To Want and Not To Have - NanaGo

Chapter 2

Nanami is not a nervous man by nature. Throughout his childhood, the adults in his life have lauded his calm disposition, his poise, his ability to remain level-headed in any situation. Growing up, entering Jujutsu High as the first sorcerer of his family, that calmness of the soul helped him overcome countless obstacles. He faced exams and new people and interviews and cursed spirits the same way. Even if a task daunted him or scared him, he was always able to breathe through the panic to centre himself.

It's therefore with some surprise that he sees the tremor in his hand when he picks up his mug of coffee. It's just a tiny twitch, barely enough to send faint ripples across the surface of the black liquid. Still, it proves to him how uneasy he is about the whole thing. He keeps glancing at his mobile's screen, eyes rereading the text, taking in the ridiculous smiley and the brief words.

Just like that. He simply had to ask, and Gojo was dropping everything to join him here. No question asked.

It's a bit unlike Gojo, Nanami muses. He had half expected to have to beg or cajole the other man to get him to agree to meet up. He knows Gojo would have made him beg just to be a little snot, not because he didn't want to come. He wonders what it means that Gojo simply agreed to come.

Nanami puts the mug back on the tabletop. He rubs a hand over his face, trying to put his thoughts in order. Now that Gojo is coming, he has to think of a way to present the problem to him and explain the solution he's come up with. More than anything however, he has to brace himself for ridicule. Gojo is going to be in stitches when he learns the predicament Nanami finds himself in. Hell, no doubt the first thing he's going to do when he returns to Jujutsu High is scream about it from the rooftop.

But having Gojo laugh at him is a small price to pay for Nanami keeping his job.

Around him, life goes on. Patrons chat together and the staff waits on them. The music coming from the overhead speakers is still too cheerful, but Nanami doesn't pay it any mind. Although some of the youngsters in the café have to be around the same age as he is, he feels no connection to them. They look immature to him, and he wonders why exactly he's always been so jaded. He's been that way for as long as he remembers, looking out at the world with the eyes of an old man, as his mother liked to say.

Since fidgeting won't do, Nanami pulls out his laptop to get some work done while waiting for his unwanted companion. He hasn't been able to finish reviewing the day's work thanks to his boss' earlier antics, so he decides to get on with that. It's better than to keep glancing out the bay windows in the hope of seeing a mop of bright white hair.

It works, for a short while.

A shift in the air makes him look up from his screen. He knows, without having heard the door opening, that Gojo has arrived. It is not that the café goes silent or that all conversations stop, but there's a common shifting of attention the second Gojo steps into the café. Eyes glance in his direction. Heads turn. There's even a lull in the music, as if the playlist pauses to give Gojo a chance to make his grand entrance.

Nanami is already annoyed.

His irritation grows tenfold when Gojo spots him, waves at him like a kid, then swaggers in his direction. He walks as if he owns the place, long strides eating up the distance between them. The overhead fluorescents give his white hair silver highlights and reflect off the tinted lens of his sunglasses. Though the clothes he wears are not especially flattering, people turn to stare at him, agogged. Nanami has to resist the urge to hide his face in embarrassment.

"Nanamin!" Gojo booms. His voice is loud enough to be heard by everyone in the café, of course. "Long time no see!" He slides on the bench opposite Nanami at the booth, his long legs stretching under the table. Their feet bump. He leans in to rest his elbows on the tabletop. When he tilts his head forward, his sunglasses slide down his nose a bit and Nanami gets his first glimpse of those inhumanely gorgeous blue eyes. "You look to have aged a decade!"