──── 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙁 the knife hitting the chopping board is what gojo woke up to. he groggily sat up onto the couch, turning his head as he rubbed his eyes.
he could see naoko cooking in the kitchen. she was cutting vegetables, putting them into the pot filled with soup. she turned around grabbing a utensil from the drawer.
she noticed satoru sitting up staring at her. he widened his eyes, "oh you're awake now." she said grabbing some bowls from a cabinet. "what time is it?" he yawned walking over to her. "uh..." she said looking over at her watch, "it's almost ten."
"i figured it be best to let you sleep. it's the weekend after all." placing their bowls onto the table, satoru took a seat across from naoko. "here i made some soup for your hangover." handing him a spoon he put his hands together, prepared to eat "thanks for the food." she nodded watching him take the first bite. he hummed in delight, taking a liking to the soup.
she smiled at his reaction, taking a bite from her own bowl. "what time did you wake up, naoko?" he asked, making conversation.
"seven. i ran this morning. thought about some things." she replied. taking a deep breath she paused, "i um- i thought about what you said. i think you're right, i was distancing myself from people. and it wasn't helping me or the ones who care for me."
she thought about it during her run. about their rather deep talk last night. "but i still don't know if is being friends is a good idea." she hesitated the thought. "we don't have be super close yet, how about just small talk?" he recommended, "just a, how have you been? what have you been up to?" naoko nodded, feeling comfortable with that.
"i um... well i guess i've been learning what my responsibilities are as clan head, my father has been teaching me since i graduated." she explained and satoru listened attentively. "have you gotten along with your father? i guess now that you've been seeing him more often."
"i guess we respect each other more now. i can tell he cares a bit more too, it's a little weird but it's nice sometimes to have a person in the clan i can lean on."
"that's great, naoko." he exclaimed, happy for her. she nodded feeling a bit good from sharing with him. "how about you? how have you been doing?" she asked, a. it curious about him too.
"just busy, i guess. they gave me the clan when we graduated, but i don't really have much responsibilities to learn, since the gojo clan is pretty much a one man team of me." he shrugged his shoulders.
"but i guess there's nothing really new with me." he paused, "have you been seeing anyone, y'know after we...?" he asked playing with the fabric of his pants, nervous to what she would say.
secretly he hoped that she didn't really move on, date anyone else. but at the same time he wanted her to be happy and maybe dating someone else would do that.
he waited for her answer, "no i haven't," she said thinking further about her answer, adding "well i mean technically i have."
"oh, that's good." he said with his head held down low, his hopes crushed a little bit.
naoko noticed the change in his mood, feeling bad, "no! i mean i- my dad has been trying to set me up with someone to marry before i become head." she was flustered. she didn't even know why she was explaining this to him. she didn't have to tell him, right?
she continued to rant as gojo listened, smiling inside, "he wants me to settle down, find someone i can i have children with. so i've been going on a lot of dates recently, i guess you could say." she said rambling on and on.
"oh," he smiled a little bit, relieved, "how are your options then?" he was curious, who was his 'competition'. "not looking too great honestly. these are some of the worst dates i've been on." she started to chuckle at how bad these dates were.
he laughed along, "that bad huh?" she nodded as they laughed together. she told him a few stories of the men she went on these dates with.
and they spent the rest of the morning catching up, laughing, just enjoying each other's presence.
