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———— THEY COULDN'T FIND HER.
[y/n] ran off after confessing to megumi. he tried to go after her, but she quite literally threw a lightning bolt at him and he barely got past it unscathed. she had disappeared, and there was no way to find her.
the little ones were sent off with ijichi to hang around tokyo for a while. they didn't need to be part of this chaos right now.
eiji and asuka paced back and forth while the others stood or sat, trying to think of where she could've gone. "this makes no sense. everything was perfectly fine yesterday; what changed?" eiji shook his head. nobara and itadori's eyes fell on megumi, who was staring at the ground as he bounced his leg anxiously, elbows resting on his knees. asuka noticed this and let out a quiet sigh, turning to him.
"megumi, honey. you need to tell us what happened last night," she calmly stated.
megumi swallowed the lump in his throat, leg bouncing more aggressively now that he was recalling last night's memories, "i, uhm, don't really know how to explain it."
"just try your best," asuka gently placed a hand on his shoulder. it wasn't long before tears streamed down his face, his head resting against asuka's side as she held him, gently stroking his hair to calm him. "take your time."
megumi wiped his eyes, embarrassed at his weakness. he took a breath and nodded, sitting up straight once more. "she, uh, confessed-"
"took her long enough," nobara muttered, itadori nudging her side to get her to shut up.
"she confessed, and then she started crying. i asked her what was wrong, because i thought maybe she was overwhelmed? she's not the type to go full on emotional breakdown, y'know? nor the type of confess... anyways. she just stood back and said that i wasn't the only one she was in love with, and then she ran off. i tried to go after her, but she threw a lightning bolt at me and disappeared when i managed to get past it."
asuka and eiji looked at each other, the looks on their faces were quite telling to gojo. "you knew," gojo raised a brow.
"she didn't want to talk about it at first. it was after we brought her home to begin her training. she was so closed off at first, which was unusual. everyone noticed, but no one dared to say anything. they knew how she was, so they thought it would be over with within the week. but, three weeks passed and she was still not herself. so, we eased her into telling us about what was going through her head," eiji began. "she didn't really open up to me, at first."
"she actually didn't really open up to me, either. i think there was a level of embarrassment for her. she didn't want to be seen as a "lovesick fool". that's what she thought of herself as," asuka sighed, "she went to her brothers' graves. she sat there for a long time, just in silence. i went to find her so she could come in for dinner, but she was talking to them. she told them about everything going on here, how it felt to be home. and then, she talked about what the curse of lust said to her. i hadn't realized she had fought the deadly sins; we thought she was just fighting random special grades.
she repeated the words that lust said to her. about how she was in love with the thought of having everyone, but truly wanting no one. it was heartbreaking to hear, and i think those words haunt her, because she started crying. she cried and cried and started cursing herself and the world because she had to hide her warm heart with a cold shell. she knew i was standing there, but she kept crying. i hadn't seen her cry in years. so, i went to hold her, like any mother would. and she cried in my arms and told me everything. i promised not to speak of it, but this has gone on for too long. she's pushing away so much to be this great sorcerer, but she needs to understand that she's still a human with feelings, and feelings don't make us weak."
"what did she say to you in regards to who she had acquired feelings for?" nobara asked.
asuka let out a pain chuckle, shaking her head, "she had fallen in love with every person in this room."
everyone looked around at the other, unsure of how to process this information.
"you mean, like, love love?" maki asked.
"she has a strange idea of the word love, i think," eiji said, leaning against the table, "it's one thing to love a friend, it's one thing to love a lover. but, for [y/n], love was for everyone. she loves each and everyone one of you with every fiber of her being. a select few she had fallen in love with. that was something different for her. being in love was new and scary, and she wasn't sure how to deal with it. she actually admitted that she agreed to come home to try and fall out of love, hoping it would help resolve all the issues she thought she had because of it."
itadori suddenly understood everything. the way [y/n] never hung around them for too long, the way she cared the most with the least amount of visible effort. she was hiding her feelings because they scared the shit out of her.
he finally understood that she was in love with him.
not that he would complain; [y/n] was perfect in every sense. she was no jennifer lawrence, but she was [y/n]. that was more than enough. he glanced at gojo and nanami, who seemed to also pick up on the fact that they were also objects of her affection. he then glanced at megumi, who's face read distress, sadness, and betrayal all in one look.
itadori wasn't surprised, though.
he had known megumi loved her for a long time.
itadori remembered the day he weaseled it out of him. he and nobara had noticed megumi's attitude and demeanor had changed, which is saying a lot, because he has the same expression for everything. however, they only noticed it whenever [y/n] was around. sure, he still acted like himself. but, there was a certain softness to him whenever he spoke to [y/n].
at first, they presumed it was because he was still reeling from when she had attempted to take her own life. but, slowly, he had become a whole different person around her.
so, they locked him in a room until he told them the truth.
he eventually did. not without trying to kill them first.
"i see," gojo muttered quietly, hands in his pockets as he pushed himself off the wall and headed out.
"where are you going?" shoko asked.
"to try and figure out where my student is," he curtly replied, the door shutting behind him. he took a few steps and transported himself to a spot he knew she frequented. he sat against one of the bigger rocks, staring out into the distance. "there's no point in hiding, [y/n]. someone's going to find you eventually," he called out in no particular direction. he knew she could hear him. there was a bit of rustling and then the crunching of footsteps on the gravel filled the silence. he didn't turn to look, but he knew it was her.
she stood a few feet away, arms wrapped around herself as she stared into the distance with him. "mom told you."
"she did."
"how'd you know i'd be here?"
"because you knew i'd come find you, and this is the only place i'd look," gojo hummed. she let out a quiet chuckle, shaking her head as she made her way over and took a seat next to him on the rock.
"so, what do you want to know?"
gojo turned to look at her, a little smile gracing his face.
