Been thinking a lot about the different dynamics between Yuji and Nanamin/Gojo again.
The stakes of everything Gojo does are higher. He’s playing a totally different game than everybody else; the system he uses to evaluate and rank things is fundamentally different than the systems others use. It’s like he’s doing quantum mechanics and everyone else is doing algebra. He has visibility to so much more and has so much pressure on him. I think that pressure means that he has to be very practical about how he spends his time.
Which is something you’d expect from Nanami, but not necessarily Gojo.
Like if Yuji breaks his arm and the hospital calls Gojo he wouldn’t come. I really don’t think he’d come, but not because he doesn’t care. He would think “what can I do about it? Shoko will fix him up and send him home. The kid doesn’t need me.”
And he’s right.
There’s technically nothing he can do in that situation that would help. Yuji wouldn’t expect him to come and it’s not like they’re super close. And when weighed against the other–totally batshit–things that Gojo does have to do (exorcize special grades all over the country before they kill thousands of people, hunt down curse users, keep the Jujutsu world from imploding, and god knows what else) he really doesn’t have much choice.
He’s shackled to these BIG things that depend solely on his strength to succeed so he isn’t able to make time for things that are small, things that may matter to him even more than his duties. Gojo cares about his students.
And I’m not saying that Gojo is just this perfect selfless man (because he isn’t) but I have to imagine that being under the weight of keeping his whole way of life afloat would take its toll. So even when he doesn’t have some secret assignment somewhere there’s not enough gas left in the tank to do the things that he doesn’t absolutely HAVE to do.
Like being there for Yuji, a kid with no family who is sitting alone in a hospital room with a broken limb he got from some grotesque battle. Maybe he’s got tears in his eyes because there was someone he was too late to save. Maybe he held them as they died.
But Gojo won’t know.
–
Nanami would go. He’d have his phone ringer on at night just for this kind of situation.
He knows Yuji will be fine, he knows he doesn’t need to go down there and hold his hand or something, but there’s a compulsion under his skin that he can’t fight. Because no matter how strong he is, Yuji is still just a boy. A child. And he should have an adult there who knows him and is able to help, even if it’s just because he has two functioning hands instead of one and can fill out the mountain of paperwork.
Maybe it’s something Yuji’s grandfather would have done, or a father, if he ever had one.
The steady tap tapping of his leather soles against the sterile hospital tile makes him itch. This feels wrong, like an intrusion. As he approaches the exam room Nanami suddenly wonders if this was a mistake.
But then Yuji sees him and his eyes brighten, though he throws a quizzical look, “Nanamin? What are you doing here?”
“They called me.”
“About this?” The boy gestures down to his splinted arm, which Nanami notes with a scowl has yet to be healed, “they really shouldn’t have, I’ll be alright…Boy am I glad you’re here though! Some of this paperwork is confusing and I don’t really know what I’m supposed to put down…”
Yuji’s face turns sheepish and he runs his uninjured hand through his pink hair and down to the back of his neck.
“Give it here - I’ll take care of it as soon as I track down Shoko and get her to look at that arm. They called nearly 30 minutes ago; what’s taking her so long?”
There is a short tut and the sound of the door swinging shut behind Nanami’s back.
“Who would’ve guessed you’d be such a mama bear, Kento?” Shoko’s comment has Yuji laughing but Nanami elects to ignore it. “Life threatening injuries come first, you should be glad he wasn’t higher up on my priority list tonight.”
“You know what I find funny?” she continues, grabbing a fresh pair of nitrile gloves and snapping them into place, “You said you got the call half an hour ago but your apartment is 45 minutes from here. Just where were you sleeping, dear Kento?”
Nanami’s face of stone is giving nothing away but Shoko grins when she watches him freeze momentarily as he flips a page in Yuji’s release form. She fishes out her phone and begins typing wildly, mouth falling into a pouty frown.
“How could Toru not have mentioned you were seeing someone!? I just saw the idiot yesterday.”
Nanami’s fingers jump to his temples and start to rub circles in an attempt to calm himself, “He doesn’t know. And I would appreciate your discretion about–“
“Oh…” Shoko looks up from her phone, having just pressed send, “So I sort of tore him a new one for not telling me about your secret lover…”
“Just treat Itadori. If I’m going to have Satoru up my—“ the man cuts himself off with a sigh as his phone lights up and vibrates across the tabletop.
Yuji slaps a hand over his mouth but not quite fast enough to disguise a burst of laughter. Shoko turns away sharply to avoid the murderous glare Nanami was shooting her way.
Nanami walks stiffly out into the hallway, phone in one hand, nearly crushing the bridge of his nose with the other.
“It’s nearly three o’clock, Satoru, what is it?…Tears won’t work on me…”
