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Before you’d met Gojo on your first day at Jujutsu Technical, unlike most, you’d never heard of him. You didn’t come from a family of sorcerers, you’d been scouted by a sorcerer you’d met on the street by chance, when rather than looking at him oddly, you’d followed the movements of the curse he’d been attempting to exorcise. Things all snowballed from there.
It’d been easy to tell that Gojo was used to people knowing him, having heard of him or clawing for him to acknowledge them if only to get a step closer to the greatness they were all sure he’d achieve.
You, Ieri and Geto had never heard of him, and it was a serious change of pace for him, all of you could tell. You’d been in a close trio with Geto and Ieri from the first moment, where Gojo for the first time in his life had to earn his way into approval, since his initial arrogance and attitude had made the three of you not want to associate with him. Eventually though, you’d given in, and let him spend time with the three of you.
From there you were inseparable. The four of you always found together, arm in arm and hand in hand. You couldn’t imagine your life without them, they were your everything, all of them. Laughing with Gojo, studying with Geto, hiding from the world with Ieri. Soon, they were Satoru, Suguru and Shoko. People who you trusted not just with your life, but with every part of you. Your fears, your insecurities, the things that kept you up at night, and in return they shared their own. Not always out loud, sometimes their actions spoke far louder than their words ever could.
The days where Suguru just threw his hair up without brushing it because he was drained, the days where Satoru was quieter than you thought he was capable of, the days where Shoko went through lollipops like she’d die the moment something wasn’t in her mouth. You all had those days, the ones where the weight on your shoulders felt its heaviest, and that’s when the others were there to reach and pull you from it.
Come the events of the star plasma vessel incident, you were all walking fine lines, impacted by the events in a way that was palpable in every room, yet nobody dared open their mouths. It was skirted around.
Satoru had died. Suguru was brutally reminded that they were not invincible. You faced against the darkest parts of the sorcerer community, and almost didn’t make it home. Shoko almost lost all three of you.
The scars weren’t visible, but they were felt all the same, across your hearts mirroring each others. You crawled into Satoru’s bed when he got back to school late from missions, spent breaks curled into Suguru’s side while Satoru practiced his RCT with Shoko, played with Shoko’s fingers beneath the desk during classes. Shoko took to keeping a brush with her for when Suguru couldn’t take care of himself, Suguru kept sweets in his pocket for Satoru’s new addiction, Satoru’s hand always found yours when it began to tremble as if he had a sixth sense for it, and you brought water and snacks to Shoko when she worked too hard trying to catch up to you all. Between the four of you, a system formed. Something that helped all of you survive.
When Suguru arrived at the village where he met Nanako and Mimiko, he didn’t slaughter them. He couldn’t, because when he lifted his hand he heard your voices, your faces. The way you had sewn up the rip in his jacket from the last mission, the way Satoru had shared his last mochi (despite never sharing usually) a few weeks ago because Suguru had just swallowed a particularly disgusting curse, the way Shoko was always the one waiting by the school gates for him to arrive, just in case he was injured.
He had so much he had to come home to.
His hand lowered, and instead dipped into his pocket for his phone.
The school took custody of the girls, they’d done it before and likely would need to do it in future, because some parents just weren’t equipped to care for sorcerer children. The two sweet girls clung to Suguru like letting go would kill them, and over time they’d opened up to the rest of you too.
Satoru took to strength training by lifting a girl with each arm, Suguru learned how to properly tie braids so their hair would be neat, Shoko taught them her signature sass, and you were there at night to curl around them in bed when the nightmares struck. They folded into your family seamlessly, like they’d always been there. Their laughter could be heard across campus for everyone to hear, and it lightened the atmosphere more than you could say.
It helped when Haibara died, their lightness and joy helping to brighten an otherwise suffocating pressure. Despite everything, how you’d all managed to drag yourself back from the star plasma vessel incident, the cracks never entirely filled. Haibara was killed on a mission when a curse was misgraded, and he and Nanami weren’t prepared to tackle it.
When Nanami lashed out, nobody could truly blame him. Haibara had been his the way you, Shoko, Satoru and Suguru all belonged to each other. So you opened your arms to him too, because you knew he wouldn’t survive if you didn’t.
Those days where he refused to leave his room turned into breakfast in bed from his favourite bakery; the classrooms that felt too empty with only him and his sensei in the room were filled with Nanako and Mimiko giggling and doodling, trying to stay quiet; on evenings when the weight of the world landed on his shoulders, a crushing pressure, Satoru would drag him out into the rain to feel it on his skin and remind him he was alive; when he needed that time alone, you were the one in the backseat with him in the car headed to the cemetery; injuries that tried to be ignored so he could just keep working, keep pushing on, were treated by Shoko with arms wrapped around him from behind.
