‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

The next morning you wake up feeling more rested than you’ve felt in quite some time.

You stretch and yawn before turning over to your side and seeing Gojo lying there next to you.

His eyes are closed and even his long white eyelashes just steal your attention.

He looks so peaceful like this. 

Not like the loud mouth fruit loop who’s been clinging to you for the past day. 

“Gonna stare all day? Can’t blame ya. I am real pretty,” he says and there it is. His shenanigans.

“Ugh, you’re ridiculous” 

He laughs as you climb out of bed and make your way to the bathroom. But sure enough, he gets up and follows right behind you. Just as you start to close the bathroom door, he blocks it with his hand.

“What are you doing?” You ask him. You already told him he doesn’t need to follow you into the bathroom. 

“I’m just tryna protect ya princess.”

“I’m fine in here! I just have to pee.”

“Ooooohh.” What was that?

“What?” You cock an eyebrow.

“What?” Oh, he’s playing dumb now. “Come on! I haven’t been in here yet, let me look around.”

“You can look around after I get out,” you force the door shut because if you stand there and chat any longer, you’re absolutely going to pee yourself. 

You go to the bathroom and finally wash off your makeup which looks atrocious after sleeping in it. You look like a fucking court jester and it’s just a reminder of why you need to do this before bed.

“Hurry up! I wanna play!” You hear this giant child shout from the other side of the door. What the hell have you gotten yourself into? 

After a few more minutes of cleaning up, you open the door to join him and see him standing right next to it.

“Were you standing directly outside the door?”

“Yup!”

You roll your eyes and walk right past him to go to your kitchen and grab another Red Bull. You know that people always tell you that these things are going to kill you, but you need your caffeine fix and you need something cold right now, not hot coffee.

“By the way, Susugu called you when you were asleep.”

“What?!”

You look at the clock and realize that you slept in way later than you normally do. It’s two o'clock in the afternoon and you try to at least get up by eleven. Looks like your body needed the rest more than you realized. You run to your bedroom to check your phone and see if there’s anything else from him and see that there’s a text saying that’s coming over sometime in the afternoon, probably around three. Damn, that doesn’t leave you much time. 

You decide to just take a quick shower to wash off the smells from the club the night before and maybe have a snack before he gets here. You go back to your bathroom to start the water and let it heat up which immediately results in Crybaby Gojo whining again. 

“Didn’t you just use the bathroom? You’re no fun!”

“I’m taking a shower before Suguru gets here.”

“Who is this Sukuru guy? What’s his deal? I bet I could take him.” Men.

“He’s family Gojo, chill out.”

“Fine. Fine.” Before you go back to the bathroom, you wait outside the door because you have a feeling that he’s about to say something else and you’re right, “Lemme take a shower with you.” For fuck’s sake. 

“Gojo, we are not taking a shower together like we’re a couple.” You’ve never even let a man see you completely naked and you’re not starting with a clingy fucking demon.

“Come oooonnnn! I wanna see how modern day plumbing works.” 

“Then you can use it after me and explore all you want.” Ugh, he’s pouting and then something pops in your head. “Do you need to use the bathroom and eat and all that stuff?”

“Technically, no. I just do it if I want to or if my master wants me to in order to ‘blend in’” which he punctuates with air quotes.

“I’d like for you to start doing that as well then. But we’ll worry about that after Suguru comes and goes,” and with that, you close the door and get in the shower.

You really appreciate that the being you’re stuck with gets along with you and wants to spend time with you, but damn. If you knew he’d be so clingy, you probably would have put the book back on the shelf and went home to confess your paranoia to Suguru. Oh well, looks like that might be happening today. 

You make it a really quick shower because you would hate for him to use his key to come in and see Gojo sitting on your couch with no warning from you. Afterwards, you do a shortened version of your skincare routine and return to your bedroom to get dressed.

When you get back, you see Gojo on your phone again playing games from the sound of it and you're really amazed that an all powerful being with the ability to teleport is so entranced by Peggle Blast.

But hey, you’ll take it. 

You go to your closet to look for some around the house clothes to wear. You bought a sweatsuit set a couple of years ago that have the skeleton print in a cartoon-ish style that goes down the front of the sweater and the pants. You remember when rib cage shirts were all the rage and Suguru hated them. So you bought this pastel set just to drive him crazy and it looks like that’s what you’re going to wear today.

“That’s an interesting outfit,” Gojo says without taking his eyes off your phone.

You just laugh at him because you know it’s silly and that’s the exact reason that you have it on.

“By the way Gojo… I’m gonna need you to keep yourself hidden when Suguru gets here.”

“Don’t want your boyfriend to know that you have another man here?” He practically spits out.

Jealous? Of Suguru too? 

“He’s not my boyfriend. I just don’t want to have to answer questions from him today. He’s going to want to do a background check on you and that’s just too much work after what I went through last night. So pretty please, with a cherry on top, stay out of his sight.”

“Fine,” he reluctantly agrees. “But I wanna do more stuff. I’ve barely seen the new world since I’ve been here.”

“Deal.”

You’re supposed to be using him to find out if you’ve really been being followed but you ended up having to work yesterday and ended up sleeping in today so maybe you can find time to start that soon. Unless you get called in, you have the next couple of days off so you can probably start all of this up then.

After your chat, you hear a knock on the door and know that Suguru is here and that this is probably going to be a stressful visit. You get up to go answer the door and hear Gojo sigh as you’re walking out of the room.

Seriously.

Is he jealous?

Whatever. That’s a problem for another day.

After looking through the peephole and making sure that you’re not opening the door for a stranger, you swing it open and Suguru immediately laughs when he takes in your outfit.

“Couture right?” You ask while striking a pose.

“It’s perfect. That should be on every runway for every fashion week,” he says with a chuckle before pulling you into a hug. “How are you, dear?”

“Eh. alright.”

He scrunches his brows and here comes the police interrogation thing he does, “what does alright mean? Is something the matter?”

“You first!” You try to change the subject. ‘You came over here for a reason, so what’s up?” Unfortunately, that didn’t work.

“I’m afraid what I have to tell you isn’t going to elevate your mood so I would rather you go first.”

Looks like you’re not getting out of this one.

You make your way over to the couch with him following behind you because this is not a conversation you want to have standing at the door. You look towards your left to see what Gojo is doing and he’s just watching the two of you but looks absolutely irritated by Suguru. Why is he so upset?

Oh well. 

You sit down on the couch with Suguru on the one opposite you and take a deep breath before speaking, “you know how every year around my parent’s anniversary I get a wave of paranoia for a few weeks?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve been feeling that way. But this time it’s lasting longer than usual.”

“How much longer?”

Here it goes. “The past seven months.”

If he’s upset with you for not sharing this, he doesn’t show it. “May I ask what has been causing you to feel this way?”

