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Lockscreen
They really didn’t mean to snoop- in fact, in Yuji’s humble opinion, it wasn’t even really snooping. Gojo had left his phone on the couch when he got up to go to the bathroom, and then the screen lit up with a notification. It wasn’t Yuji’s fault he happened to look over and notice something odd about his screensaver. It was a woman, which wasn’t exactly surprising to be fair, but the odd part was that Yuji was sure he’d seen her somewhere before.
One thing about Yuji, once something piqued his interest, he found it hard to let it go.
So when the screen went blank again, he reached out and tapped it awake before squinting down at the image upside down. It was a dark-haired woman in a black shirt and overalls caught mid-laugh, a pint of beer in one hand, her chin sitting in the other as she looked off to the side.
Nobara happened to be walking by when she all but sensed that Yuji was up to something stupid. And she loved watching Yuji do stupid things, so she made a beeline towards him, tiptoeing as she went.
“What are you doing?”
Yuji just about jumped out of his skin at the sound of her voice, springing away from the phone.
“You’re acting even weirder than usual, spill.”
Reaching out, Yuji grabbed Nobara’s arm, ignoring her indignant yelp as he hauled her off into the kitchen just as the bathroom door opened down the hall.
“Are you asking to get Straw-Dolled right now?” she hissed in a whisper, yanking her arm free.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just didn’t want Sensei to catch us!” he whispered back urgently.
“Catch us? Don’t drag me into this, whatever this is- what were you doing anyway?”
She watched Yuji peek around the corner into the living room where Gojo was settling back down on the couch, his phone in hand. Nobara peeked around Yuji so she could see as well, clinging to his sweater for balance. Gojo had swapped his blindfold for his glasses, dressed down in flannel pants and a t-shirt as he continued to text rapidly. He’d been preoccupied on his phone all evening, Nobara had even called him out for giggling to himself like a crazy person one time too many.
They were in Gojo’s posh penthouse apartment, spending the night before an early morning mission the next day. Gojo always told them it was because it was more convenient, something about teleporting them all at once from one place, but Nobara was pretty sure it was because he just liked the company. In fairness, the suite was far too big for any one person, which was saying something coming from her. Nobara’s family was fairly well off, they had a big house in a nice neighborhood in Tokyo, and it was no secret she liked shiny things. But this was old money rich, Gojo-clan money rich. It was always too easy to forget their Sensei was technically a clan-head.
He rarely acted like it.
“Yuji!”
“Sorry! I was just trying to figure out who the woman on Gojo-Sensei’s lockscreen was!”
“Wait, there’s a woman on Gojo-Sensei’s lockscreen?!”
Nobara’s eyes lit up with such glee, a grin stretching from one ear to the other. A flicker of alarm flashed over Yuji’s face, likely wondering if it’d been a good idea to share that particular detail with her.
Probably wasn’t.
“Shhh! Yes but- she looked kind of…familiar? But she was upside down so I couldn’t really tell!”
“Why didn’t you turn it around?”
“I didn’t want to move his phone in case he noticed!”
“Not the phone, idiot, your head!”
“What are you two doing?”
Yuji and Nobara straightened from their crouched positions at the sound of a third voice, turning to face Megumi as he stood before them with his hands tucked into the pockets of his uniform pants.
“Gojo-Sensei has a woman on his lockscreen,” Nobara whispered excitedly, Megumi only lifted a brow in response.
“And?”
“And? Don’t you want to know who it is?” asked Yuji, frowning at the other boy.
“Not really.”
“You are so boring, oh my god,” Nobara huffed, rolling her eyes.
“If you’re so curious, why don’t you just go ask him?”
Nobara wasn’t sure if Megumi meant it as a challenge, but that was how she received it. And she was notoriously bad at resisting a challenge. Her pride simply wouldn’t allow it. And judging by the barely perceptible curve to his lips as he held her gaze for a beat, Megumi had to know it too.
“Fine.”
“What? No!” Yuji fumbled for her arm as she turned on her heel, just barely grabbing onto her. “If you ask him, he’s going to ask you why you’re asking, and then you’re going to have to tell him I was snooping!”
“It’s not even that big of a deal, get off me!”
“Noba-“
“What are you kids whispering about over there without me?”
At the sound of Gojo’s voice, all three looked up to see their Sensei’s attention finally left his phone, an arm tossed casually over the back of the couch as he watched them in the doorway.
For a long moment nobody moved.
And then Megumi cleared his throat softly.
Pointedly.
