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When Utahime told Gojo about the pregnancy, she already had her mind set that she was going to be a single mother. That she would raise the child alone in Kyoto under the Iori clan name. However, Gojo still had the right to know, as it was also his child. Whether he wanted to be involved or not, it was his decision and she wouldn’t try to change. She was keeping it.
Because it was hers as well. Her child and his.
What she didn’t count on was that Gojo would break down crying as he held her against his chest, sniffing loudly. But unlike him, who was mumbling incoherently, she froze, unable to speak.
She had never expected that behavior from him. Not because this was the first time she saw Gojo Satoru cry. She froze because he was happy.
Utahime had expected for him to deny the child. To even tell her to do “whatever she wanted with it”. Before she utter the words “I’m pregnant”, she had actually imagine him saying those words in a despicable tone, and the subtle suggestion hidden behind had made her shudder as she clenched the fabric of her hakama above her belly.
A crying meltdown holding her was definitely not one of the many scenarios she had formed in her head.
After all, why would he stay?
“Why wouldn’t I?” Gojo smiled widely as he wiped his tears “You’re my favorite person in the world Utahime!”
“Utahime-senpai!” She corrects him automatically. Seen him cry face-to-face makes her tears threaten to come out as well, so she quickly covers her face the long sleeves of her kodose.
Deep down, she had fear Gojo would reject them. She had fear Gojo would come to reject what was growing inside of her, even if it was half of him, choosing to ignore it and keep living his life like he had always done as if he didn’t have a child. Because he was a selfish bastard most of the time.
But she couldn’t think that anymore.
The fact that he accepted it and was happy to the point of tears, took away the weight that had settled on her chest the day the pregnancy test came back positive.
A few tears escape her eyes and she quickly dries them, sobbing quietly.
“Goddamnit Gojo!”
He sniffles and smirks.
“That’s what you said that night!”
“Argh!” She kicks his leg and tears flow freely down her face “You’re a fucking nightmare!” Gojo laughs and pulls her into a hug so tight her body hurts for a moment. She returns the gesture, squeezing him has hard as she can.
His Infinity was off.
Gojo snuggles against her as he murmurs “We’re having a baby Uta”
*...*
Now the difficult part was keeping it a secret.
Gojo Satoru wasn’t exactly liked anywhere, not even his own home. So Utahime carrying his offspring was a huge red flag for her safety and that of their unborn child. Her first plan was to pretend that he wasn’t the father; that she just got knocked up by a random guy in one of her outings to the karaoke with the girls. Gojo wasn’t exactly happy with that plan, and the hole in the teachers break room is evidence of it.
He realizes what he has done until Utahime points at it.
“Ups....sorry about that”
Utahime rubbed her temple in circles as a headache threatened to grow.
“So what is your plan, Gojo?”
“Easy” the man gave her a huge grin “We tell everyone except my family!”
Utahime rolls her eyes “You’re a fucking idiot”
*...*
Morning sickness is awful and makes her throw up everything she puts in her body. Gojo isn’t there to support her through it but the GIF of a cat saying “Hang in there!” in the online chat makes her feel a little better. Then he sends one of a puppy throwing up rainbows and he ruins it.
As long as she can keep the nausea under control in school, everything would be fine. Which proves to be a huge problem as Gakuganji loves the tea she makes and suddenly her body decides to hate that specific smell all of the sudden. She has to battle the retch for a week, finding every opportunity she can to sneak off to the bathroom.
Apparently it’s not enough.
“You’re pregnant”
Utahime almost drops the tea in Gakuganji’s office, stabilizing the cup in the tray as soon as those words leave his mouth; she’s quick to reaming calm outside and freak out in the inside.
‘Feign ignorance’ she tells herself.
“Excuse me?”
Gakuganji looks at her sternly “Don’t be a fool with me, child. I’m old but I’m not an idiot”
“I-“
“Who’s the father?”
“No one”
‘What the fuck Utahime, you just admitted being pregnant!’ screamed her mind at her.
Her hands clenched the tray until her knuckles became white as a cold sweat dripped down her body.
“It’s Gojo Satoru, isn’t it?”
Utahime remains silent, unable to conjure a proper answer. But that was the only answer Gakuganji needed. He sighs as he rubs his temple.
“Of all the men in the world...you chose Gojo Satoru. Honestly, what were you thinking?”
She doesn’t have an answer to that because there’s no right answer. She chose him just as he had done the same with her.
*...*
Going to the doctor had never appealed to Gojo.
In his opinion, doctors were scary people that liked to experiment with their patients. Utahime calmly reminds him that a gynecologist isn’t another Shoko. This gynecologist, a man with a kind face, smiles at them, explains what a pregnancy is and asked for Utahime’s last period date. Gojo snickered quietly at that, and Utahime stomps on his foot. Joke’s on her, he didn’t feel that.
