#drinking parties

The sumo wrestler shifts on his seat, turning away from his own party. And he leans closer to Utahime.

"So, you drink often, neh?" He asks Utahime. "I think you're so interesting." 

Utahime starts to smile at him. And Gojo starts to frown.

"I can tell by your eyes." He shares a gaze with Utahime. And she leans away, confused. "So deep and lovely." He smiles at her. "I can only wonder what beauty your eyes have seen."

This was one smooth-talking sumo wrestler. Gojo thought with a grimace as he sipped his beer and listened in on their conversation. 

Curses. He thinks to himself. She's seen nothing but curses. 

"And your scar," The sumo wrestler casually mentions, still with that same suave smile.

"My scar?" Utahime tilts her head.

And Gojo's eye twitches from behind his blindfold when the man grazes Utahime's scar with a careful thumb.

"You have such a beautiful face." He tells her with a playful grin. "A scar like yours must have an incredible story behind it."

Utahime beams at his friendliness. And Gojo rolls his eyes.

.

"Let me guess," She rests a thoughtful finger on her lip. "Career over men?" She smirks, her lipstick so red against her pale finger.

Utahime found herself sighing as she nods and drinks her beer.

"We career girls have it tough, neh?" The woman in the sash starts to smile. "It's difficult finding a good man since we're always so busy."

Utahime closes her eyes and lets out a frustrated breath.

"You don't know what you're saying." She tells her for the millionth time and downs another drink. And she starts to feel a daze consume her. And she welcomed the calmness slowly washing over her.

Beside her, the woman in the sash only chuckles.

"You know, you can't afford to be picky." She adds. "It'll be difficult when you're pushing forty."

Utahime pursed her lips. And she looks at the crowd around them with a dead expression on her face.

"It's good I'm just thirty-one then." She mumbles in a heated breath.

The woman just laughs at her again, in her light, condescending giggle.

"Thirty-one is old, you know."

"Is it?" Utahime raised a brow and bitterly chugs another drink. Then, she thinks of all the friends she's lost throughout the years, fellow sorcerers younger than her who's died in the line of duty, young sorcerers who never even reached their thirtieth birthday.

"I guess thirty-one is old." She mutters quietly, her eyes allured by the shimmering gold bubbles rising from her beer. Then, she downs another drink.

.

"First to ten wins." She says. And as Gojo was about to ask her, win what - she had already started chugging her drink.

And Gojo had to quickly catch up.

In the end, Utahime nods with a daze in her eyes, proud of the number of drinks Gojo consumed. She was honestly surprised. She was just pulling his leg about finishing the ten drinks. 

He couldn't be that much of a moron, could he? She wondered to herself.

"I didn't reach ten, but I beat you." He was slouched over their table. "So," He slurred. "What do I win?"

"Win?" Utahime narrowed her eyes, trying to make out the blurred image in front of her.

"My prize!" Gojo barks in a drunken stupor.

"I honestly don't know." Utahime starts to laugh at him. And he started angrily tapping on their table with his hand.

"Oi, oi, oi," He said. "That's not fair." He kept tapping in annoyance.

And Utahime just kept laughing at his stupid, red face. This guy was such a bad drunk, she thought with a smile.

"There's no prize!" She laughs at him. "You didn't reach ten!"

"I beat you!" He kept barking at her. "Give me my prize!"

"All right," Utahime chuckles. "What do you want?"

Then, he points a rocking finger at the table behind her, and she laughs when she sees the karaage dish they were served.

"All right." She turns back to him with a fond smile.

And before she knew it, she could only look on in grave horror as Gojo leaned over their table and stole a kiss from her lips.

"Wha-wha-wha-" She shook in absolute shock; her eyes as wide as saucers; her lips sputtering and gapping like a fish out of water.

And the next thing she knew, Gojo barfed all over their table.

.

"Fucking, crazy bitch." He frothed in rage as he pinched his nose, seeing red all around him. "No wonder you're all alone, drinking yourself drunk."

"No one would want you." He laughs at her dryly, thinking she'd cry; thinking he's got her.

Utahime just looks down at him. And she spits at him. "I don't give a shit what you think." Her words dripped with venom. "So, shut the fuck up."

He looks up at the tiny woman; the woman he could so easily crush in his strong, bulging arms; in utter disbelief at the passion in her eyes, at the unfaltering firmness behind her gaze.

And he seethes. And he shakes in anger where he sat. It didn't make sense to him; how she could stand so proudly before him, how she could make him feel so small when he was twice her size.

Utahime gives him a final hateful glare. And she turns and walks away before they're even asked to leave by the izakaya's staff for the commotion they caused.

"Oi," He clenched his jaw. And he stands. And it just takes him a few steps before he's caught up to her, before he's behind her; and he reaches out with a furious hand; his blood pumping through his veins in rage.

Then, before he could grab her, a man steps in front of him; his gaze cold and threatening. And, the stranger stops him with a simple raise of his hand.

"It's done." Gojo tells him coolly, as Utahime walked out behind him. "She won." He said with a smirk, with a disappointed expression on his face.

"Maybe, try being a better man next time." He shakes his head with a condescending laugh. "Men like you give men like me a bad name, you know."

And he tauntingly pats the side of the fuming, humiliated man's face.

