#fbye bye

There were two people who took charge of your job during your absence. In Tokyo, it'd been your former mentor, Shoko. While you had resigned from your full-time position at the school —after moving in with Yuuta at the Gojo estate in Kyoto— she covered you on the specific ocassions the principal needed an specialist on your subject for a lesson. Meanwhile, in Kyoto's jujutsu school, it'd been Shoko's new student who took over your class, Hikari Tanaka. He was an sorcerer with years of experience up his sleeve. What lead him to RCT-specialist Shoko was suddenly learning how to perfom such tecniques on himself—he had a flash of understanding that came along with the desire to master his skills, and to pass his knowledge on to future generations of sorcerers through the power of education.

From the moment he presented himself to you, you thought Hikari's name suited him perfectly. A glimmer of hope in the dark path of being an RCT teacher. Yuuta still remembered how tears of joy prickled your eyes when you told him that somebody else was under training to become a teacher on your subject.

If he made it, maybe, by being exploited by jujutsu society's education system together, you could retire earlier than him. Hikari would manage on his own.

Yuuta had barely chuckled then, in bewilderment, and feeling far more worried over your colleague's future. However, Hikari bursted out laughing when you told him the same thing. His character seemed to harmonize well with yours—or at least he'd left a good impression on you after working together at the school during the previous three weeks before your work trip.

He really reminded you of Yuuji Itadori. That'd been your first impression of him, considering that in your student years at Tokyo's jujutsu school, Yuuji would pop up at the infirmary to volunteer as your assistant—while Yuuta was overseas, unable to offer you his help like he always did. Therefore, before substitute teacher Hikari arrived, student Yuuji had been in his place. Moreover, and most especially, Yuuta had been your first assistant. He prided himself in being a pioneer in the art of lending you his arm for you to practice blood draws on him. No one besides him —back then he was just your best friend— had put his body to the test for you, even if he frequently ended up feeling lightheaded while attending his morning lessons.

Still, while you've been saved by Hikari and Shoko's hard work, your students were stuck on point A. While a few of them were skilled enough to heal a small injury similar to a broken finger, everbody else was completely unable to control the cursed energy flow like it was neccessary.

However, that hadn't been the only practical difficulty that you stumbled upon while trying to tackle your mountain of work.

Unfortunately, you'd been too slow to understand how serious the situation was before your third and last day of working from home. While your remaining teaching-related tasks for the day would be being on call with Hikari to go over your lesson plans' details, you would eventually figure you needed to squeeze other duties into your schedule.

Unbeknownst to you, Yuuta had been hiding how uneasy he felt about your relationship with Hikari. Those feelings hadn't started from the moment you first talked about him to Yuuta, but thew grew into insecurity during your absence, piercing deeper within him. His inner conflict had begun near the end of March—almost a month since you'd left.

As the sun was setting, Yuuta was about to head out to Yuuji's birthday party spot. All of a sudden, he felt a buzzing sensation in his slack's back pocket. You were texting him.

Wifey:

Yuutitoo

The gift!!

Don't forget about bringing with you that scary worm plushie I got for Yuu-chan !!!

Yuuta:

Of course, my love

Almost forgot about it

May I ask when is that you changed your contact name on my phone?

Wifey:

Couldn't believe you hadn't changed my contact since hs

My love I don't want to scare you but... I think we might be married?!

Yuuta:

Hahaha

I added a heart next to your name like you told me... but this one isn't bad, it just took me by suprise

How do you have me saved on your phone?

Wifey:

Yuuta-sama

(  ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠) ⁠♡

Yuuta:

?!

Can we call later to update our contacts? That way we can make the decision together

Wifey:

Oh my… okie

You sure that's all we're doing on call?

Yuuta:

Uhm …

(^/////^ )

Wifey:

Yuu you are so cute

Slowly getting the hang of texting

I have to get ready for bed

Text me later what's Yuu-chan's reaction to the worm

Love uuuuu (  ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠) ⁠♡

Yuuta:

I love you so much more. I miss you too much …

Yuuta dressed up for Yuuji's birthday party only because you would do it whenever you were invited to an event together. By combing his hair back and putting on a semi-formal outfit for the occasion, he could imagine you were next to him right then, filling in the gaps that he had no interest in paying attention to. And yet, he still felt a sharp twinge in his heart when you went offline. But it didn't last long, as he felt his stomach doing a 360-degree flip the second after, with his phone buzzing in his hand with an incoming call. It was an unknown number, but Yuuta was left too shaken to be suspicious of it.