Then he took them to the ultrasound room. Gojo stares at the screen with newfound fascination as the doctor moves the transductor around Utahime’s abdomen after he had applied a gel.
“And that’s your baby”
Gojo tilts his head to the side as he looks at the screen of the ultrasound, smiling.
“Where?”
“Here” the doctor points at the imagen that resembles a weird peanut in the screen “That’s its head and the body”
Gojo shakes his head “I still can’t see it”
“I can” says Utahime “How many weeks?”
The doctor gives a few clicks in the machine as he measures the distance between the head and the tail “6.4 weeks”
Gojo gawks at Utahime “How did you know that?”
The woman caresses his cheek, giving him a pitiful look “I read, Gojo”
The doctor wipes the gel off Utahime's belly and smiles kindly “Would you like a photo of the ultrasound?”
Gojo beams “Hell yeah!”
He ends up doodling with a black sharpie the word “Baby” in capital letters and several exclamation points in the black and white print that the doctor gives them, and saves it in the transparent compartment in his wallet.
Utahime sees that and asks “You still can’t see the baby in there, can you?”
Gojo just gives her a goofy smile as he shakes his head.
*...*
Utahime is four months pregnant; her belly is barely noticeable over her miko clothes but Gojo won’t stop touching it. She has to slap his hand away in public to refrain him of the embarrassment it causes her every time he got too clingy, especially in front of their students.
The twins eye them each suspiciously. They might not get along but sure are perceptible. They question them separately.
“Are you and Gojo-sensei a couple?” asks Mai, folding her arms in front of her chest.
Her teacher frowns.
“Mai” Utahime voice is gentle but stern “My relationship with Gojo Satoru is none of your concern”
Mai raises an eyebrow at this yet doesn’t press further.
Maki’s approach was more forward.
“Did you have sex with Utahime-sensei?”
“Uhu”
“Is she pregnant?” at Gojo’s nods of excitement she sighs “That poor woman”
Her teacher’s offended gasp doesn’t change her expression.
*...*
Shoko is angry that they trusted a gynecologist before her with the baby. As in they preferred to go to a trained professional in the matter of pregnancy when she was right there, down in the school morgue. Utahime had warned Gojo of this, although, he reasoned that Shoko -an adult like them- would understand it. Also, he suspected she already knew considering how Utahime had refused to go out drinking with her and Mei-Mei three times in a row.
“I have a medical license” said Shoko with mild annoyance.
Gojo frowns “Your job is the exact opposite of pregnancy!”
She shrugs “And?”
“And you cheated your way in medical school! No way am I letting my child near your grubby hands”
Shoko narrows her eyes at Gojo, and he knows he fucked up.
“I wonder how your family would take the fact that you’re having a child outside marriage”
The man feels a cold sweat go down his body. He pulls out his wallet; the glimpse of the photo of the ultrasound makes Shoko scrunch her mouth but doesn’t say anything.
“I’ll pay your karaoke nights with Mei-Mei for a month”
“A year”
Gojo agrees. Shoko takes out a cigarette and lights it up, her eyes never leaving the photo. Without saying anything, Gojo hands it to her. Shoko’s eyes analyze it quickly, the ghost of a smile forming in her lips. Her next words are so quiet Gojo has to make an effort to hear them.
“I’m glad it was you”
Gojo smiles affectionately at his friend. He comes closer.
“Hey, tell me where the head is. I want to show it to the first-years”
*...*
While Utahime diligently studies from a book about the baby's first year, Gojo rubs his face against her belly. It's a rare day when both of them aren't busy and can enjoy it together at Utahime's apartment.
Gojo puts down the baby things he had bought in the guest room that Utahime had remodeled with the help of her students, promising that he would unpack them later. They were both lying on the couch, the sound of a movie playing in the background but they don’t pay attention to it. Occasionally, Utahime runs her nails across Gojo's scalp, and Gojo enjoys the sensation it causes, along with the one he feels on his cheek when the baby kicks him. Hard.
“The baby kicked”
Utahime nods “I noticed” she turns to look at him “You have been reading the books I lent you, right?”
Gojo keeps quiet for a moment before nodding. Utahime gives him a cold look.
“So I can quiz you, right?”
“No, please, I’m sorry. I haven’t studied yet”
*...*
Utahime is seven months pregnant when Gojo finds Okkotsu Yuuta and basically stalled his execution by putting his neck on the line. She wasn’t happy when he gave her the news over the phone. It appeared that Gojo had a sixth sense to find the perfect way to get in trouble with higher-ups, one way or another.