Straightening her shoulders, Nobara stomped forward with all the confidence of a girl who always got what she wanted. Gojo tilted his chin up to meet her gaze when she came to a stop behind the couch. She opened her mouth to ask the question, but then something caught her eye.
Gojo was still holding his phone, his thumb on the screen keeping it awake. It was the home screen instead of the lockscreen, but sure enough, there was a dark-haired woman on there, eyes wide after clearly being caught off-guard during a nighttime routine if the clay mask, bunny eared headband and toothbrush sticking out between her lips was any indication. All she wore was an oversized t-shirt that looked suspiciously like one she’d seen on a certain white-haired sorcerer.
Classic Gojo to have that saved as his home screen.
But Yuji was right, the woman was familiar. And what was that, a scar-?
Wait.
“Why is Utahime-Sensei your home screen?”
Nobara hadn’t meant to blurt it out quite like that, but the realization had come on so suddenly she couldn’t hold it back. To her side, Yuji froze, eyes going comically wide as the pieces clicked for him too.
“And your lockscreen!” he chimed, and Nobara could all but see the numbers and equations floating around over his head as his brain worked in overdrive to try and sort it all out. And Megumi?
As stoic and unbothered as ever.
“Hmm?”
Three pairs of eyes turned back to Gojo at the sound, perhaps expecting surprise on the older man’s face. They were met with something akin to confusion instead.
“Well, I mean, she is my girlfriend, why wouldn’t she be?”
Yuji and Nobara stared in shock at the confession, both of them entirely caught off guard.
“Your girlfriend Sensei?! Really?!”
“But- But you guys are always arguing! I swear she threatens to kill you every time you see each other.”
“Yea, I can see how that’d be confusing for you sweet, innocent little things,” said Gojo with a laugh, peering over his glasses at them with a mischievous twinkle in his bright blue eyes, “lets just say some people…actually enjoy arguing for the sake of arguing.”
“God, is this like a sex thing?” asked Nobara blandly, and Yuji choked as Gojo’s laughter rang through the room. When Megumi’s only response was to sigh boredly and walk around the couch and drop onto it, Nobara narrowed her eyes at the back of his head.
“Oh my God, you knew!”
“He knew? You knew? Why didn’t you tell us?” Yuji’s pout had Megumi rolling his eyes.
“Honestly, I’m surprised you guys didn’t know.”
“Hey!” Nobara protested with a frown, “okay, I mean, in hindsight yea, it’s totally obvious, but I wasn’t really paying attention before! Besides, you know both of them better than Yuji or me, so obviously you picked up on it!”
“No, I meant that everybody knows. Not just me,” Megumi drawled, and again, his lips quirked tauntingly as he looked over his shoulder at her. Her fingers twitched for her hammer, how annoying.
“Ugh, whatever. Good for you, Gojo-Sensei, she’s hot.”
“She is, isn’t she?” he beamed, looking very proud of himself, “not hotter than me though.”
“Mmm, debatable.”
“You wound me, Noba-chan, you really do.”
“Someone’s gotta keep you humble, Sensei.”
“If that was possible, Utahime would’ve accomplished it by now,” he chuckled, and Nobara couldn’t help but smirk over the giddy energy that rolled off the man. The Kyoto teacher didn’t come up in their conversations very often, and she’d only seen the woman a handful of times, but looking at Gojo now, it was unmistakable. She could all but see the hearts dancing over his head at even the mention of her name, how could she have missed it.
Maybe Yuji was rubbing off on her.
That was a sobering thought.
“Okay! If there are no more questions, everyone come over here! I’ve got something to show you!”
“Mission report?” asked Yuji curiously as he walked around the couch, sprawling out unceremoniously on the lush carpet before them.
“What? No, gross. I wanted to teach you guys this cool new card game I learned on my last mission!”
Yuji whooped excitedly, prompting Gojo to produce a deck of cards from his pocket. Megumi looked like he’d much rather go to bed, but to his credit he seemed to be listening as the worlds strongest sorcerer launched into an enigmatic explanation of how to play what she was pretty sure was just Go Fish with a couple extra steps.
Rather than pointing it out, Nobara silently made her way around the couch as well, dropping down into the seat between Gojo and Megumi. She’d much rather be in her designated room whenever they slept over too, scrolling on her phone or reading a magazine. But then Yuji laughed at something and Gojo followed, the two of them sounding a little less annoying that she remembered. And somehow Megumi seemed just a fraction closer than he did a minute ago, his thigh close enough to hers that she could feel the warmth coming off him despite not touching her.
Maybe, just maybe, this team wasn’t so bad.