"Good afternoon, this is Yuuta Okkotsu speaking. May I ask who is calling, please?"

"Good afternoon! It's so nice to meet you, Gojo clan head Okkotsu-san! How are you? This is Hikari Tanaka, I am…" it wasn't even neccessary for Hikari to name what he was to you. His upbeat tone and how politely he adressed Yuuta had already told him whom he was meeting. "I hope I'm not bothering you, but I'm calling for an urgent matter and I needed you to help me reach out to the teacher—because I know you're her husband. I sent her a message at noon and I haven't gotten an answer yet, so I imagine she must be very busy… Oh, it was Ieri-sensei who kindly gave me your contact info."

"I'm pleased to meet you too, Tanaka-san. My wife spoke highly of you. You're not bothering me, and you don't need to address me by my title either… please do not worry about it. And you can ask me anything you need."

Hikari began to explain that he needed to know where you had stored a handbook that he required in order to prepare the upcoming midterms for your students. He meant to ask Yuuta if he could forward his request to you. There was a possibility that such material might be found in your office at the estate. Alternatively, if it was in a locked drawer at school, the key might be somewhere in your bedroom.

Yuuta pondered to himself for a moment.

"I can do that for you, but it's too late there. She won't answer us immediately. By any chance, have you tried calling her?" it did not please him to suggest that. The truth was that, even if Yuuta could emphatize with Hikari and how important his request was, he didn't want to call you right then either, demanding you to give him an answer. Firstly, because to Yuuta it was a matter of respect—he respected you and your rest time. Secondly, because…

"With all due respect, Okkotsu-san, the teacher is scary when she's woken up from her sleep."

At home, holding his phone near his face, Hikari suddenly felt a freezing blizzard roaring under his skin, sharp as a knife, piercing through his bones. It was his first time experiencing someone else's cursed energy —a rather frightening one at that— travelling miles to his location, seemingly through a call. Even if it was over faster than a blink.

What actually happened was that, in that fleeting second, Hikari —who was miles away from the estate— alongside everyone else caught within a certain distance radius, felt the tiniest bit of terror brewing inside of Yuuta since he was a kid.

"What are you referring to, Tanaka-san?" the implications in your colleague's observation lead Yuuta to believe that whatever response Hikari could come up with, he wouldn't want to listen to regardless. The worst part? Yuuta did not sound irritated at all—he'd never behave like that around anyone. His voice's soothing cadence, as steady as always, did an outstanding job—for the most part—at concealing how chillier his words had grown so suddenly.

However, Hikari seemed to have been born in Antartica, raised amidst polar bears and penguins. He had an enviable proficiency in handling tense situations, where the temperature plummeted and exposed skin tightened. To remain unphased before a blizzard was to be expected from a sorcerer who was under strenous traning to hone his healing technique—to be able to use it on others. Those who had walked down the very same path as him—like you, Yuuta, or anyone who could use a reverse cursed technique—were all too familiar with how it felt to live as walking, cursed energy bombs before learning to properly control its flow.

Yuuta was about to find out all of that about Hikari.

"Well, I began to work as a substitute teacher under her supervision, when she was weeks away from her work trip. One day, she seemingly forgot that I would be taking all our students to the training grounds, so she arrived to an empty classroom. When I discreetly took the opportunity to go and check in on her, I found her passed out on her desk," Yuuta's frown softened against his will as Hikari cheerfully kept on talking, "I was over-confident and I tried to wake her up. Can laugh about it now, but I almost died back then!"

Stunned, Yuuta swallowed slowly. He stared at a fixed point on the wall for a few seconds, then took a deep breath before speaking.

"Oh. Well. I'll send her a message. She'll surely answer you when she wakes up."

"Thank you so much, Okkotsu-san!"

The call ended then.

Right at that moment, Yuuta started to make sense out of your tendency to shower Hikari's personality with compliments whenever he was a fleeting topic in your conversations. He was well-informed about his extroverted character and the fact that, despite your brief period of working together, he'd gotten the highest praise from you over how helpful, thoughtful, and skilled he was as a substitute. It was seared into Yuuta's vivid memory—the sight of your outstreched grin that time in which you described Hikari, dreaming aloud, 'It's like I met you as a teacher.'

