Work Text:
“catch up!”
utahime staggers, barefoot, in the flowing grass. the sky, a rich, royal blue, opens up above her and shoko’s heads, kisses the surrounding peaks and caresses the horizon. the season is much too young for flowers to bloom, but they’ve already begun their journeys to meet the sun any way they can.
something is off, though. maybe it’s the horrible curl in utahime’s stomach as she watches shoko bounding further and further away, or maybe it’s the words that have just left her mouth. something about them tastes sour.
utahime doesn’t believe she meant it that way. still…
“what are you waiting for?” shoko prompts, voice faint with the distance. “nothing’s happened. i don’t have any field missions this week and satoru and suguru are both at their place. we have all of this time to spend together.”
utahime watches her close the gap ever so slightly, just a few strides away from taking her shaking palm. “i’m just distracted, is all.”
“what for?”
that had been a half-truth. her focus has been on shoko from the moment they met to now, exploring this open field with nothing between them but green and blue and white. she isn’t distracted, not wholly. if she is, it’s because there are two suns; one boring holes into her back and the other right in front of her.
“shoko.” she tries settling her anxiously rising heart rate, dusting off the lower half of her denim overalls. shoko’s hair flips with the breeze; she’s let her bob grow out and it's just a little longer than shoulder length now. the only thing that hasn’t changed is that patch of hair on the crown of her head that even the most diligent barber could never tame. it’s endearing, at the very least. “what should i do?”
shoko tilts her head, windswept hair tilting with it. a habit she’s no doubt picked up from suguru, her best friend in the whole world. “what should you–”
utahime’s eyes obsess over the soft ground as she trods her way across their gap. shoko greets her with a sigh.
“you’re always talking about them. gojo and geto.” her hand brushes shoko’s shoulder in a way that should feel much too intimate for either woman to be okay with. what have they done for you that i haven’t? am i doing something wrong? what should i do?
the trees begin to whisper among one another for a little while, bridging the silence between utahime and shoko. the hue of the sky is starting to get under her skin.
she swears shoko leans in just a little bit. “they’re my best friends in the whole world, as sappy as that is. and satoru… you know. he hasn’t been doing well. reminds me, he needs to come in for an ultrasound soon. check-up and whatnot.”
“i know,” utahime mutters. “you love them. and maybe this is selfish, but i want you to love me, too.”
she expects shoko to grimace, or laugh in her face, or push past her, drag herself back to her office in jujutsu tech’s infirmary. she expects to be left alone in this field with nothing but the blue in every direction, having confronted a goal that will always be out of reach.
every rung of the ladder feels as though it’s dislodged itself from the siderails. “no, i… forget that. gojo’s health is important right now. i’m being an asshole.”
“i do love you, utahime.”
what?
shoko places her hand atop utahime’s. “you mean a lot to me. i’m not the kind of person to just, you know, say that lightly. those two are always working and the higher-ups here like to send them out on missions every few seconds ‘cause they’re special-grade. worrying about them comes with the territory.”
utahime watches shoko’s ankle-length skirt flutter in the breeze. the grasses are swaying along with it.
“i’m sorry. i shouldn’t be so jealous of you. it’s lonely down in kyoto, you know.”
“satoru thinks so, too.” the smile that accompanies shoko’s comment is rather depressing. “i’m nearly always in my office, though; i don’t get sent out as much since i’m only grade one.”
“more reasons than that, i’d wager,” utahime grumbles. shoko chuckles, keeps her hand where it is.
utahime’s own face seems to contort by itself in response; the corners of her lips curl upward and her cheeks meet her lower eyelids. this sequence of subtle muscle movements seems to be the only confirmation shoko needs to silently press her lips to her scarred cheek. “i love you.”
“i love you, too.”
“let’s stay out here for a little longer, yeah? you’re not going back home until this year’s exchange event is over anyway.”
utahime nods. “i’ll stay as long as you want me to.”