“It’s just been a feeling. I’ve just felt like there’s been eyes on me, but I have no way to prove it.”

You’re waiting for the lecture but it never comes. Instead, he looks upset, but not at you. 

“I’m so sorry for what I have to tell you then. This is most definitely not going to help those feelings,” he looks away from you and sighs. Shit, now you’re freaking out.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s been a development in your parents' case.”

Your eyes feel like they’re bulging out of your head. How can that make you feel worse? You’ve been waiting years for something to happen and it looks like it finally did.

“How is that not a good thing? That’s what we wanted, right?”

“I don’t know how to say this lightly so I’m just going to come right out with it, okay?” You nod and he continues, “there was a hit on the print found at the crime scene of your family home. But it’s not the type of hit that we wanted. There’s been another homicide and there was a print found there and when the police in that area scanned the print, it matched with the one found in our database. However, there still isn’t any information on who the print belongs to which means that they still haven’t been arrested, or it wasn’t for anything serious enough to take dna and a print and we still have no idea who they are.”

You take in his words and realize that he’s right, this is absolutely awful fucking news. You don’t even realize that you’ve curled into yourself and started crying until you feel Suguru wiping your tears.

This news makes it feel like everything is happening all over again and you can’t stop the flow of tears knowing what’s coming next.

This happening means that your parent’s case is going to be in the news again and that they’re going to drag your family through the mud the same way that they did the first time. It also means that the surviving members of the victims in this new case will now be feeling the same thing and you feel awful for them as well.

A lot of times when something tragic like this happens, people do public pleas for information but Suguru banned you from that once you were in his care. He saw the way the media tears people apart and how they overanalyze everything. If you were in shock and didn’t cry, they’d claim you knew what happened. If you were super emotional, they’d say you were faking for the cameras and that none of it would benefit the case. You stayed away from the media and they still raked you over the coals. 

Those people are vultures and in your opinion, the worst of the fucking worst. You’ll never forget the time you got out of school and was waiting with Utahime for Manami to pick you up and a reporter ran over, shoved a microphone in your face, and asked you how it felt when you learned that your parents had been brutally murdered. 

What a stupid fucking question.

The media especially hounded you because the police were keeping all information regarding this case to themselves. There was no evidence left behind except for the fingerprint which means that they had to hold on to all information in order to get an accidental confession due to ‘guilt knowledge’ and they didn’t want any false confessions. There were already a couple of those and you’ll never understand why people do stupid shit like that. 

Then again, you’ll never understand why people prank call victims and pretend to be their deceased loved ones, but you had to deal with that too. 

“Now what?” You ask.

“We’re going to take another look at your parents' case and see if fresh eyes discover something new and we’re going to work with the other department on theirs. They’re pretty similar so we’re hoping we can be of help to each other.”

“When exactly did this happen? I know that it can take some time to run tests and get a hit,” it’s so close to the anniversary of your parents' crime and you want to know just how close.

“January 27th.”

You freeze because what the fuck?

Similar? That’s terrifying. 

“Suguru, I have a question and I want you to be honest. Do you think that this has happened to more people than we realize?”

“Honestly,” he asks to see if you’ll take that question back but you don’t. “Yes. It’s not likely for someone to commit a crime of this magnitude and then not do it for seven years. They may have just switched up their method or left no evidence behind so we’re also going to review some cold cases that have similar details but were never directly connected. I promise, we're working on it.” 

“Do you think that I have a reason to worry?” 

“This didn’t happen in the city so I don’t think this perpetrator is who you have to fear. But if you’re truly feeling like someone is after you and you don’t want to come home, I can have an officer watching your apartment for a while just to make sure.”

A part of you wants to say yes to that but then you remember the demon sitting on your bed and you don’t want to be caught talking to yourself. 

“Uhhh, I think I’ll be okay. I think I’m just being paranoid since it’s been so long and we don’t know what’s going on. But I think that I’ll be okay. But, there is something else that I want to tell you,” you were going to withhold this but you might as well get everything out at once. “Remember when I called you last night to say that there was an accident?”

“Yes…?”

“That wasn’t just a random accident. Some point after I left work, that car started following me home for a little while.”

You explain everything from when you noticed him, which is really when Gojo noticed him, all the way to him waiting for you at the convenience store and then following you again before crashing. You obviously neglect to tell him how the crash happened, but he said he’s going to run a check on the driver. You also tell him about the asshole at the club but that Sukuna banned him so you don’t think that’ll be an issue. He doesn’t say it, but you know he’s going to call Sukuna and get that guy's name to run a check on him too. 

“Now what?” You ask, feeling completely exhausted.

“Come on, let’s go to lunch.”

“What?”

“I don’t want your entire day to be ruined by this news. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’ll probably be in your face all over the news, I would have held off. But I don’t want your entire day ruined by this. Also, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

You completely forgot. 

But it has been years since you’ve had a boyfriend so, of course you forgot.

“You’re right. Doesn’t that mean that it’s Manami’s Day?”

“I’m having dinner with her tonight. Let me have lunch with my daughter on Valentine’s Day.”

You relent and go to your closet to get dressed because you don’t want to be seen with him where he’s wearing a nice suit and you’re wearing what you’re wearing.

You decide to put on a strapless, red mini dress with matching gloves that have a bow trim. It may be a bit much for lunch, but it’s been years since Manami and Suguru were surprised by your theatrics and your tendency to overdress. You grab a black, satin crossbody bag with a giant bow on it and throw on a pair of black, strappy heels before joining Suguru in the living room.

“Well, well, look at you Top Model!”

“That’s to make up for the fact that you’re dragging me out without enough time to paint my face.”

“You’re beautiful regardless. If I do say so, I have created some beautiful daughters.”

You quirk a brow, “we’re all adopted Suguru.”

“Potato, tomato.”

This fucking guy.

He laughs before getting up and adding more bribes to getting you out of the house.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

Lunch was nice, with the exception of your demonic companion throwing a fit anytime anything with a penis acknowledged you, at all.

If you had a dollar for all the bitching he did, you’d probably have at least fifty dollars.

That may not seem like a lot of money, but it is a lot of complaining considering you just had one lunch with your parent.

‘If you wanted to go out to eat, I could have taken you.’

“You like men in suits? I look good in a suit.’

“Is it the long hair? I can grow mine out.’

‘Is it because his hair is dark? I’ll put coal in mine.’

‘You want a man who pays? I’ll use my powers so that everything is free and then we both save money.’

It was never-ending.

“So, you humans still celebrate Valentine’s Day?” Satoru asks as you set up your roses.

“I haven’t because I’m single, but yeah, a lot of people still do,” you respond before sniffing them.

“What’s the point of getting fake ones?”