"Oh, come on Utahime! Your students aren’t exactly perfect”
The woman tightens the grip on her phone, upset.
"You don't mess with my students"
“But I’m right, aren’t I?” Utahime can almost see the smug grin on Gojo’s face as he was talking over the phone “What was the name of that kid? Ummm… that kid that always asks for the women with big butts-“
Utahime clicks her tongue, annoyed “Toudou Aoi. And don't insult him like that, he admires you a lot”
“Awwww, who doesn’t?”
She doesn't give him the pleasure of an answer before hanging up.
Toudou had adopted many bad habits from his former mentor, Tsukumo Yuki, but she couldn't deny that the boy was strong. He was barely seventeen and he was on one recommendation way to be a grade one. Gakuganji was considering writing it, but Toudou’s character left much to be desired. When Tsukumo Yuki had left him at the school gate, he had stared at Utahime and then his gaze stopped at her belly that was now clearly visible through her skirt for a long time. Toudou had opened his eyes widely and tears started flowing down his cheek while he murmured something incoherent.
That had freaked her out but the boy said he was fine. Apparently, he was so fine that he said he didn’t need her guidance as a teacher. That she better stay inside as he trained with her other students. Utahime was annoyed at his but as a teacher and as an adult she couldn’t show it openly. Also, she couldn’t let Toudou beat down his classmates whenever they had a friendly spar practice. She had to rush to stop him from slamming down Kamo in the ground for a second time even after Momo had screamed that the match was over.
Her movements were slowed down from the extra weight of her belly, and it took a little longer that she would have wanted to get to the fighting ring so she could scold him. Miwa was obviously concerned as she tried to prevent her from moving around too much. Toudou gave her a side glance before rudely answer that Utahime would be better watching from afar as she was in no condition to tell him what to do.
Utahime was unfazed by this, but Mai and Momo screamed profanities at their classmate. The girls told her to leave him alone if he so much desired it.
But when curses invade Kyoto, she cannot stay still in the school and goes out to find her student. Toudou is the only one who left the school grounds despite Gakuganji 's warning for the students to stay put. It was her duty as her teacher to retrieve him.
What she doesn’t expect is to find Geto Suguru on her way. The man smiles while riding on a curse that resembles the form of a stingray. When he speaks, his voice sounded sincerely happy.
“I suppose congratulations are in order. This world is going to need more young sorcerers once those monkeys are eliminated”
Utahime glares at him as she puts a hand over her skirt, where her stomach is noticeable. But Geto doesn’t make a threatening move. He continues talking as if they were friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. Which it’s kind of true, except that Geto had been more friends with Shoko and Gojo than her.
“How many months?”
Utahime doubts a moment before answering “Seven”
For a second, his expression morphs into a serious one “You shouldn’t be out then Utahime. Leave others to do the work”
‘Was he scolding her?’ Utahime resist the urge to scoff.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have had to do it but it occurred to you to attack today”
Geto is unfazed by her sarcasm. He rubs his chin smiling, as if he thought.
“Let me guess. It’s Satoru’s”
“Ha! He would wish that” she hopes that the bite in her voice is enough to fool him.
The man laughs at her and the smile he gives is enough to send shivers down her spine.
“You were never a good liar. Perhaps you should work on that”
“Perhaps you should mind your own business!”
Toudou’s voice echoes through the air, and the stingray where Geto was mounted is nearly hit by his powerful fist, smashing the ground beneath him. Utahime looks at her student anxiously.
“Toudou! Don’t announce your presence to the enemy like that!”
But she gets completely ignored as the second-year stand protectively before her.
“After all!” Toudou’s smile was gigantic “My sensei’s offspring is going to be my baby brother!”
Both adults stared at him confused.
Toudou was a good kid. Cheeky, with authority issues, unable to do teamwork unless he feels like it, a head filled with weird questions and overall a freaking weirdo.
But a good kid.
Gakuganji doesn’t write the recommendation for disobeying his orders and endangering his teacher for his reckless actions. It’s Utahime that ends up convincing Mei-Mei to writing it, and Toudou is ascended to a grade one sorcerer. When he asked if he could feel his baby brother, Utahime smiled and very politely refused him.
*...*
Gojo appears on Utahime’s apartment on the night of December 24th. She’s already in bed, hugging the special pillow he bought her when she couldn’t sleep well as the pregnancy progressed. Gojo climbs inside the bed and hugs her against his chest, placing a hand over her belly.
He feels a kick and he can’t help but to smile.
He had used those same hands to kill his best friend hours earlier, and now he was using them to feel his child and the love of his life.
*...*
The day of the birth, Gojo is a nervous wreck and Megumi is the unfortunate soul tasked to keep an eye on him.