He finally understood. It was true—as a man, Hikari embodied the meaning of his name. Everything in him resembled light. Meanwhile, Yuuta dragged himself through his world, hauling the kanji of melancholy over his shoulders. Wasn't it—melancholy—the opposite from what's bright and hopeful, things that bring joy to everyone, and make the heart pump blood faster?

All Yuuta longed for was to make you at least a bit happy alongside him. Even if he'd never get to light up his surroundings like other people did. Like Hikari did.

You should've started to feel suspicious about Yuuta's jealousy during your breakfast time together. While trying to spoonfeed you, you seemed to care more about the buzzing feeling in your pocket, and you had to tell him to wait for a bit so that you could answer to Hikari's call more comfortably. The latter had informed you that, since you'd be going back to teaching the following morning, he'd have to call you a few times throughout the day.

While you were on call with your colleague, so engrossed in your conversation that your attention had abandoned Yuuta, he kept on gazing at you while resting his cheek on his hand. His eyes weren't the most patient ones, but he could never direct any kind of hostility towards you. You.

Dashing back and forth inside his head, there was a single thought that he could never bring himself to say out loud. He chose to keep his lips shut, and if it weren't socially unacceptable, he'd have parted them just to mutter under his breath, 'Tanaka-san this, Tanaka-san that.'

The next moment in which you should've seen right through Yuuta took place at his office. It was during one of your many, many shared and long breaks at noon.

Your husband hadn't grown any less insecure after being apart from you for so long, which was to be anticipated. No one could recover from such severe distress as Yuuta's within three days. Therefore, you continued providing him with your support as much as you could. More often than not, you would stay glued to his side, just like he did—putting in the effort not to get too far away from him, unless you needed to excuse yourself to the restroom. Yuuta also happened to be a man very much in love with your voice—loved hearing your presence near him. Which was why, regardless of how busy he could be at the moment—too occupied with a report to come up with his usual witty remarks—you would be talking his ear off about everything you saw during your trip.

Of everything you could do for him, physical contact was his favourite. Sitting on his lap while he worked, resting your head on his shoulder while you were on a break, anything like that comforted his soul.

Right now, what was happening was getting out of hand. It started with feeding each other tangerines, and then turned into a slow kissing session with you on his lap, peppering sweet kisses along his jawline.

Everything escalated quickly after that. Yuuta soon found himself on top of you on the tatami. As a tall man, his frame was big enough to swallow yours completely. Early in your relationship, he figured out that you thought of it as attractive—to be engulfed by his silhouette. He wouldn't feel your hands on his shoulders, gripping the fabric of his yukata so hard, if it weren't true—him tilting your chin so tenderly to slip his tongue more easily into your mouth might be to blame as well.

He focuses on tasting the fruit's sweet and citrusy flavor directly from your mouth—slides your tongues against each other to pick it up better. You gasp into his mouth, and it's hot and breathless. He is not doing any better than you, with his head filled with cotton as the wet sounds of your lips smacking against his, chasing each other on and on, get louder. It's barely enough to silence the noise inside Yuuta's head—his inner monologue urging him to devour you whole right then with unbridled lust. It's pure possessiveness; the way he's so close to making you both disregard your responsibilities, the way in which he wants nothing more than to steal you away for longer than what the remaining numbers in your work timer say, and just how badly he needs to never let you go away from him again.

That is the truth behind his actions. Yuuta isn't ready to wake up tomorrow to kiss you goodbye before you head to school. He needs more time and more of what you're giving him—wants to hear more of how you're almost purring his name in between gasps in his mouth, like it—him kissing, kissing, and kissing you—hurts you more than it—having to let you go again—despairs him. He can't put it in other words, even if it makes him sound insincere, coming from someone who swore to put his heart and soul into overcoming his fears and insecurities. And he knows well that he will survive this; he will get used to having you all to himself before the sun rises completely, and after every sunset, when you make it back home. It's always been like that.

Yuuta is aware that he won't die because of your physical absence while the sun is up. However, his anxiety has never followed logic; it's deeply rooted within him. And it's a stabbing feeling that pierces his heart, how much it terrifies him, the possibility of losing you again—the terror, its sharp blade twisting further into his guts. It hurts him so much that he misses you already, even if you're still right there, under him—so much that when he feels your hands moving from his shoulders to his nape to pull him closer towards you, the back of his eyes burn.