Suguru got you a bouquet of perfumed velvet roses before dropping you back off at home and you love them. 

“Fake ones don’t die.” That’s the main reason that you love artificial flowers. As much as you love real flowers, it always brings you down when they start to wilt. So, whenever your parents got you flowers, they always got you a bouquet of fake ones so that they last forever.

“Hmm, I guess.”

You retreat to your bedroom to get changed back into your sweats and then pull out your phone so that you can look up the case Suguru told you about this morning. But just as you do, your phone rings.

Utahime.

“Hello?”

“Hey girl! Wanna come out tonight?!” She yells excitedly. “Come on, it’s been a little while since we’ve gone out and Atsuya asked me out for dinner tonight, what do you say? I know you don’t want to be a third wheel, so I figured that we could invite Kento for you.”

“It’s Valentine’s Day Utahime, are you sure he wants to do a double date tonight of all nights?”

“We already spoke about that. We agreed that it’ll take some of the pressure off if there’s someone else there with us. So, do I call Kento?”

You look towards the white haired pain in the ass sitting on your couch and realize that you don’t need to drag Kento out tonight.

“Actually Utahime, I have someone that I can bring. When and where do I meet you?”

She gives you the time and the address and you hang up the phone to start getting ready. 

But before you do, you lean on the door frame to put on your best puppy dog face for Gojo.

“Gojoooo,” you drawl. “Do you wanna come out with me and my friend tonight? She has a date and wants me to go.”

“Are you gonna make me hide all night?”

Damn. You kinda feel bad.

“No. I was thinking we could get dressed up and I’ll just tell her that you’re my date.”

The smile that spreads across his face is unparalleled by anything else you’ve ever seen. That's pure happiness right there.

“Yes! Yes I want to go out!”

You giggle and go to your closet to start looking through your clothes. 

You pull out a light blue bustier with ribbons for straps and lace on the top of the cups to create the illusion that your bra is peaking out. You decide to pair it with a pair of dark blue low rise jeans and this looks fucking incredible. You finally grab a pair of light blue strappy heels that you bought specifically because they match that top and grab a coat before checking on Satoru. 

You see him sitting on your bed just kicking his feet, no doubt waiting for you to come back and give him something to do. 

“Bored?” You ask him.

“Don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Hmm. You wanna try out a modern day shower?” 

“Yes!”

Damn this man is easy to please.

He follows you into the bathroom and you turn on the shower to let it heat up for him. But then you wonder, do you really need to? You’ll let him figure that part out on his own. 

You point to the various bottles and announce what everything is, “shampoo is there, conditioner there, and body wash is there.”

“What’s that?” You doubt he’ll need that one.

“Shaving cream.”

“Want me to shave?”

“Not unless you want to. Do you have to?”

“Not really. I only partake in what my master wants in order to play the role and fill the part.” 

You’re getting desperate to know what other people have had him do but you’ll save the probing questions for a day that you have some liquid courage in your system. 

“I’ll go get you towels.” You leave the bathroom and go back to your closet to get two towels in different colors so that you don’t mix yours up. When you return to the bathroom, you see he’s already half undressed and you immediately avert your gaze. “Sorry! I just wanted to bring you towels.”

He chuckles at your reaction, “it’s fine. I’ve already seen you, haven’t I?”

“What?!” 

“Your pictures? And your work?” Ohhhhh that.

“Well, still. I don’t want to intrude on your privacy. I’ll give you some time while I put my makeup on.”

You close the bathroom door behind you and take a seat at your vanity to start putting your face on. You’re already wearing a lot of blue so you don’t want to include that when you do your makeup. You choose to do a very light shadow that almost blends in to your skin tone before adding an eye gloss over it to make it pop. You include enough highlighter on your cheekbones to blind an astronaut and do a nude lipstick in matte so that your face isn’t too shiny overall.

The entire time that you’re doing your face, you can hear Gojo singing in the shower so he must be enjoying himself. About the time that you pull out your straightener for your hair, the water turns off and the bathroom door opens. He comes out with the towel wrapped around him the same way that he’s seen you do and it makes you laugh until you realize that his manhood is exposed at the bottom. 

“Gojo, your dick is out!” You shout.

“Yeah, we’re gonna need some longer towels.”

“Most men usually just wrap them around their waist.”

“That doesn’t look as cool.” You laugh and he smiles at that. He is charming, that’s for sure. “What now?”

“I put a towel on the bed so that you can hang out and air dry if you want. That's what I do.”

He takes a seat and now you see even more of his dick. You look away to get your hair done and you can see in the mirror that he’s just watching you. 

“You have so many conveniences that people would’ve killed for the last time I was around. I used to have to boil water just to take a bath but you have endless water and endless heat. It’s awesome. There’s even enough room for two,” he says while wiggling his brows. 

“Was there not enough room for two in the bath?”

“Well technically, yes. But it would require one person being on top of the other to do so.”

You smirk but don’t say anything else about that. 

You remember where you’re meeting Utahime and her date and you’ve had one thing on your mind regarding him blending in.

“I don’t think I’ve asked you but maybe I don’t remember. Can you eat or drink?”

“Yeah, I don’t have to, but I can, sweets mostly. Why?”

“Utahime sent me an address to a restaurant and I was just wondering if we were gonna have to come up with a cover story for why you aren’t eating.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“Religious fasting.”

He chuckles but agrees that it’s a pretty good cover. “What do you want me to wear?”

“Whatever you feel comfortable with. That’s what I’m wearing to give you an idea,” you point to the clothes you laid out on the bed. 

You turn off your straightener and walk over to the bed to start getting dressed. You were going to go back in the closet and do it privately, but he’s right, he has basically seen every part of you and you change in front of other people at work so it’s not really a big deal.

But it must be a big deal to your dramatic demon friend because when your eyes accidentally lock with his, you see him watching you with a face that has desire written all over it. Your first instinct is to cover yourself, but you actually kind of like it. It’s been a long time since you’ve even been on a date so it makes you feel good that someone finds you attractive, even if they’re a spawn from hell or wherever he’s from.

“Can you stop staring at my tits and start getting dressed so that we’re not late?”

“Royalty waits for no one. We should be fashionably late.”

“I’ll never hear the end of it from Utahime if we’re late, especially tonight. Get dressed.”

He snaps his fingers and there’s a small puff of smoke before he’s completely dressed. 

Fuck. You wish you had that ability.

“What’cha think Pretty Girl?”

He’s wearing a light blue button down with a pair of dark blue jeans in the same colors that you’re wearing. You couldn’t look like you coordinated your outfits more unless he was in a bustier himself. 

You check the time and see that you should probably head out soon. It’s not so much that she called you at the last minute, it’s just that you like to take a metric fuck ton of time while getting ready, especially when it comes to putting your makeup on. And with your new companion enjoying every new thing he sees, time got away from you. 

