"Blue."
"Pink."
"Blue."
"Pink. If you say blue one more time, I'm gonna hit you."
A smirk.
"Blue."
She threw a punch towards him but hit only the invisible wall that protected him.
"Um… we have some other models if you'd rather look at those…" The nervous seller eyed the two of them anxiously.
Utahime followed the anxious salesman to another stand, trying to see their other options. Before she started working as a teacher, she believed that the people in positions of power had those roles due to their wisdom and experience. However, whoever believed that pairing her with Gojo to plan important events had to be the biggest idiot on the planet.
"Hey, Utahime! What about this? Young people like clowns, right?" Gojo pointed towards an absurdly ugly clown balloon.
Utahime shot Gojo with an incredulous look. Gojo loved to troll people, but even he wouldn't be this absurd. For the twentieth time that day, she lamented the fact that she was stuck with him.
"You do recall that this is a goodwill event celebrating 300 years of Jujutsu High, right? This isn't an event for the students." Utahime wished Gojo understood the importance of the event. All the major clan leaders would be present, in addition to everyone that was someone in the Jujutsu society.
"I don't know, personally I think something like this really fits some of the clan leaders." Gojo snickered as he held up a huge fake spider.
Utahime disguised her amusement with a sigh. While she generally agreed with a lot of Gojo's opinions on Jujutsu society, she couldn't afford to openly antagonize them as he did.
"I'm sure you'd love to come up with some kind of prank that douses them in pig's blood, but I can't afford that. If this party isn't perfect, it's my head that will roll on the floor." Utahime looked down. If she had been born with an amazing power or an important name, she could be bold, but instead, she was forced to tread carefully and fearfully.
Gojo looked to the anxious man that had been helping them. "Since my partner and I can't agree between pink or blue, would you happen to have anything in purple?"
"Yes! Please follow me!" The attendant smiled. Gojo looked to Utahime, silently asking for her agreement. She nodded and the pair followed the man.
"Well, now we just need to decide on the catering." Utahime pulled out her planner, crossing off decorations from her list. "I hope you're hungry." She muttered. Utahime knew Gojo was a picky eater, and if he was satisfied, then it'd be good for everyone else.
Utahime signed and paid the agreement to have the decorations delivered. The pair walked out of the store side by side. As Gojo checked his phone for the location of the first catering office on his phone, Utahime watched him. When Gojo wore civilian clothes, it was remarkable how different he was from everyone else. With white hair, sunglasses, a tall frame, broad shoulders, and a confident smile, Gojo looked like an outworld alien engineered to be the most handsome man in the world. Next to him I probably look like an ugly hag, Utahime thought.
"It's about three blocks that way. Shall we walk?" Gojo asked her, snapping her away from her self-deprecating thoughts.
"Sure." Utahime agreed. They walked under the lukewarm fall sun. Women snuck looks at them wherever they went. Utahime was used to it: this happened every time she walked with Gojo.
"Don't you think this is good practice? When we get married we'll know exactly where to go to plan our ceremony." Gojo smiled at her and Utahime stared at him oddly. His wording almost made her think he saw her as a wedding partner.
"You mean if you live long enough to find a wife. I'm going to die an old maid." Utahime scoffed. She had no faith in either herself or Gojo ever getting married. She knew he'd somehow get himself killed before then and she'd never find anyone who wanted her.
"Utahime, you wound me! Do you really think I'm going to die young? I'm Gojo Satoru, you know." Gojo pushed his sunglasses down to stare at her with his special eyes.
"Yes. Nobody's truly unbeatable in this world." Utahime knew even Gojo had to have weaknesses.
"If I make it past 35 will you marry me?" Gojo chuckled.
Utahime rolled her eyes at him. She wished he'd take things more seriously. If he joked around like that with another woman, they might genuinely believe him.
"Sure." Utahime deadpanned. Gojo laughed heartily at her reaction. In these moments of friendly banter, Utahime felt like Gojo was a precious friend to her.
His phone rang, interrupting the moment. He answered it and his face turned serious. Utahime knew what happened. He was probably being called for an urgent mission. "Understood." He noted, hanging up. "There's a special grade reported at Tehm'pul Temple." Gojo relayed the information to her, surprising her. A cursed spirit in a temple was very rare.
"Go ahead, I can finish up by myself," Utahime reassured him. Cursed spirits always came first, particularly special-grade ones.
"Nonsense." Gojo wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. Utahime's eyes widened as a lurching feeling curled in her stomach, signalling Gojo's teleportation technique.
She blinked and realized she was now standing inside a veil, with Gojo casually looking around, his sunglasses hanging on his breast pocket. The presence of the cursed spirit overwhelmed Utahime's senses.
"Why did you bring me along?!" Utahime yelled at him. She knew she wasn't in any real danger, because Gojo was there, but she hadn't been expecting him to bring her along.
"I'll wrap this up quickly so we can continue on our date." Gojo put up his two fingers and Utahime stepped behind him. Two seconds later, Gojo's technique burst forward, destroying everything in its wake. Utahime looked at the empty space, no longer feeling the presence of the cursed spirit.
