ex-husband

do you even like flowers?

You walked over to the door. "What is it? Did I get a package?"

Haibara turned around to face you, shaking his head. "There's flowers on your porch." He picked them up, and passed a beautiful array of flowers over to you.

You did your best to hide any natural reaction that came up when you saw the flowers. Gojo had a specific arrangement of flowers he always got you. And it was because you loved them so much the first time he had given them to you.

Your eyes widened as you slowly took the bouquet from his hands. He grinned at the stunned expression on your face, as you took in the beautiful, large bouquet of flowers he had bought you for a very important date.

Your first month anniversary.

"They're such pretty flowers," Haibara noted, as he looked at the bouquet keenly. "Do you know what they're called? My girlfriend mentioned she liked flowers, I might get her something like this."

"Everyone likes flowers," you huffed. "Most people just don't know it until they get their own."

Haibara rolled his eyes playfully. "You should buy me some, then, to help me understand the feeling."

You sighed. "The blue ones..."

"Cornflowers," Gojo answered quickly. He scratched the back of his neck. "The name is real ugly sounding, but when I saw them... I don't know I really liked them. There's this, uh, story, that my mom always used to tell me about them actually. I think that's why they caught my eye."

"What was the story?"

Gojo chuckled awkwardly. "Young men wore them, when they were in love... and uh, if the flower faded too quickly, then it meant that their love wasn't returned."

You grinned. "So, when do you think these'll fade?"

"Well, I'd hope never."

"And these are white roses, right?" Haibara asked.

"Good eye," you grinned.

"I'm glad you could tell," Gojo grinned cheekily. "The flower lady was so shocked that I had no idea."

You scoffed. "What, have you never seen a flower before?"

Gojo chuckled. "That's exactly what she said. Something like, 'guys like me are usually there often', I think." He scratched the back of his neck. "But you're the only person I've even thought about doing this for."

You felt the heat rush to your cheeks immediately. And you couldn't force down your smile either.

"You know the first time she told me she loved me, was on our first month anniversary," Gojo sighed, slouching back in his seat. "She was trying to hold back her smile after I bought her flowers. It was so cute."

Nanami huffed, flipping through the newspaper in his hand. Had he read it already? Yes, of course. Would he rather focus his attention on this than Gojo's rambling? Yes, absolutely.

"I just can't believe she had a man over on our anniversary," Gojo huffed, running a hand through his hair. Nanami glanced up at him, despite trying to ignore him.

He was clearly distressed. Honestly, Gojo was a very well groomed man most of the time. That's how he looked years younger than Nanami or Ijichi. (Mind you, Gojo also didn't have to deal with the manchild behaviour that he always bothers his juniors with, so that was probably a reason why he still remained youthful as well).

But right now, Gojo looked a bit more real to Nanami. The usually well shaven Gojo had a few hairs growing around his jaw. For the brief moment that his glasses didn't cover his eyes, Nanami spotted how there was a slight sunken look to his eyes. He even seemed to have slight eyebags. He'd never seen Gojo have eyebags, in his years of knowing the manchild. Not even when he was staying up all night taking care of a newborn.

But what worried Nanami the most about Gojo's appearance was the chapped lips. Gojo hated having chapped lips, he was always very vocal about how uncomfortable it made him. If he really had absolutely no access to his chapstick, he would buy a whole packet at the nearest store. Gojo was a man who would go nowhere with chapped lips.

And here he was.

Nanami knew he had to help.

Gojo didn't want to answer the door.

Someone kept knocking and ringing the bell. He didn't have the patience for it, and the persistence of this person just made him want to bash their head in a wall (he's a bit more insane when he's annoyed).

He was very close to just warping away so he wouldn't have to deal with it.

But he couldn't be too childish.

He dragged his feet to the door and opened it, without even thinking to check who it was.

But that just made the surprise all the more shocking.

"Hello!" You smiled, crouched down with your daughter.

Gojo looked down at you both with wide eyes.

His eyes glanced over the flowers in your hand as well. They weren't in a bouquet, they seemed handpicked. Kiyoko tightly held a few in her hands, and you had a large handful as well. But instead of the flowers, all he could focus on was both of your bright smiles.

He loved those more than anything in the entire world.

"Hi darlings," he smiled fondly. "What're you doing here?"

You straightened up, groaning from the feeling after being crouched down so long. Gojo reached his hand out to you, holding you by the hand to help you out. "Thank you," you muttered, while pulling your hand away. You held out the flowers in your other hand. "It's late, but I wanted to get you a gift too. To thank you for the last one."

"Oh." Gojo suddenly remembered that man. Well, not suddenly. He was the reason that Gojo had been so annoyed and upset for the past few days, but in this brief moment, he'd completely forgotten. "You didn't have to."

"You didn't have to, either," you said, trying to catch his eyes. He was looking down at Kiyoko, as she picked apart the flowers. He didn't want to make eye contact with you. "But you did." You chuckled lightly. "Haibara was jealous. He asked if you could get him some flowers too."

Gojo's eyes widened. He felt as though his heart stopped. He couldn't have a heart attack in front of his daughter -

Haibara. He'd never been more happy to hear that name in his life.

You found it comical, the way he slowly looked up at you in realization. He let out a wary chuckle. "Haibara?" He repeated. "Haibara Yu?"

You grinned. "What other Haibara is there, huh?"

Gojo placed a hand on his chest, trying to calm it down from it's erratic beating.

There was no mystery man.

Well -

"He's dating someone right now, yeah?" Gojo asked, extremely subtly. (You nodded your head, pretending to cough to cover up a laugh). He let out a sigh. "Good."

Kiyoko let out a loud sneeze. You gasped at the sound, and Gojo laughed, picking her up. "This is what you get for playing with all this pollen." Holding Kiyoko close, he looked over at you. "Want to come in? We should wash her up before she gets home."

You nodded. "Sure, Satoru."

Satoru. Holy sh-

(You gave him a gift because Nanami had called you earlier, telling you that you had to help clear Gojo's mind. At the sight of his chapped lips when you dropped off his flowers, you decided he needed more of a gift than picked up flowers. Calling him by his first name had him whipping out all of his chapstick again.

Kiyoko ended up chewing on one.

He doesn't always love his child).