You grab your phone to text Suguru where you’re going, your purse, your pet demon and start heading to the front door. You stop and turn around, already feeling bad for what you’re going to ask him.

“Gojo, could–”

“Could I make myself invisible? Sure.” He doesn’t sound as upset as he did last time but you still feel guilty.

“It won’t be for long. Just until we get off the property.” He nods and you open the door and don’t see anyone in the hallway which gives you some relief even though nobody can see him.

You wonder when you’ll finally run into neighbors since you haven’t seen any yet. Granted, you haven’t been here that long, but it’s also surprisingly quiet so you must have the best apartment neighbors known to man. Once you get to the elevator and see that it’s empty, that’s another relief to you. Something about being stuck inside an elevator with someone that you don’t know, regardless of how harmless they seem, still makes you uncomfortable. When you reach the lobby, you don’t see Yuji hanging around so it looks like it’s a quick exit today. You do see a tall, crazy buff man at the front desk flirting with the woman, but that’s about it so it must be a slow day. He turns to face you when hearing your heels and smirks. You flash him a polite smile not to be rude but continue to act like you’re in a hurry hoping that nobody will talk to you.

When you exit the building, Gojo says, “that guy wants to have sex with you.”

“You think everyone wants to have sex with me.”

“You’re hot. It’s bound to happen.”

“Well, I’m not going to have sex with strangers so it’s irrelevant.” 

“Why not? You’re young, you should have your fun.”

You get that a lot. There’s a lot of people throughout the years who have told you that you should have your ‘hoe phase’ and enjoy your twenties with clubbing and casual sexual encounters. But that just doesn’t work for you. You want connection and if it means that you can’t find it, then you won’t be with anyone until you feel that you have.

After reaching your car, you drive out of the lot a little faster than usual because you know Gojo hates having to hide and you don’t want him to have to anymore. When you’re about two blocks down the road, you deem it safe enough.

“Okay, you don’t have to hide anymore.”

He looks relieved and you wonder if it takes much energy for him to do that. 

The car ride is pretty peaceful as he asks you what things are as you drive by. 

“What’s the Pretty Kitty?”

You giggle to yourself because you know what it is and you love that place. “It’s a waxing salon.”

“What’s that?”

“They put a sticky warm substance on the parts of hair on your body that you wanted waxed off, put a strip over it, press it down, and then rip all that hair out at once.”

He visibly cringes at that and you can’t help but laugh at his reaction.

“Why the hell would anyone do that? It sounds awful.”

“It has a clean, smooth look.”

“Back in my day, women were au natural and there was nothing wrong with it.” He’s so cute. He sounds like a grandpa who doesn’t understand technology.

“Well, it looks good when you get it done. I do it so that I don’t have to shave for work.”

“Oh yeah?” He asks while turning to you. “Maybe if I saw it on you, I’d change my opinion. How about a little show and tell?”

“You have to earn the right to put your key in that lock,” you’re both laughing now and you have no idea where that came from. 

Before you know it, you’re pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant and you spot Utahime’s car immediately and opt to park next to her. When you pull in, you see her sitting in her car with her phone in her hand but she puts it down once she notices that it’s you. But you can already tell that she’s skeptical about Gojo next to you and she hasn’t even met him yet.

You step out of the car and she runs over to you, pulling you into a tight hug. 

“Thank you for coming! I know that it’s last minute, but I appreciate it,” you can tell she means it and you’re grateful.

“It’s no problem. Where’s Atsuya?”

“He just texted me that he got here right as you were pulling in but I wanted to wait for you before going inside. Who’s this?” She directs her attention to Gojo.

“Satoru Gojo. Nice to meet you,” he says and extends his hand to shake hers.

She takes his hand, reluctantly, and introduces herself. You can tell that she’s already unimpressed but you’re really hoping that she doesn’t question him right now, tonight is about her and her date after all. 

‘Hmm, let’s go,” is all she says before walking away and you follow her into the restaurant. She gives the hostess the name but does it with a little bit of intensity and you just kind of hope that she doesn’t scare the poor woman. 

She grabs three menus and motions for all of you to follow her, which you do and you can’t even hide how excited you are for your friend. She doesn’t usually date, especially not someone that she met at a club. So the fact that she asked you here to meet him makes you really happy for her and you hope that things work out. 

Once you spot Atsuya, all you can think is that if he and Utahime had babies, they would all have an intense scowl permanently etched on their face. They actually make a cute couple, you think to yourself. 

He stands up when you approach the table and gives Utahime a hug and kiss before addressing you and Gojo and it makes you wonder how close they’ve gotten since they met. You haven’t gotten as many updates as you normally would and that makes you wonder if they’re further than she’s let on.

Good for them. 

He turns to you and reaches out to shake your hand, “Atsuya Kusakabe. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Only bad things, I hope,” you respond with a laugh. 

“Satoru Gojo,” you hear coming from the jealous and protective maniac behind you. You don’t understand why he seems upset now, he’s here with you and Atsuya is with your friend.

Ugh. 

You’ll never understand his antics. 

After all of the introductions are done, they take a seat on one side of the table and Gojo pulls out your seat so that you can sit next to him. And you could swear that after he sits down, he scoots his chair just a little closer to yours. 

“What did you like to eat when you did?” You attempt to whisper to Gojo.

“Cake, mostly.”

“Okay, so we’re gonna get you a big boy dinner first,” you respond and he laughs. “Do you want anything in particular?”

“Whatever you think is good.” So helpful.

A waitress comes over to take your orders and you can immediately tell that she has eyes for your demon companion and it kind of makes you want to throw hands if you’re being honest. Maybe this is how he feels when a man gets too close to you.

She takes all of the orders before turning to him and asking him what he’d like with a little more of a purr in her voice than you’d like.

“Eh, I’ll just have whatever my girl is having,” he tells her while throwing an arm around your shoulder.

She looks taken aback and you look at Utahime for her reaction and even she looks surprised by this interaction.

“That comes with a few sides. How would you like them?” She tries again and goodness gracious this is uncomfortable.

“However she likes hers,” she agrees and makes a note to mirror your order before walking away.

“That was fucking uncomfortable,” you hear Atsuya say after a beat of silence and everyone starts to laugh. 

“The nerve of her to do that with you sitting right there! Do you want me to punch her in the face?” If there’s one person who wakes up and chooses violence everyday, it’s Utahime and you love it.

“Kind of. But I don’t want the night to start off with a criminal record. Maybe if we run into her later.”

“So, where’d you come from?” She now directs her attention to Gojo.

“I met her at work.”

“Really?” She doesn’t believe him and you definitely should have come up with a better cover story. “She doesn’t date customers from the club.”