Tasked, more like, pushed to him.
When Yaga announced that Utahime was giving birth, everyone cheered. Then he asked for someone to keep an eye on Gojo in the meantime, and everyone turned silent.
Not even Yuuta offered to do it.
Maki was the one who suggested Megumi to do it, being the only first-year. The teen glares at her, but says nothing.
Gojo is, indeed, a nervous wreck. His leg shakes violently and Megumi can see a thin film of sweat on his forehead as he fidgets with his hands. He lets out a shaky breath.
“Megumi, what if she bleeds to death? I read that can happen”
“That’s not-“ Megumi stops “Wait, you read?”
“Of course I did!”
Megumi blinks surprised. “I thought you would leave that to Utahime-sensei”
The voice of Gojo is full of annoyance as he rubs the blindfold over his eyes “You’re not making me feel better here”
“Right. Sorry”
Why did they leave this to him? He didn’t know how to console people or make them feel better. If anything, he makes them feel even worst with his attitude. ‘What would Tsumiki do?’ he thinks as Gojo crumbles before him. Megumi ponders for a moment before doing what Gojo always did to him whenever he screwed up. He comes closer and pats him on the back.
“There, there….Better?”
“...Yeah”
Megumi doesn’t comment in the fact that his Infinity barrier was on. Gojo lets out another shaky breath as he takes of his blindfold.
“What if I can’t do it?”
“What?”
“Be a father. A good father. What if I end up ruining him like all the other pieces of shit that run the clans? What if I put him in danger? What if Utahime ends up dead because she’s the mother of my child and I end up hating him for that?”
Gojo rubs his eyes hard, as if they hurt.
“What if he gets these cursed techniques?” Gojo pauses as he stares at his hands, the azure glow of his eyes trembling slightly “I don’t want my kid living in my world, Megumi. I don’t want him to fight and end up dead like so many of us. I want him and Uta to live a good life. A normal one”
Megumi realizes that he had never seen Gojo act as human as he is in that moment. Even the strongest could be broken by something called parenthood.
Yet, he can’t help but to clench his fist in anger as he glares at him. Because Gojo is not Gojo right now. He’s the father whose face he didn’t remember that abandoned him and Tsumiki when they were only children.
“Well, are you?”
Gojo looks at him taken back “What?”
“Are you going to leave? Are you going ruin him? Are you going to raise him to be a killing machine of curses?”
“No”
“Are you going to leave Utahime-sensei when things get difficult?”
“No!”
“If she dies, are you going to leave your child behind?”
“No!”
Megumi grabs him by the shoulders as he glares furiously “Then what are you so afraid of?”
His words must have done something to Gojo because his leg stops shaking. Megumi pulls away, needing to calm down for a moment. When he speaks again, his voice comes out a little broken.
“You weren’t the best father figure to me and Tsumiki, but you” Megumi’s ears turn pink “You were okay”
Gojo clenches his hand against his chest stifling a small cry. He stands up, trying to pull Megumi into a hug when a distant cry echoes at the end of the hallway.
*...*
“It’s so...tiny...what is that?”
“My blood”
“That’s gross”
“I know” Utahime rubs her nose against the baby’s cheek. Gojo tentatively reaches out and pulls the sheet down to see the newborn's face.
“Shouldn’t he cry?”
“If you make him cry I swear I-
“I won’t!”
The baby makes a tiny sound that makes Gojo gasp. When he opens his eyes, Gojo feels like he’s looking in a mirror. Utahime smiles softly.
“He has your eyes”
“And your hair” Gojo takes the baby’s hand carefully, smiling when the baby clings to his thumb with force “Uta, did you know that’s actually a reflex when you put your finger in the baby’s palm and they grip it?”
Utahime looks at him in disbelief.
“You really did read”
“Of course I did! Why does everyone think I didn’t?”
“Well, I hope you have already decided a name for him”
Gojo laughs nervously “Right. The name”
Utahime gives him a glare and sighs “Do you want to carry him?”
“C-carry him?”
“Yes” Utahime’s smile is affectional as she moves the baby in her arms with ease “Come closer. Make sure to support his head”
Gojo takes the newborn from Utahime as he cradles him the best he can. The baby, feeling the shift, complains weakly but calms down again when Gojo rocks him very gently.
“He weights nothing....”
“He weights exactly 3,480 grams” Utahime makes herself comfortable as best as she can in the hospital bed.
“Are you tired?”
She nods “A little”
“Then rest” Gojo smirks “You know, because you’re weak”
Utahime frowns at him “You have no right to call me that anymore” Gojo smiles as he nuzzles his face against the baby’s, who emits a weak whimper.
“You’re right. I can’t”