All of you filled the gaps where someone needed to stand, propped him up, and welcomed him into your group with warm arms.
Days slowly became a new normal. Graduation loomed over you all, but you knew that you likely wouldn’t go far. Shoko would head to medical school but she was staying in Tokyo for that, Satoru would likely become the head of his clan but he never intended to return to Kyoto, Suguru wanted to stay close to Nanako and Mimiko and you were happy wherever they were. So when Satoru offered to just buy a place for the four of you to live, it was an easy enough decision. A place that wasn’t the school grounds, somewhere that could be a safe haven not just for the four of you, but also all the people who’d become important to you, those that you’d brought into your little circle and made your own. Somewhere without the memories of what you’d lost.
It was a cool evening when you walked into the grounds around the school, past Tengen’s barrier, and up to a grassy lookout point. Trees surrounded you behind, but up front, there was a view of the sky, and the stars above. Less clear than when you’d been a child, but sure enough still stubbornly twinkling in the sky.
“They remind me of us. Don’t you agree?” Suguru asked as he approached from behind you, and lowered himself to sit beside you. “Think so?” You’d replied, not even looking up before you leaned into him, head resting on his shoulder. “Sure. Strong, mysterious to most, and enduring.” You didn’t reply to that because you didn’t need to - he had a point, you supposed. The silence, however, was brief. It never lasted long for you four.
“Gojo couldn’t be mysterious if he tried.” Kento remarked, and when he sat, you realised that Shoko had come along with him. Kento sat on your right side while Suguru sat on your left, and Shoko sat herself in front of you, laying down to rest her head in Kento’s lap, his hands finding her hair as if on instinct. “And he has tried.” She remarked with an amused quirk to her lip, the stick of her lollipop shifting as it moved in her mouth.
Satoru himself was only a minute behind, and he sat himself behind you and Suguru, his head resting on top of yours, an arm around your shoulder, and the other around Suguru’s. “On a date without me?” He teased, and you all just laughed.
Date was a loaded word. Despite everything, how interwoven your lives were, how connected your souls seemed to be, nobody had ever dared put a word to it all. What you’d become was about survival more about feelings, and then once you were all stable, giving anything a name felt dangerous. Like it risked the very stability of your well-being, lest you lose what you’d created together.
Nobody pointed that out though, not on a night this peaceful.
“Have we figured out room assignments for the new place?” You asked when nobody spoke for several minutes after Gojo’s question. “I still think we should just all pile in together in the dining room and turn one of the bedrooms into the dining room, other rooms can be guest rooms for the girls and any of our friends and family.” Shoko suggested, adjusting to lay on her side, head still rested on Kento’s thigh. “It’s not a bad idea,” Suguru agreed, “we’ve all shared beds before anyway.” “And we sleep better that way.” You added.
“So when do I finally get a kiss?” Satoru asked with a smirk, rounding the group to sit in front of everyone with legs crossed. He closed his eyes and leaned in closer with lips pursed, struggling not to laugh.
It took everyone by surprise when you indulged your long time friend, and leaned in to kiss him, Satoru most of all. Blue eyes shot open to process what was happening, but then in the very next moment his hands were on you, and he was returning the kiss you’d gifted.
“Better?” You asked him when the two of you parted after a minute or two, and he just nodded, shock turning into a grin like you’d not seen since he’d finally worked out how to use blue. “Might need another, just to be sure.” He replied playfully, and then he closed the gap again, claiming another kiss before you could reply.
When you sat back, Suguru pulled you into his lap instead of just letting you sit beside him, and Satoru settled himself in Kento and Shoko’s space, watching as Suguru’s lips found your neck. “And when were you planning on sharing that with the rest of us?” He asked, hands settled comfortably on your stomach as your head fell back to rest on his shoulder, giving him space to keep kissing your skin. “This feels like sharing to me.” You replied, and it only made Suguru laugh. “I suppose it does.”
You couldn’t remember quite clearly what happened from there, only that you kissed your friends that night more than you’d thought you’d ever be kissed. The five of you moving together, hands on clothes and slipping beneath to find skin, lips on lips and necks and hands and wherever else you could reach. No clothes were removed, aside from Satoru’s sunglasses so everyone could see him properly. It wasn’t about that. It was just about sealing what you’d always known was there, deep down. A bond deeper than could be put into words, that happened to feel a lot like romance.
When you tumbled into bed that night, it was after everyone had worked to drag extra mattresses into Suguru’s room, since it was in the middle of everyone’s, and you all fell in together. Arms and legs tangled together, heads on chests, and for once, just for a moment, nobody felt the weight of all their responsibilities. The only thing that mattered, was the five of you together.