“I’m not a customer.” That was quick.

“What are you?”

“A demon.”

What. 

The. 

Fuck.

She seems to like that though because she starts laughing and you finally let your asshole unclench and your stomach relax.

“So how did you meet her?”

“One of my friends was doing business with another company and they like to meet up at that club to discuss it instead of in a stuffy office. I tagged along one night to take notes and that’s how we met.”

Not bad.

“And you two are… dating?”

“Just until she agrees to marry me.” you choke on your drink because that’s the last thing you expected to come out of his mouth. 

“Oooooh, you got a sappy one. That’s familiar,” as soon as she says that you know that he’s going to be questioning you about it later.

“Familiar? How so?” Maybe she’ll do you a solid and ignore him.

“Her ex had a tough exterior but was a big softie. But that was quite a while ago.” Damn Utahime, stop talking. 

“Oh yeah. Was he beautiful because if so, she definitely has a type.” This fucking guy.

She laughs at his comments and luckily the waitress returns to drop off the appetizers before this conversation can continue. You’re tired of people giving you shit about being a virgin in your twenties and you just don’t want to have to have that conversation tonight. 

Dinner goes pretty smoothly and you see a lot of chemistry between her and her new man and you’re happy that she has someone. She suggests taking a walk down the street where there’s a bunch of shops before everyone heads home and you agree. 

But first, you want to go to the bathroom to wash your hands. 

You lean into Satoru’s ear to whisper, “I just wanna run to the bathroom really quick. Will you be okay out here? You know, because of everything?”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll just watch you.”

You get up and follow the signs to look for the bathroom and all you can wonder is why the hell it requires you to basically pass through a maze and an escape room to get to it. You know that they don’t want it right next to the diners, but damn. 

Once you reach the area where the bathroom is, it’s also down a hallway that also has a lenghy mirror set up with a counter, probably for someone waiting on their friends you imagine. You see that the sign to enter the women's restroom is at the end towards the left and you’re over it.

Aside from this creepy bathroom trip, you’ve felt pretty good tonight. Over the past few months, you’ve been feeling like there’s been eyes on you every time you go out but you haven’t really been experiencing any of that tonight. Maybe you accidentally sold your soul away before you actually needed to and should have held off but it’s too late now. But, he did protect from potentially being followed all the way home so maybe it actually wasn’t the worst choice you’ve made. This is definitely one of your worst traits, your indecisiveness. 

Once you enter the bathroom, you see that it’s much larger than ones you typically see in restaurants and it also appears that you’re the only one in here at the time. But you still pull your hair back and squat down to look under the stalls to make sure that you’re in here alone. You’ve done this ever since that scene in Scream and it’s not going to stop now that you feel like your feelings aren’t misplaced. 

When it looks like you’re in here by yourself, you go to one of the stalls in the middle and lock the door to give you privacy just in case someone else comes in. Even though you’re going to squat, you still put a toilet seat cover down in case you lose your balance and fall down, and then finally go to the bathroom. 

You’re just staring at the floor when you start to hear the door creak a little bit and you just assume that someone else came to use the bathroom. But after listening, you don’t hear footsteps which leads you to believe that you’re still in here by yourself. But you also know that there’s no windows that are going to blow the door open over here and this is where you think you’re just being paranoid but you can’t help it. A reasonable person would just assume that someone was going to come in but changed their mind and here you are thinking of the worst possible scenario.

After going to the bathroom, you slowly open the stall door and peak your head around to make sure you’re still the only one in here. If there was somebody else, they’d probably think that you were crazy. 

When you get to the sink to wash your hands, you hear the door start to creak open again and you really hope that you’re just overreacting for no reason. 

“Hey, you okay?” It’s Gojo, thank god.

“I’m fine, why?” You attempt to play it cool.

“I could feel your fear.”

He could what?

“You can feel that?” You ask in disbelief?

“We’re bound babe.” 

“Yeah, but I didn’t know you could feel my feelings and stuff.”

“Only once they reach a certain point. Otherwise it’s just kind of background noise.”

You finish washing your hands and walk over to the air dryer to dry them off and Gojo is amazed the second that it comes on. He moves to stand next to you and puts his hand underneath and is apparently having the time of his life. 

“You have some amazing things these days. I wish I could take you back to my time so you can see how much everything sucked in comparison.”

“I’m sure that you have a few fond memories.”

“Hmmm, there’s a few.”

“Maybe you’ll tell me about them some time,” you’re more curious than you want to admit.

“Maybe I will…” he leans in to whisper, “if you’re a good girl.”

You just laugh because of course he’d try to make it sexual. “Goodness gracious, do you ever not have sex on the brain?”

“Can you blame me when you walk around looking like that all the time?” It feels like your temperature just shot up by a few degrees and you attempt to hide your smile, but you can’t. “Oooohh, did you like that?”

“Shut up!” You playfully smack his arm and start walking out of the bathroom. 

As soon as you step out, you see your server just a few feet away from the door and you know this is going to be an awkward encounter.

“Men and women aren’t allowed into the opposite restrooms,” she says while looking pretty annoyed. But you have a feeling that if he wanted to pull her in there, she wouldn’t have a problem. 

“Uhh sorry,” he flashes her that charming smile and she already looks like she calmed down a bit, confirming your suspicions. “My girl was starting to feel a little unwell and I just wanted to check on her. Please forgive me.”

“Okay, it’s fine,” she smiles and all you can think about is how easy that was. “Just don’t let it happen again.”

You mutter a soft apology and walk past her to return to your table. Gojo catches up to you and grabs your hand to walk back with you.

When you get back to the table, it seems the bill has been paid and they’ve just been waiting for you to return so that you can all leave. 

“I hope we didn’t take too long,” you say as you approach the table.

“Nope, we just got finished with everything. Ready to go?” Utahime responds while Atsuya pulls out her chair for her and helps her put her coat back on. They’re so cute.

You nod and follow the two of them out of the restaurant. Utahime turns around for a second and eyes your joined hands with Gojo before winking and turning back around and you’d completely forgotten about that until she pointed it out. 

You attempt to let go of his hand but he just holds it tighter so you give in. He is your protector so hopefully if anyone was watching you, they won’t try anything if they see you attached to another man. 

The four of you start walking down the street looking around and stopping at random shops to browse. You stop by a handcrafted jewelry shop, another one that’s full of trinkets, and a cute little bookstore full of rare books. You thought about buying a book of poems but now you’re paranoid about books with rhyming passages. 

Utahime and her new beau seem to be having the time of their lives so you announce that you’re going to start heading home with Gojo, which you accidentally let spill from your lips.

“Is he going to spend the night?” She asks in what she thinks is a whisper but it clearly isn’t because Gojo and her man both look over to you for the answer. 

