Nanami Kento x f!reader, early relationship fluff.
There’s a weight in your chest, some form of restless buzzing that you find yourself unable to put a name to.
As you struggle to pinpoint the source of your disquiet, you glance around the large Kyoto Jujutsu High classroom that has since been rearranged into a makeshift dining hall. You’re quickly diverted by the lively scene comprising students of all grades from both the Tokyo and Kyoto Jujutsu schools along with faculty and support staff alike, all congregated here following this year’s Sister School Goodwill event.
It is one lively, bustling, and especially sonorous gathering that finds everyone currently seated at a long table at the center of the room, towards the tail end of dinner—overlapping conversations, silverware clinking on plates and the loud, boisterous laughter that spills over it all, largely belonging to one Gojo Satoru.
You’re sitting between Utahime and Shoko, both engaged in a deep work-related gossip session for which you’ve admittedly lost the plot.
“Okay, but you don’t actually believe that Kusakabe-san would put his name behind that kind of recommendation, do you?” Shoko says, slightly peering across you as she directs her words at Utahime. “He still has a reputation to maintain!”
“I’m just telling you what I heard, Shoko. Now, you understand that I can’t personally ask him unless he brings it up to me first… As a teacher, I do need to maintain some level of decorum.”
“Just have Gojo do it then. God knows he doesn’t have to worry about any kind of decorum…”
You absentmindedly tap your finger on the table, feeling a sudden fatigue. You think it’s the consequences of the unwise late night you’ve had on the eve of an early morning train ride from Tokyo that are catching up to you. But you also sense something else, a vague unease, a blend of anxiety and irritation that settles in the pit of your stomach.
As he suddenly stands from his seat between Gojo and Itadori, you notice him immediately—Nanami’s presence now always takes up a prominent and permanent place in the back of your mind whenever you share a room with him, even more so since you started secretly seeing each other a couple of months ago.
When Nanami walks away from the table, it’s characteristically without fanfare, and he appears to scan the room, searching for something. You surreptitiously observe him as he picks up an object from one of the catering tables that sits against the back wall, and lifts it up, pointing it towards something hanging up in the corner behind you.
It happens so suddenly—a pressure you didn’t even recognize to be present until this very minute easing in the air. Your chest immediately feels lighter and something shifts within you, quelling the disquiet that has taken hold of you for the last few minutes.
Your eyes follow the direction where Nanami is pointing, and now you both see and understand the source of your distress—a speaker that was, until a few seconds ago, blasting some of the ambient music that had long since faded into the chaotic background, now much more tolerable at its new volume.
When you return your gaze to Nanami, you find him already back at his seat, his attention now captured by Gojo, who has since wrapped his arm around his shoulder as he practically shoves his phone screen into his junior’s face. You watch on with amusement as Yuuji also brings his face into frame, determined not to miss out on the action, inadvertently blocking Nanami’s view as he does, to which Nanami simply lets out a deep sigh and shifts slightly to the left, all while remaining visibly unimpressed by whatever video is playing out on Gojo’s screen.
“So?” Shoko’s voice suddenly cuts into your contemplation. You turn to her, finding her eyebrows raised expectantly.
“So…what?” you ask nervously, wondering if perhaps your insistent staring at Nanami has betrayed you.
“What do you make of it? This potential recommendation?” Utahime chimes in, matching Shoko’s anticipation.
“Oh, right. Yeah, I think this entire thing is bogus,” you declare, feeling a pang of guilt in your chest as you hope that your response fits the discourse and as you quietly vow to be more attentive now that you’re better disposed to do so.
“Right?!” exclaims Utahime, visibly invigorated by your concurrence. “Okay, actually, I really think we should investigate this. Some of us have been working for years for our promotions, and if we’re not going to reform this broken system, the least we should do is to ensure that…”
Utahime’s voice fades into the background once more as you finally manage to catch Nanami’s eye for the brief moment it takes Gojo to turn over to poor Ijichi, subjecting him to whatever nonsense he was blasting on his phone.
You smile at him, bringing a hand to your chest as you tilt your head downwards and gently close your eyes to telegraph your gratitude at his exceptional attentiveness to you and the relief that his gesture has brought you.
Nanami responds with a subtle, almost imperceptible nod of his head and a warm smile of his own as he instinctively pushes up his glasses, a cute habit you now recognize him to have whenever he’s put on the spot.
The moment is short-lived when Gojo suddenly erupts with whatever’s got him worked up, bumping back into a now irritated Nanami with the force of his fit.
You’re unable to conceal the knowing smile that tugs at your lips, as you realize in this moment that later tonight, it will be your turn to be a supportive partner by lending your ear to Nanami Kento’s inevitable rant about his friend’s incessant antics.
A/N: Sensory overload can be such a pain 😩 | Masterlist
