beautiful one, sharer of my longing

35: Zen'in return

"I'm not the one with a big head." Megumi grumbled, followed by Satoru gasping, rude!

"Yuji and Nobara can help you if you feel out of place."

"Yep!" Nobara cheered from across the table. "I don't do anything besides train with him anyway. We're gonna have the whole place to ourselves for the whole weekend! Should we host a party?" You seriously wonder how she kept herself busy.

"Aren't parties supposed to be kept quiet?" Jun chuckled while she walked by. "Who are you going to invite?"

"I don't know! But maybe I'll take a whack at your liquor cabinet, Gojo-sensei..." She teased. Satoru glared.

"It's expensive stuff. Just ask Shoko to drop some off."

"You're letting this happen?!" You and Megumi asked at the same time.

"They're teenagers!" he defended. "Don't act like you haven't done wild stuff, Maeda. I know me and Suguru did."

She walked away without a word, then you heard a scream of surprise in the next room. Heads turned but you made sure to keep the kid's eyes on you.

"Besides that, we actually did find a chaperone for you all." you informed.

"What?" Nobara gave you a glare, "you're not serious."

"He's actually in the next room if you want to meet him." you egged on. Satoru could barely contain his excitement, he had to cover his face with his hands to keep from bursting.

Now Megumi was confused. Why is he acting even weirder than normal?

No matter, because now he can hear Yuji talking excitedly in the room where their chaperone was supposedly held, and Nobara is grabbing his arm, saying, "let's go scare him away." He followed her out of the dining room hesitantly, hearing you laugh quietly and Satoru basically scream from excitement. What the hell is going on?

"Oh my god, it's Mai and that really hot guy!" Nobara shouted, then ran past him in the opposite direction, presumably to her room. Satoru is howling with laughter at this point. So is Jun, who's bent over on her knees cackling.

With a quickness, Megumi turned the corner and saw his fucking father chatting with an excited Yuji, and he could no longer move. Maki and Mai were standing next to them, and by god did they look exhausted. All that time Megumi spent worrying about these three, and here they were, all together and safe and sound in their clan's rivaling house.

"Dad?" he croaked.

Toji whipped his head over to the dark haired boy and immediately let out a sigh. "God, Megumi, you almost gave me a heart attack," The man stood up with a dramatic sigh and the moment he extended a hand to his son, the boy was already barreling into him with shaking breaths. "You alright?" Toji asked. He's clearly taken off guard. Everyone is. But Toji exhales with relief and wraps his much larger arms around his son, who's squeezing him tighter than he thought he'd be able to.

Maki and Mai are staring and giving each other looks that say we are going to debrief this later, Yuji is surprised but also smiling, Nobara is still flushed but shocked, you and Jun smile on at them, and Satoru is pointing a finger while laughing at him.

"Stop, Gojo!" Megumi shoves the man away with an angered look before turning back to his dad who's a little weepy while staring at him. "Are you crying?"

"What? No," he shakes his head, and Megumi fully thinks that this man can't tell he's even crying, so he reaches up and catches the small droplet from under his lashes and wipes it on his kimono. Against the cream colored fabric, Toji can see the small wet spot engraved on his sleeve. He cringes but wipes the rest of the small tears his face. "Damn."