“Nothing is going to happen. We’re just going to talk for a while before he goes home since he has to work.”

“Okay, but just remember that you’re allowed to have some fun yourself.”

You nod before giving her a hug and say goodbye to Atsuya before dragging Gojo out of the shop. 

You walk for a few blocks before you see the lot where your car is parked but notice something else as well, a bakery across the street. You grab Gojo’s arm and pull him in the opposite direction to stop by the bakery on the way home.

“Where are we going? Your carriage is right there.”

“Something for you. For being so good tonight.”

He smirks and you already regret making that sound kind of suggestive. You point at the sign and he furrows his brows.

“Fight For Your Right To Pastry?”

God, you love punny names.

“Come on,” you pull him by his arm and open the heavy glass door to a smell of fresh baked bread and cakes and when you turn around, see his eyes light up.

“Damn. This is way different from what I’m used to. This is amazing.”

Just in the display windows, they had Wonka-esque chocolate fountains that went around and over the door almost like an archway and that was just the start of how amazing it is. You haven’t been here in awhile so you’re glad that you came out tonight.

He rushes over to the display case like an excited kid who you just told that they can get anything that they want and it makes you smile. 

There’s everything from cupcakes in unique flavors, fruit tarts, candies, etc. One reason you try to avoid bakeries is because you have a habit of leaving with two boxes of snacks, but you can probably make an exception tonight.

“What do you wanna get?” You ask Gojo.

“I don’t know, there’s too much to choose from,” he says, sounding like he’s in awe.

“Can I help you with anything?” The server appears from behind the counter to take your order.

You know that you’re going to regret this purchase tomorrow but oh well, tonight was a good night and you want to end it on a good note.

“Can we start with a dozen donuts? Variety please.” They pull out a box and start filling it with one of each donut in the display case and Gojo looks especially happy when he sees one covered in a layer of sugar even though they basically always are. “Can we also have one of each of the cupcakes?” He gets another box out and starts to fill that up as well. “Do you want anything in particular?” You ask your shocked companion. 

“Can we get one of those?” He points to a slice of blueberry cheesecake and who are you to deny him?

“Can we also get one of each of the cheesecake slices?”

The server nods and you already know that your teeth are going to hate you, but it is a once in a while thing. After they finish packing up all the boxes, you pay and wince at the amount you spent at a fucking bakery, before making Gojo grab the boxes to carry them to the car. 

When you get back to the car, he holds the boxes on his lap as you start to drive.

“Can I ask you a question?” He hums and you continue, “could you feel if I was in danger even if I didn’t know?”

“Yup.”

“So, did you sense anything tonight or was it just me?”

“I don’t like the phrasing of saying it was ‘just you,’” he punctuated with air quotes. “But no, I didn’t sense any danger towards you, I just went to check on you to make sure you were okay.”

“Do you think I was overreacting about my fear? Or that it’s all in my head?”

“I haven’t been here long enough to determine that. But if I was to wager a guess, I don’t think it’s all in your head as you say. Even if no one is actually after you, I think you’re still in fear due to your parent’s untimely deaths being unsolved. And I think that if that gets solved, then maybe everything else you’re feeling will dissipate. We should start working on that soon.”

Hmm, maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s just knowing that an awful crime so close to home hasn’t been solved and that’s what’s sending you into a frenzy.

When you pull into your apartment’s lot, you realize that you didn’t tell Gojo to hide himself and honestly, you don’t really care. Tonight was a good night and you don’t want to bring down the mood by hurting his feelings. 

“You didn’t ask me to hide.” Damn, is he a mind reader?

“You’re going to be spending a lot of time here, I can’t have you doing it every time. We’ll just plan when you’ll be seen because Suguru is going to ask questions.” You see a flash of irritation cross his face as soon as Suguru’s name leaves your lips. “Why do you always look so upset when Suguru comes up?”

“I’m not. If you wanna spend all your time with Suburu, go ahead.” You throw your head back and laugh because it’s honestly so silly. “What?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t peg you as the jealous type. But I think that this just confirmed it,” you keep laughing because imagine being an all powerful being who can teleport and this is what gets his panties in a twist.

“I’m not jealous, have you seen me sweetheart? I’m beautiful.”

“You’re not wrong. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be jealous.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” This fucking guy.

“That’s besides the point Gojo.”

“Why don’t we make it the point?” He says while staring at your lips. He really needs to chill the hell out before you end up actually having sex with him.

“Tsk, let’s get inside before we spend all night in my car.”

He grabs the boxes and follows you inside the building where you get stopped by his favorite person in the world, Yuji. You quickly exchange hellos because he has work to do but it’s still nice to see a now familiar face in the building. 

It’s a quiet ride in the elevator and the walk to your apartment and you know it’s because you were right about Gojo’s jealousy and he’s thinking of a way to complain about Yuji without making himself sound jealous. 

When you get inside the apartment, he rests the boxes on the kitchen counter and then grabs you from behind, pulling you close to him.

He rests his head on your shoulder and starts to speak in that low and husky voice of his, “you said I’m jealous, maybe I am. Here’s what it comes down to,” he pauses and you swear your nipples are starting to harden and potentially give you away. “You’re mine and you’re mine alone. I don’t share… ever. I know that you didn’t like the way that waitress was looking at me.”

“Wha– what? You… what?!”

“Yeah, I can feel more than just your fear if it’s strong enough. If that’s how you felt with her taking our order, imagine how I feel everytime I sense another man ready to throw you up against the wall right in front of me. If you want to have some fun with someone else like that, I can’t blame you.”

“I’m not going to be having fun of that kind with anyone so you don’t have to–”

“How do you know?” He wraps his arms tighter around you as he continues to speak. “You’re a beautiful young woman, I can’t blame you for wanting to go out and enjoy your youth with someone else. But, I also can’t be held accountable for how I deal with them afterwards.”

Damn Possessive Pete. If you knew that you’d never be allowed to have sex without serving a life sentence afterwards, you would’ve waited to summon him and would have gotten that out of your system first. 

“Gojo, you can relax. I’m not going to have sex with anyone, certainly not in front of you, that’s for sure.”

“How do you know?” He asks while pulling your hair away from your face in the most sensual way possible. “What if we go out with your friend again and you meet a guy that you want to bring home?”

“Gojo, I’m not losing my virginity to some one night stand at the club.” 

He freezes and now you’re wondering if you revealed too much and made him think you were some twenty something loser. 

But instead, he holds you even tighter, causing your breasts to almost pop out of your bustier from his movements. He buries his face completely in your neck and sniffs like he’s trying to remove all fragrance from a perfume bottle.

“A virgin huh? That suits you. Just remember what I said, you belong to me, first and foremost.” You feel him pressed up against you from behind and any questions you had about demons being able to have sex have gone out the window. 