"I almost feel bad. You're really oppressive, Gojo." Utahime crossed her arms. The title of strongest sorcerer fit Gojo extremely well. "And it's not a date, idiot." Utahime slapped him softly, hitting his Infinity barrier.
The veil around them dropped as the helpers and other Jujutsu officials swarmed the scene.
"And you think I'm going to die early…" Gojo teased her.
"I still stand by what I said." Utahime crossed her arms stubbornly.
"You better." There was something different in Gojo's tone and body language that made Utahime wonder if she had just missed something. However, as they began speaking to the others, the matter slipped her mind.
.
.
Utahime looked around, satisfied with the work she'd done. The party preparations had been flawless. Nothing went wrong and she felt relief that if the party reached an awkward end, it wouldn't be because of her. Utahime had done her job properly and she could now relax and enjoy the clan heads tear themselves apart.
"The desserts are very cute." Shoko was holding a plate with several cute macarons on top.
"Gojo's idea, of course," Utahime mentioned. Gojo had been extremely picky about the desserts, dragging Utahime to seven different places before he made a decision.
"I figured." Shoko nodded. "Listen, I heard a weird rumor. Are you and Gojo engaged?" Shoko hadn't believed it when she heard it, but what made her skeptical wasn't the engagement, but the fact that both Utahime and Gojo didn't tell her about it.
"What?! Who would…" Utahime was initially angry, but then remembered the conversation she had with Gojo at the temple. "I think I know what happened. The other day we were joking about it in front of some of the Kyoto assistants that don't know Gojo very well, so they probably thought we were being serious." Utahime explained. Shoko hummed in understanding. To her that sounded very believable, after all, Utahime and Gojo liked to flirt by discussing relationship hypotheticals.
"By the way, did you guys ever settle on whether you'll have a boy or a girl?" Shoko asked, remembering the last debate the two had had.
"If we have a kid, which we won't, of course, it will be a girl," Utahime answered. The truth was that they hadn't actually agreed on it yet, but because it was theoretical, it didn't matter who was right.
Leaving Shoko with her macarons, Utahime walked around the party, making sure everything was still running seamlessly. She spotted a group of elders staring at her but Utahime ignored their looks, used to people staring at her scar.
"Yo!" Gojo joined Utahime, looking particularly handsome in his traditional Japanese garb. Utahime had briefly considered wearing a kimono, but she chose not to as a means of silently protesting against the elders. "I think we did a good job," Gojo noted, folding his arms into his sleeves. Despite their constant bickering, the two had managed to bring forth an excellent result.
A pair of elders approached them, bowing softly to Gojo. Utahime expected that considering Gojo was a clan leader, but her jaw dropped when the elders bowed to her as well.
"Congratulations on your engagement, Gojo-sama." They shot Utahime a judgemental look. During the moment it took for her to process what was going on, Gojo pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Thank you, honored elders. I'm a lucky man." His throne held a small threat within, daring them to say anything against Utahime.
"Would you excuse us?" Recovering her wits, Utahime pulled Gojo away from the party, feeling an anxiety pool within her belly. It was one thing to casually joke around between them, but the moment Gojo was making public announcements to clan elders, things became very serious.
Utahime dragged him all the way to the edge of the courtyard, as far away from the party as she could without leaving its limits.
"What's up?" Gojo asked, maintaining his calm demeanor.
"What are you doing?! Telling elders we're engaged? Are you crazy?" Utahime hissed at him, crossing her arms.
"I thought we agreed that you'd marry me when I turned 35? Doesn't that make us essentially engaged?" Gojo smiled. Utahime's jaw dropped.
"You were being serious about that?" Utahime asked in disbelief.
"I've always been serious about you, Utahime." Gojo leaned forward, looking into her eyes with his sparkling blue ones. "Were you not serious?"
Utahime looked into his eyes, heart racing. A part of her mind told her this was one of those life-changing moments, where she had to make a decision on what the rest of her life would be.
"I'm willing to be… if you are…" Utahime gulped. She had always treated it like a joke, largely because she had always wanted it to be true, but had never been brave enough to be truthful to herself and her feelings. As Gojo closed the distance between their faces, Utahime thanked the fact that he was so confident about his thoughts, because if he had left it to her, the two of them would have never gotten anywhere.
Gojo kissed her under the moonlight, and Utahime felt like suddenly the whole world was meaningless. The only thing she wanted was to stay with him for the rest of the night.
5 years later…
"Blue."
"Pink."
"Blue."
"Pink."
"If you say pink again, I'm going to punch you."
He smiled.
"Pink."
She threw a soft punch at him, her fist making contact with the side of his arm.
"Maybe you two would like to go with purple again?" The same anxious salesman watched them nervously.
"Do you have anything in white?" Utahime slipped her hand into Gojo's hand. "It is for a wedding, after all." Gojo squeezed her hand softly and she smiled happily.