mamoritai | f. megumi

十九 x 3k reads special

When the gray, rainy skies made way for the sunny day on a weekend, Nobara showed no hesitation and quickly took a hold on Momoka's and Megumi's wrists, running away from the school campus while dragging the girl and the boy behind her.

"I was told the a new collection will be releasing today!" Nobara beams, her eyes sparkling at a rack of clothes on display. "You two can go look around here too! I'll meet you two in an hour!" She announces, sending a wink to the two of them before skipping to the other side of the department store.

As the two were left by themselves, Momoka pursed her lips while silently tapping her hands on her thighs. "So," she begins to say, looking up at Megumi. "Anything that catches your eye here?" She asks

Although Megumi had a different answer to her question, he chose to say something else instead. "Not really." He mumbles, placing a hand on her lower back as he whisks her away. "Let's just go have a look until we see something."

Walking into a different direction from Nobara, both Megumi and Momoka walked around the department store in silence. From seeing various toys for furry pets to fake plant decorations and vases and gaming consoles, they've explored the department store together without saying anything to each other.

That was until, Momoka's eyes landed on something.

"Oh, Megumi, look at this!" She softly gush, crouching a little to pick up a golden key charm with a yellow sun smiling charm. "This is so cute!" She spoke, showing it to him. "I'll get this!"

Megumi's eyes stayed lock on the smiling sun charm in Momoka's hand for a split second before he too crouched down and took a smiling white cloud charm in his hand as well.

"I'll get this one then." He spoke to her, a small smile painting his lips as he shows it to her. "Let's go to the counter. I'll be paying for it."

"What?" Momoka bursts, shaking her head afterwards. "No way! I can totally pay for this!"

"Come on. In less than fifteen minutes were going to meet Kugisaki again-"

Before Megumi could finish what he was saying, Momoka immediately bolted towards the nearest cashier counter to pay for the charm in her hand.

"Oi!" Megumi shouts, picking up his pace to rush towards her. Standing behind Momoka before catching the charm from her hand from when she is off guard.

"Just let me do this for you" He leans his face close to her hers, smiling her way. "Yeah?"

A tint of pink splotched across her cheeks at how close his face is to hers. "O-Okay.." she stutters.

As Megumi paid for the two items, he tied the strings of his around his phone, smiling to himself as he admired the smiling cloud.

"Now we match!" Momoka noted, sticking her phone besides his to show him how she too had her charm tied to her phone as well.

When the one hour is up, Megumi and Momoka returned back to where the spot where they agreed to meet Nobara.

"Huh? You two didn't get anything?" Nobara asks, walking up to the two with multiple bags around her arms.

"We actually did!" Momoka beams, showing to her the phone charm. "You show yours too, Megumi!" The girl nudged him by his ribs. Looking away while letting out a sigh through his nose, Megumi showed to Nobara his phone charm as well.

A glinting smile paints Nobara's lips. "I knew it."

"Knew what?" Both Megumi and Momoka asked together

"Nothing!" Nobara smiles, "Let's go! There's a new shop that opened across here!"

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

Nanami raised the sleeve of his button down and coat to check the time on his wrist watch before fixing it, dropping his hand back to his side. Letting out a small sigh, he turns to look outside the window from the teachers' lounge, overlooking the entrance.

"Relax, Nanami! She's probably out with her friends having a good time!" Gojo reasons, his legs resting a top of the coffee table while his arms are crossed over his chest.

Scratching the back of his neck, Nanami couldn't help but let out a breath. "When you are a parent, you can't help but look out for your kid." He tells him, breathing deeply while his eyes dart over the entrance.

A couple of minutes pass by and Nanami couldn't help but sit up uneasily, his eyes trained now darting from his wrist watch to the entrance of the school.

"Momoka's a big girl now! No need to worry for her, Nanami!" Gojo notes, standing up from his seat to look outside the window. Despite the blindfold on his eyes, he points at the three teenagers entering the school grounds.

"Look! See, I told you, Nanami! Momoka came back safe and sound!" Gojo happily sighs, palms pressed together before pressing them on the window. "Oh look! Momoka and Megumi looks so close together!"

Nanami's eyes squinted as he took note of how Momoka's smile seems so bright while she talks with Megumi besides her. Not only was her smile so bright while talking to him, the adult also took note of their close proximity. In his eyes, this way not the friend closeness, rather, he could sense something more between the two of them.

"Young love" Gojo breathes out dreamily. "It was only like yesterday I picked up Megumi from elementary school and now he's coming back home from a date!" Gojo dramatically spoke, placing a hand on his chest while pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.

"Kids grow up so fast, Nanami! Why can't they just stay small forever?" The blindfold man exaggerated.

As much as Nanami hates to admit it, Gojo did have a point. Why can't children stay small forever? Why can't Momoka stay small forever? He too could remember vividly how Momoka's problems were only not being able to reach the jar of cookies from the cupboard, falling flat face on the side walk and crying loudly as she got a wound on her knee. Now, her problems were

"Father, I broke my spear. It needs repairing."

"I used up all my bullets from my mission. It's fifty thousand yen per box."

"I ran out of pad to use. Can you please buy me one?"

As memories of the past flooded into his mind, Nanami couldn't help but break out into a small smile. Indeed, his child is growing up, as much as he didn't want to accept it. For now, he'll leave them be. But on another day, he'd like to have a talk with Megumi, one on one.

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