine-weeks had already passed. It really made you regret being so secretive, you wouldn’t have liked to be in his position.

When he realized you were overthinking instead of replying, he cleared his throat and continued. “You don’t have to feel bad. I’m just glad I know now.” He smiled, not really wanting to pry until you were ready. He stood up, walked over, and looked at you through his dark sunglasses. He held a hand out, wanting you to take it. “Either way, it’s time for a proper friend reunion, eh?”

Your eyes landed on his hand, then traveled up his arm, finally resting on his eyes. You smiled. “Yeah.”

The small laugh you heard when he pulled you up and into his arms for a hug melted you. You missed him. You missed this. You missed having him know you like this.

You definitely noticed how hugging him felt wildly different than it did before. In high school, you appreciated the hugs, but you felt uncomfortable for so much of the time, you couldn’t enjoy them. You were so self-conscious when you felt your body all at once, and hated that you didn’t know why.

Now, you could focus on the emotion in the hug, how it made you feel, and nothing else. A welcome change, you also felt a lot more physically close to him during the hug, for obvious reasons.

After a while, he smiled and looked up to the ceiling, swaying you from side to side as you held on to him.

“Oh my god,” he sighed, relieved. “I can’t wait to catch up. I knew not all people lost their closest friends after high school.” When he let go, you could feel how the atmosphere of the room had shifted. A smile fought its way to your face, not thinking about anything else but how great this was.

“Me either. I seriously missed you.”

“Oh yeah? Not as much as me.”

You thought it was pretty funny how you were talking to each other, it wasn’t really a way people would expect old friends that were guys to talk to each other, but that was a given.

He knew you as the person you were back in high school, so this was a big change for him. You used to be this shy, self-deprecating and uncomfortable girl. He was very glad to see you so much happier now, being your true self, and realizing the guy he’s been talking to for the past five weeks, a guy that actually looks well taken care of, is the best friend he’s had this whole time.

Only laughing in response, you tore your eyes away from him to keep the exchange from becoming awkward. He backed up a little, seemingly for the same reason as yourself. That’s when he saw another opening to suggest getting to know each other again. “Are you free next weekend? I know you got your ass kicked this week, so maybe it would be better then.”

You thought for a second, not remembering scheduling anything on your calendar. “I believe so. I can’t remember the last time I actually put something on my personal calendar, and I know we don’t have anything on the work schedule.”

“So, that’s a yes?” The hopeful notes in his voice made you smile, and you didn’t want to deny him.

“Yeah, it is. Consider it planned.” You laughed a little after that, noticing his eyes looked much more detailed for some reason.

—

The time was eleven thirty, the call time to be in the lobby and ready to go. It wasn’t time to leave just yet, since the chaperones were instructed to feed the students at the hotel right before leaving.

Once it was twelve fifteen, you got everyone’s attention with another announcement and finally got all the seniors loaded onto the bus. This ride would be much more fun than the others, the kids would be sad to leave and the quietest they’ve been all week, and you and Gojo could have some new, deeper conversations.

Ten minutes into the ride, Gojo was very much acting like the teen you remembered from high school. He was complaining about how bored he was, not having anything to do, and was dead-set on messing with you until you caved.

You assumed he started doing this again because he knew he could get away with it, but you weren’t complaining. It just made you happier, knowing that he felt he could be his genuine self with you again.

“Mr. Rivers. Rivers. Ri. Vers. Hello~” he whispered, trying to get your attention. The seniors were thankfully separated from the teachers by one seat, keeping them from talking to you, for the most part.

“Yes, Mr. Gojo? Are you in dire need of assistance?” you smiled, scrolling through your phone, specifically Pinterest.

He perked up after getting a response, speaking quickly, “Yes, actually. I’m bored.”

“And I’m supposed to help you with this, how?” you teased, acting neutral about the situation.

“I don’t know,” he pouted, leaning back in his seat. “We could play a game, talk, just anything but sit here.”

You sighed in mock annoyance, turning to the side to face him. “Okay then, poor thing.” You rolled your eyes with a smile, seeing him slide his glasses down to the bridge of his nose to look back at you. “You wanna play this game on my phone?”

His light smile dramatically dropped. “Not like that! You have to participate too!” he grumbled, putting one leg on his seat to prop his head up.

“Okay, okay. Fine, we’ll play word association or twenty questions.” You mirrored his movement, but kept your head up instead. “You can have your pick.”

He playfully rubbed his hands together, a cute look settling on his features. “I’ll have you know I’m still a master at twenty questions.”

Giving him a questioning brow, the corners of your mouth quirked up. “I don’t think guessing every single aspect of yourself before moving on to anything else is master material.” You laughed towards the end of your sentence, knowing how he is.

“Whatever. You’re just mad that I’m better at this than you,” he challenged, his signature smirk on his face.

“Anything your pretty little head wants to believe.” You smirked, relaxing in your seat, your back pressed against the shaking bus window.

“Aww, you think I’m pretty~?” he teased, just wanting to get under your skin.

Shaking your head, you sighed, “Next question. I have something picked out, so start.”

Smiling, he thought for a second. He knew how you were, so even if he would prove you right by doing this, he was gonna win. “It’s me, isn’t it?” He smirked with a raised brow, his index and thumb on his chin from his mock thinking.

You playfully rolled your eyes, crossing your arms. “I don’t want to play this anymore.” He laughed at that, just knowing he guessed right. You mumbled under your breath, but loud enough he could hear, “Asshole.”

His face displayed a smug grin and his inflated ego. “Better watch that mouth of yours, Rivers.”

This banter continued until the end of the bus ride. It was so great to talk with him like this, although a bit odd since it had been so long.

Maybe it wasn't so bad to be yourself to everyone around you.