beautiful one, sharer of my longing

21: Late honeymoon

"How did you screw up this bad?!" Old man Gojo shouted at him. "You had two jobs! Keep the Zen'in bitch happy and don't piss off that piece of shit Naobito. You failed at both." He spat, pacing around in front of his dais.

"I am not worried about it. That woman is far too in love with me to leave me."

"It has been three days since the spat," his father growled, "I don't care what you do, just get back in her good graces so Naobito's men do not ambush me again."

"Well, we were supposed to go to the ryokan...until I insulted her."

"Satoru, get out of my sight!" he shouted, "and take that witch to the countryside. This is more trouble than she's worth."

Satoru rolled his eyes as he stood up. "I got this, dad. I'm a lady killer."

"Oh, and I suppose that's why your wife has removed everything from your chambers?"

"Well--"

"Leave me, Satoru," he grumbled before hobbling away, "fucking cretin."

"Oh, relax, would you?"

Master Gojo looked over his shoulder with a disappointed grimace before scowling at his son. Deep set eyes and a faulty smirk, both things that he has never seen on this preener of a man. His son, who'd been wearing a teasing smirk since the day he was born. "You're a mess," he scoffed, "it seems to me that you're the one worrying over that Zen'in tramp, and not the other way around."

"Nonsense," he laughed, but when Jun passed him in the hallway outside your chambers for the fifth time that day, he was groaning out questions of your anger towards him. "Has she spoken of me?"

"Not a word." she said simply, before fixing him with a glare and disappearing into your room once again. Through the open door for a moment, he could hear your laughter alongside Itadori and Kugisaki's arguing. His heart hurt. Knowing that he could hear it, but could not participate or see it firsthand.

Then the door closed again, and he was tortured by your voice drifting through the stuffy air of the hallway.

"He is out there again." Jun sighed as she sat down.

"He is adamant."

"He is a bad husband."

"Kugisaki, be nice."

"You should agree!" she shot back at you, "how can he say such a thing to you?"

"Because he clearly thinks that of me," you told her as you shuffled through your cards, "I am a whore because I fell for someone else years ago. It is clearly my fault." Giving her a wry smile, she scoffed at your sarcasm before crossing her arms.

"You should've yelled at him."

"I cannot do that. He may punish me for such a thing."

At this, the children gave you a confused look before looking at each other. "Punish you?" Itadori questioned, "why would he do that?"

You looked up in shock. "Raising my voice means my lord raising his hand against me," you explained, "my father would not hesitate with me or my late mother, and he always said the man I marry would treat me as such."

"Gojo-sensei would not do that to you." Itadori said, but you let out a small chuckle at the thought.

"Nonsense."

"No, I would agree," Kugisaki said, "your family seems pretty fucked up."

Her language did not surprise you, but when Jun was laughing behind you as an agreement, you smiled at her. "They are."