“What about you, huh? Gonna sneak off in the club with some hottie in the bathroom?” He chuckles in a way that can only be described as sinister and you wonder if you just poked the bear for no reason.

“Only if you’re the ‘hottie,’” he pulls away from you and walks back over to the boxes. “Alright, what’s in here?!” He yells while looking through the snacks. It’s wild how fast his demeanor has changed.

This guy is just fine and dandy while you’re completely hot and bothered and he’s acting like it’s not a big deal. 

Unless that’s the point. 

“I’m gonna go put on pajamas,” you announce while heading to your room.

“Sure thing, sweetheart,” he responds with a wink and you just want to punch him in his pretty fucking face.

You make a mad dash for your closet and close the door once inside. If there was one thing you didn’t expect when reading a protection spell, it was the fucking demon trying to seduce you. Although, if you’re being honest, he was doing a good job. Sometimes you just want to have a fun casual thing like other people do but your emotions just prevent you from doing that. But if you have a super cute possessive maniac who wants nobody but you, maybe it’s not the worst thing.

You shake those thoughts out of your head while changing and then return to the kitchen to see Gojo covered in donut crumbs.

“This is one of the best things I’ve ever had in my life and afterlife.”

You laugh with him but then remember, afterlife?

“Afterlife?” He hums. “How’d you join the afterlife?”

“I sold my soul and my demon came to collect,” he replies as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“You sold your soul too? Why?”

He takes another bite of his donut before speaking, “I needed help for my siblings. Our parents died when we were pretty young and supporting them along with myself was pretty difficult. My sister was considering working in the brothels but if sickness passed through, she wouldn’t last long. Plus, she wouldn’t be able to get married and have children like she wanted because people would just label her a whore. And even if she did, I still had to worry about my younger brother. So, I summoned someone to help me financially to support them, and then not too long after they were stable, they came to collect and that’s how I died.”

You don’t know what to say so you don’t say anything. 

“That’s why I understood your frustration of the accidental summoning, you’re not the first person that it happened to.”

“I’m sorry for what you went through. Did your siblings end up getting everything they wanted out of life?”

“Don’t be sorry, it was hundreds of years ago. As for them, I don’t really know. Once you cross over you can’t see what’s happening amongst the living. That’s why everything is so exciting. The last time I was here, we didn’t have more exciting technology than candles. But you have amazing carriages that go super fast and you can listen to music without having to be surrounded by drunks in pubs! It’s fantastic!”

You move over to him to grab a donut out of the box yourself.

“Sure, some things could be better. But they could always be worse. Remember that,” he says before eating half of it in one bite.

Before you know it, you’re back in bed with Gojo trying to sleep while he plays around on your phone. You’ve only been laying here for thirty minutes but have already been tossing and turning enough for one night. 

“Why are you so stressed out that you can’t sleep? You need your rest,” he says while playing Candy Crush.

“I keep thinking about my parents and how we’re supposed to solve this. Suguru never told me the details so I don’t know anything, meaning that I don’t even know where to start. So, what do we do?”

“Take me to the scene.”

“Huh?”

“Just take me to the scene.”

“How does that help? I still don’t know anything.”

“When people get too upset, they release negative energy into the world and that energy can linger. If it's strong enough, I can sense what happened to be the cause of that energy. We’ll take a look at the scene and I might be able to sense what happened.”

“That sounds like what people think ghosts are.”

“It is for the most part.”

“I have to tell Suguru that I’m spending time with you before he finds out some other way and it’s going to result in a background check. What do I tell him when it says you died hundreds of years ago?”

“Malfunction. This technology can’t be perfect all the time.”

He’s not wrong. 

Maybe if you introduce the two of them first and he likes him, you can get him to put off the check for a little while. Or at least long enough to come up with a better cover. In order to roam the city and figure out what’s going on, you have to take him with you and you can’t keep him hidden the entire time so you’re going to have to introduce him to more than Utahime.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

You’re nervous as hell because today is a big day. Potentially one of the biggest days of yours in the past few years. You haven’t been back to your family home since you grabbed a few sentimental items before moving in with Suguru and Manami and it’s making you nervous just thinking about it. 

You spoke to Gojo about going to visit and he feels pretty confident that something may come of it.

But if you’re being honest, the thought of having to go is really bringing you down. You slept for a good few hours last night and you still feel like you didn’t get enough rest which is usually a sign that you’re stressed out.

You texted Suguru to let him know you’ll be in the area running a few errands so you’re gonna have to buy a book or a candle or something from a store you like so he doesn’t think that you’re just spiraling. 

You’ve driven past the street since everything happened, but you haven’t actually been inside the house and there’s a feeling that you can’t quite place. But it fucking sucks.

“Are you ready to go?” You ask your companion after exiting your closet in a fresh tee shirt and jeans.

“Yup!” He responds before snapping his fingers to change into an outfit that mirrors yours. It’s actually kind of cute that he wants to always match you.

Once you walk out of your apartment, you see a little girl sitting against the opposite wall by the door to another unit.

“Hi!” She smiles and waves and she’s an absolute cutie pie with her crooked pigtails.

Right after you return her greeting, a man, probably her father, walks out the front door, “ready to go have lunch with your brother?” She lights up and she’s so cute that she almost makes you want to have kids. “Hey, you’re that girl from the lobby, right?”

“Oh yeah, that’s me,” you attempt to play off that you actually can’t remember seeing this man anywhere. But it’s probably just your frazzled mind from everything going on.

“Toji and Tsumiki, my daughter,” he says while pointing to the little girl.

You introduce yourself and Gojo as your pain in the ass friend which you whisper so that she doesn’t hear and Toji laughs.

“This is the first time that I’ve met one of my neighbors, it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. I work a lot so you probably won’t see me around much, but if you ever need anything, I’m just a door away.”

You nod and you both lock your doors before getting into the elevator continuing your typical ‘just met you’ conversation of all the usual stuff. ‘What do you do for work?’ ‘How long have you been here?’ ‘Any other kids?’ All of those things. 

When you reach the parking lot, you say your goodbyes and get into your car and you can already sense that Gojo is upset based on how quiet he’s been. But when you start the car and drive out of the lot, he still doesn’t say anything.

“Are you upset?” You ask because he’s unusually quiet.

“I don’t like that guy,” you knew it.

“Why? Does he want to have sex with me?”

He opens his mouth to speak but closes it again before doing so. It looks like he’s trying to think this answer through so you’ll let him have his moment.

“Yeah, he does.” All that thinking for that? “But I just don’t like him.”

“I already told you that I’m not going to be having sex with strangers, so I don’t know why you feel this way,” you remember your sexually charged conversation from the night before and can’t believe how that went down.

“Still. I just don’t want other men putting their grubby little paws on what’s mine.”