Which is why, as you keep on kissing each other, he makes every drop of your saliva, as it runs down your chin, count. He's relentless—lets you know with his kisses alone that you taste the sweetest, and just how much he loves to savour the citrusy flavor of your tongue. Unprompted, Yuuta silently emphasises his point by making a slight change in how he's holding your chin—tilting it just enough to dive into your mouth to start sucking your tongue.

He's the luckiest man on Earth, and he's sure of it because he can feel your body's half-hearted attempts to fight against his natural talent to leave you breathless. The two syllables that make his name come out from the back of your throat in the shape of shortened noises. 'Yuu' sounds akin to a plea for air that stretches into a sweet whimper and finishes as a quiet sob. And then the kisses end with the far more distinctive 'Ta', which is a sharp gasp that happens around the same time Yuuta runs out of breath.

It drives him crazy how you pull at the hair strands in his nape while you moan into his mouth—all of your cute noises come into his ear and travel down to his crotch. But Yuuta wants to go slow, and he's all too familiar with neglecting his boner as the room within his boxers gets smaller. He thinks he can get away with it this once, that you'll let him play with you a bit more—but he's wrong, like he always is.

While he gasped for air in your mouth, he made the mistake of adjusting his position—so as not to crush you under him—supporting himself on his knees so that there would be a bigger room in between your lower bodies.

It is precious to you, the up-close view you get from Yuuta's face as a wave of pleasure tears through his body and makes him shudder—the pressure of your knee against his boner over his yukata is nothing short of enticing to him.

The whimper of your name that he lets out then is the perfect balance of adorable and wanton.

It's so unfair for you both, too. Yuuta can't help himself from doing the opposite of what he tried not to do—making too much suspicious noise in his office during "working" hours.

"Angel," he whines against your lips, and his breath is hot as it brushes the tip of your nose.

Such a pretty view. The muscles around his eyes tighten as he resigns his sight for a second—an attempt at self-preservation, as though it helped to keep his soul within himself, for his life to last longer so that he can keep on tangling his legs with yours. His dark circles cradle his closed eyes so tenderly, and his brows knitted together accentuate the light strain in his expression. The cherry on top is how charming the red hues are as they blossom all over his lower lip, his cheeks, the tip of his ears…

And yet, this is so unfair for you as well. You are always too easily swept away by Yuuta's whimpers—you can't even fight it. This won't be any different. Even if he had no way to control or conceal it, there was this special—dulcet and tremulous, almost desperate—tone to his words whenever he needed to make love to you—and it's a call you can't ignore. Two years into a marriage with Yuuta, and you can't help but shamelessly gravitate towards him whenever he gets needy—you would wear it as a badge of honor, even.

It wouldn't be the first time you make love in Yuuta's office, on the tatami.

But it's been months since you've touched him like this specifically. You could tell as much by Yuuta's lack of usual response—you expect him to grind his hips against your knee, spurring you on. Instead, he takes your hands in his and places them beside your head, intertwining your fingers. He looks for an anchor, for strength in your hands.

It's hot, syrupy—the pleasure, the pressure, it makes him fold into himself, and he hides his reddened face in the crook of your neck. Like that, it's easier for him to keep his back straight, supporting himself on his trembling knees to grant you better access to his crotch.

Below his waist, everything tingles and burns. Beneath his yukata, his quads tighten and soften on and on as you press your knee into his boner in full, slow circles. Even through layers of fabric, you can feel how hard Yuuta is for you. So much so that if you pushed just the tiniest bit further, you could actually feel its warmth—how the blood pumped through the veins running down his cock while it throbs and throbs.

"Obscene" doesn't come even close to what the sounds tearing through his throat sound like. They're more akin to a desperate call for love.

Yuuta shakes.  

His tabi-covered foot curl while you love him.

"Yuutito, want to lean back for a bit?" your voice is so buttery that Yuuta could explode in his boxers just from hearing his special nickname.

He's still hiding his face in your shoulder, and your breath against the reddish shell of his ear is like a heated kiss. It makes his skin tingle, and he doesn't know what to do with himself.

You continue. "Want to give you what you like the most."

The implication in your words melts Yuuta from the inside, and it gives him goosebumps everywhere.

Shamefully, that's his immediate answer to your offer.