"Have a good life, neh?" Gojo sneers at him and pushes his face away in a disgust.

And he turns and smiles when he sees Utahime's nose raised at the air in pride, waiting for him by the bar's entrance. And with a laugh, he slings an arm over her shoulders.

Then, together, they look back at the seething man and mockingly hold out their tongues at him. Utahime gave him the finger.

.

"Good evening," Mei Mei casually walks up to their table. "I just saw your message." She tells Utahime.

And everyone cries in excitement and makes room for her.

"This is an intimate restaurant." Mei Mei chuckles behind her hand. "Why are we having the party here?"

"It was Gojo's turn to pick the bar." Utahime's head pops out from beside Shoko.

And Mei Mei turns to Gojo with the same chuckle. "This isn't a bar, Satoru."

She laughs. "Did you know?"

When Gojo doesn't speak, Utahime answers for him, "This place has really good beer!"

"That's why we went here."

"Neh, Gojo?"

Everyone turns to look at him.

And for a second, he turns to meet Utahime's waiting eyes.

And with a sigh, he starts to chuckle.

"They have really good beer." He repeats in concession.

And everyone just laughs at him and Utahime.

"You don't need to go some place fancy just for beer!" Yaga laughs and smacks Gojo's back. Much to the latter's annoyance.

"That's what I said!" Utahime cried. "But the beer really is so smooth!" She turns to Shoko with a wide grin.

Nanami raises his thumb at her, already on his third mug of beer. And she beams in delight.

Then, she turns to Gojo with a happy flush on her cheeks, with a wide grin on her lips. "Finally, a successful drinking party, neh?" She laughs at him.

And Gojo just raises his brows at her. And he starts to smile, defeated by the laughter escaping her lips.

"Hm." He nods and looks down at his drink.

Then, he's elbowed by Yaga, asking why he was being so quiet. And when everyone looks at him, Gojo sighs. And with a tilt of his head, closing his eyes, he starts yapping about himself and his mission from earlier.

Those Special Grade curses were so weak. He'd tell them. He didn't even break a sweat. He'd tell them.

And everyone would start shutting up. And start getting pissed. And start yelling at him for being too full of it.

.

"What?" Utahime suddenly butted in, laughing and teasing. "Gojo could never tie down a woman even if he tried!" She shook in laughter, grinning to her ears as she fell against Gojo's arm.

"Oh, really?" Gojo smirks, reaching out to wrap his arms around the drunken woman; when he accidentally swipes his hand on something soft.

"What-"

Gojo blinks in surprise.

And he sees an old woman next to them, a waitress trying to get their empty plates and beer cans.

"Just what-"

Gojo looked up at the old woman's vermillion face.

"Just what do you think you're holding?!!!!!"

Gojo's eyes open as wide as saucers. And Utahime wakes from her stupor in shock. And everyone in their table, everyone within earshot, turned to Gojo and the old waitress in horror.

"Uh-" Gojo laughs awkwardly and slowly pulls his hand away from the old woman's backside. "It's not what you think-"

"You sick perverted man???!!!!" The old woman flared, absolutely enraged and humiliated that some drunken fool thought he could get with her. And she starts swatting Gojo's head with a dirty rag; much to the latter's horror. And Utahime ducked away and nearly fell on her seat.

What the hell did Gojo do now?! She cried in alarm as she held her dizzy head.

"You'd lay your perverted hands on a frail, harmless woman?!!!"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD?!!!!"

She kept swatting him. Hitting him. Cursing him.

And Gojo, absolutely mortified, just wanted to disappear. He couldn't take it. Women were just beyond reason, insanely, absolutely, horrifyingly crazy!

Then, his eyes light up.

And he raises a hand, about to gesture for his infinity; when Utahime suddenly cries out, "Don't, Gojo!"

He relents that same instant, annoyed that he had to hide his abilities, that he had to hold back, once again, for the sake of the weak. 

He just really wanted the gross, wet rag to stop hitting him!

In front of him, the old woman's eye glints in a dangerous red at the sight of Gojo's raised hand. That same second that Gojo decided to relent, the old lady starts to shake, absolutely and utterly livid; thinking the drunken pervert was about to punch her.

"You dare raise your fist against a frail, harmless old woman????!!!!!!"

Gojo paled.

"I wasn't!!" He yelled at her in horror. But before he could explain himself, the woman was already shrieking at him in deliria and hitting him even harder and harder with her rag, with a tray, with everything. Everything! within reach.

"Respect your elders, you horny pervert!!!" She hit him and hit him and hit him again, to kingdom come.

Beside them, looking on, Utahime covered her mouth with a hand, utterly sorry for her poor friend who could do nothing but bite back every snide comment and surrender to the old woman's hits and curses.

They eventually leave soon after. And when they're out of sight, Gojo pulls Utahime to him and they jump straight to Jujutsu Tech, where she was lodging for the night.

"That old woman." He hissed in annoyance, still not over it.

"I know." She chuckled. "She was pretty scary."

"What a way to end the night." He seethed, looking away from Utahime's laugh, still seeing the banshee from earlier and trying to think of ways he could've gotten back at her.

"The night's not over yet, you know." He turns to Utahime, about to raise a brow at her; when she suddenly reaches up to him and kisses him on his lips.

And she laughs at the stunned expression on his face when she pulls away.