“Yours?!”

“Mine,” he says so seriously with a look sharp enough to cut glass so you decide not to challenge him.

“Can you even have sex?”

“You’ve seen my dick, haven’t you?” More than you needed to.

“Yeah, but that’s not what I meant. Can you actually have sex?”

“Yes. Interested?”

How did you end up in this conversation? Whatever, it beats thinking about your deceased loved ones. 

“Didn’t I tell you last night that I was a virgin? I’m not just going to hop into bed on some random man.”

“I’m not some random man, sweetheart. “ Okay, that’s fair. “Don’t you wanna know how it feels?”

“Not enough to ignore what I want out of it. I get too emotionally involved when it comes to intimacy and I can’t just shut that off for something like that. If you’re not going to be emotionally involved in me, we’re already lacking compatibility in that way.”

“Who said I’m not emotionally attracted to you?” Fuck, he always manages to catch you off guard and make your words freeze in your throat. 

But before this side of the conversation can continue, you have a question, “have you had sex with previous masters?”

“Yes,” he replies with no hesitation and you hate that answer. You don’t know why you do, but you do. “Does that bother you?”

“Tch, no.” That wasn’t convincing. 

“Yes it does.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Okay sweetheart, I'll let you have your moment of denial, but remember this,” he says as his tone starts to shift to something more serious. “If that’s how you feel about my past experiences, imagine how I feel when I see a man making a move on you in front of me.” 

Okay, so protection demon and sex demon like you thought.

Also, why does he keep giving you that line as if other men’s actions are your fault? 

“Well, nothing is going to come out of that so who cares.” 

“You’re right. Nothing is going to come out of it if I have something to say or do about it.”

You were super nervous about going back home today but now you welcome the intrusion from this awkward fucking conversation. 

“So,” you clear your throat, “what exactly are we going to do today?”

“We’ll just walk around the home and see if I can sense anything. If not, we’ll come up with another game plan.”

A few minutes of silence pass and you finally arrive at the street that your house is on but you pull over to the side and park before driving down.

“Are you okay?” Gojo asks.

“I just need a minute.”

He doesn’t say anything and you just take the moment to enjoy the silence. Everytime you’re in the area, you remember how you felt on the day and it can be pretty overwhelming, it usually is. It’s almost like you can still feel what it’s like to sit in the cop car and watch Utahime as you’re driving by and it can be too much.

After a couple of minutes, you put your car in drive and continue on your way. 

You pull up outside the house that you lived in with your parents and it’s immediately waterworks. 

This is the closest you’ve been to it in years and you didn’t think that it was going to hit you this hard. You don’t even drink but you feel like you’ll need one after all of this is over. 

You turn your car off and unbuckle your seat belt and that’s when Gojo puts his hand on yours, stopping you. “We can take more time if you need it.”

“Thank you. But I just wanna get this over with.” He removes his hand and both of you exit the car. 

You walk to the front door together and don’t even realize that your hands are shaking until you try to put the key in the lock. Gojo moves behind you and holds your hands, helping you unlock the door. This is only the second time you’re actually entering in the past six years and you’re scared of what you might see.

When you get inside, your natural reaction is to flip a light switch but there’s no power, obviously, so Gojo goes around and opens up a few curtains to let the light in. You go to take a seat on one of the chairs in the living room, but quickly move to the other side to a different one. 

“Something on that one?”

“That was my dad’s chair,” he hums and starts looking around.

“Do you know where the crime took place?”

You nod your head no because that’s the truth. You don’t know where it happened in the home or how it happened, Suguru protected you from all of that and it was never released to the public so there was no way for you to find out even if you wanted to. 

Gojo returns to the living room and takes a seat on the couch on the side closest to you. At first, he’s just sitting there and looking around like normal, but then something shifts. The room starts to feel a little colder and when you look back at him, his eyes are wide open and glowing a bright neon blue. If the curtains were closed, he could probably use them to light up the room on his own. He slowly starts to look around the room like that as if he was taking a panoramic picture and was trying to capture everything as best he can. 

After about a minute, his eyes return to normal and it feels like the temperature does too. 

“Did you get anything?” You ask him because you really want to get the hell out of here. 

“Yeah, but I just wanna check upstairs really quickly. Will you be okay down here by yourself?” You start thinking about it before he grabs your hand and pulls you with him, “that was a stupid question, I’m sorry.”

Once you get to the top of the stairs, he activates whatever the hell he was doing before and starts looking around again. You hold onto him tightly as he starts walking down the hallway and looking through each room, finishing pretty quickly.

It’s an awful fucking feeling. Even though you can’t pick up on what he does, it’s like everything you’ve felt has been magnified. You used to always feel so safe and happy coming home, but now it’s just nothing but pure terror for you. 

The one place that people should feel safe is in their home and some fucking loser took that away from not just your parents, but from you as well. You no longer feel safe anywhere and it led to you selling your soul by accident in an attempt to assuage this crippling fear that you have on a daily basis.

But being here has motivated you to get answers for what happened to your parents even more than before. You’ve always been desperate for answers, but you fucking need them now. You know that the detectives on the case are doing the best that they can, but it still doesn’t feel like enough.  

You just hope that there’s some sort of resolution soon.

He leads you back downstairs and takes the keys for you so that he can lock the door. He even walks you over to your side of the car and opens your door for you. At first you thought he was going to attempt to drive and the thought makes you internally giggle a little. He gets back in on the other side and the two of you just sit together for a few minutes.

“Are you feeling okay?” He breaks the silence first.

“I think so. I just… didn’t think it’d feel like this to return here seeing as it’s been so long. Did you get everything that you needed?”

“Yes.”

“So that means that you were able to pick up on the energy or whatever?”

“Yes. Do you want to know what I saw?”

You think on it before responding, “no. I think it was a good thing that Suguru shielded me from this. He’s right, I don’t want to remember them that way.” 

“Okay. Well, I can’t exactly make out the face of whoever did that, but I was able to pick up on a few things so if we come in contact with someone who has the same intentions and expels the same energy, I’ll know.”

“So it’s basically a waiting game?” You ask him, feeling a little defeated.

“Yeah. Sorry it’s not more of a pinpoint accurate thing.”

You wave him off because it’s better than nothing. Where the police have to rely on evidence and eyewitness reports, he can pick up on something that nobody else can see and that’s going to come in handy, even if it takes some time. 

You finally start the car back up because you did tell Suguru you were running errands in the area and you don’t want him thinking you were lying just to ruin your own day. You do have to work tomorrow so you figure that you’ll pick up something to make yourself feel better.

You pull away from the spot and start to drive to your favorite adult store, hoping that you can shake off the nerves from today. 

But unfortunately, you were so distracted that you didn’t realize that someone was watching you the entire time.