His shoulders visibly tremble a bit, as though he's seriously pondering giving in to his raw desires right then—letting you stroke him with your feet for a while… after a beat, Yuuta leaves his hiding place and adjusts his position to look at you in the eyes. There's sweat on his forehead scar, and it makes his hair stick to his skin. His bangs are disheveled just a bit, and his face is red, and so cute to watch. Very adorable.

"But I want to kiss you more. Just a bit more…"  his voice was gentle, even when he half-heartedly wanted to delay your attempts at pleasuring him.

Yuuta lowers his head to devour your lips once more, and he adjusts his grip on your hands. He tries to cage you between his body and the tatami. On this occasion, however, you think it's right to toy with his patience for just a bit more. You wait, letting him think he'll win this once, kissing him back until he lowers his guard, and then you press your knee against his crotch again, further. The kiss breaks—cobweb of spit stretching between your lips—with a high-pitched wail from your husband, and he folds into himself while squeezing your hands tighter on instinct.

"What about this?" his hair falls forward, and it tickles your nose. It makes you giggle. "You like this so much too, right, Yuutito?"

"Mm… please…" and while he seems to reject your attempts at pleasuring him just like he likes the most, he can't help himself—he gets himself off on your knee, pressing his hips further against it, humping your leg shamelessly.

At the same time, he turns his head so that he can slot his eyes into yours. His lips quiver as he huffs, and there's this pained look in his half-lidded eyes that makes you frown in worry.

This is not how he usually behaves.

"'Kiss you. Want to kiss you more," he urges, squeezing your hands, almost begging, desperate. "Just for a bit more. Just want more time, please."

There is something off.

"Yuu… okay. But can you let me take care of you after, too?"

Yuuta could tell that you knew that he was approaching a breaking point, regarding this inner conflict he had with what would happen the following morning.

It's evident in the sweet—it is consolation?—tone that your voice slowly takes. In his eyes, it looks like you're trying to soften the blow—the impact of your absence as it will violently crash over him right after you walk out of the estate's front entrance. He's blinded by his own ideas when he thinks he sees your lips stretched in a comforting smile—it makes his chest hurt so badly.

That's enough for his throat to go dry, and for his eyes to get wet with unshed tears instead—they won't fall over your face just yet.

His voice is strained. "It's just that-" 

He's cut off by the buzzing sound that starts coming from your phone over the kotatsu. It startles him, and he stops breathing altogether for a second.

Yuuta gets off of you and lends you a hand to help you up. He's also the one who passes you your phone. 

Hikari sent you messages. Several ones. Your phone buzzes as he sends them, one after the other, and while you don't notice, Yuuta's frown deepens with each one of them. 

Hikari (Kyoto):

Senseiii

I'm so sorry! I've been bothering u too much today

Can we call?

It's about the intensive lessons for the students who are falling behind.

You get up from the floor with your phone in your hand. The idea of having to leave your husband's embrace makes you sigh. "Guess there's nothing else I can do."

Yuuta gets up on his feet very fast. Too fast. So much that it genuinely startles you.

"Sorry," his nervous smile doesn't reach his eyes. It doesn't look natural either.

He's never felt the weight of his bottled-up feelings like this before. He always tells you everything; he can't keep anything to himself. This once is different—there's something bigger than him that forces him to swallow all of his anguish before it can reach you through his words. What hurts him the most is that he knows that he would find a way out of the pain he's suppressing within himself, just by talking to you.

But then he looks at you, and you look so worried that it makes him back up. He's too embarrassed to come clean and to tell you that he isn't strong enough for you—to let you go again.

So he would let you have your work call. He gives you space; it'll be practice for the very near future, at least.

"I- I have to get ready for this visit to the shrine that I told you about. The owners told me to come this afternoon, so I should get going… let's have dinner when I'm back. Is that okay?"

You blink. The fake serenity in his voice—even Yuuta wouldn't believe himself.

But he does play his cards well enough when he approaches you and kisses you on your forehead. Unfortunately, your colleague is online and demanding your attention, and you're forced to make a decision. You choose to sit and have a heart-to-heart talk with Yuuta later about whatever was actually happening with him.

Finally, by bedtime, it's by accident that you find out that Yuuta's been jealous the entire day.

What gives it away is his behavior when Hikari sends you messages again—something about going over the details of everything you needed to consider for your return to the school.

Which is fine, because it's not hard to answer him right away. But you do want to get done with the conversation so that you can talk with Yuuta.