"Well, well, well! Look at what the cat dragged in! If it ain't Itty Bitty herself!"
Loki's voice cut through the street as she had a smirk on her face, both directed at Yuji and towards Hestia as she strode towards the stall.
Hestia, who had been mid-sentence with a customer, spun around at the voice. The moment her blue eyes locked onto Loki's squinted gaze, her expression switched from surprise, recognition and then a deep sense of irritation marring her face.
"You." Hestia growled out, assuming a defensive posture with her hands raised in the air, holding two sweet potatoes high up. "What are you doing here?"
"Takin' a walk! It's a free city, ain't it? Or do I need permission from the Itty Bitty Committee to use the streets now?"
"Don't call me that!" Hestia yelled back, waving her hands around as her irritation grew.
"Aww, but it fits so well! Itty Bitty Hestia, the tiniest Goddess with the biggest-" Loki's voice got hitched in her throat for a moment as her eye twitched, forcing a grin that looked physically painful. "-the biggest ego."
"Ha! You almost choked on that one, didn't you? Go ahead, say it! Say what you were really going to say!" Hestia stepped forward, hands on her hips as she thrust her chest out. "You want to talk about what I have, and you don't? Because I've got all day!"
"I wasn't gonna-"
"Oh, you were! You absolutely were! That's all you ever do! Every single time! 'Ooh, look at me, I'm Loki, I've got the strongest Familia in Orario but I can't fill out a dress to save my immortal life!'"
"You little…" Loki's composure cracked as a red hue spread across her cheeks. "At least I don't have to work a potato stall to keep the lights on!"
"I am not working this stall! I am helping my friend Takemikazuchi because that's what good, kind, generous and beautiful Goddesses do! Unlike certain tricksters I could name!"
Takemikazuchi, caught in the crossfire, very carefully took a step back from the ensuing verbal spar.
Sukuna, still standing at the stall, watched the exchange with his chin propped on one hand and an expression of mild fascination. He felt like he was observing a particularly energetic pair of stray cats fighting over a fish.
Yuji stood several paces back, letting out a sigh and a shake of his head as he watched the spectacle unfold. He had already lowered his hood, knowing there was no point in trying to hide his appearance in front of this group. He knew that Loki started all of this on purpose, but for whatever reason, probably because it was fun for her.
It was during this brief lull in the bickering when Hestia was drawing breath for what would have been a devastating follow up that her eyes drifted past Loki and landed on the tall man standing before her.
She paused her actions immediately.
Pink hair streaked with grey, with a calm even posture. Hands in his pockets, hood down, watching Loki and herself bicker.
Hestia tilted her head slightly, her heated expression softening into something else. The argument with Loki, which had occupied the entirety of her attention mere seconds ago, was all thrown out the window.
Something about this man made her hearth flicker.
It wasn't in the same way that Freya's targets burned with desire, or the way adventurers blazed with ambition and purpose. This was different. It was the feeling she got when she stood in front of a cold, burnt out fireplace, a hearth that should have been warm. A home that had been empty for far too long.
Hestia was the Goddess of the Hearth. The sacred flame, the warmth of family, the centre of home. It was her domain, woven into every fibre of her very being, like how Freya had her beauty and Loki her trickery.
Although she could feel the man's hearth was a complicated mess, his soul felt like a house where the fire that had once burned long ago was extinguished.
She could feel it wasn't despair, nor grief. It was something quieter and older, a deep seated loneliness that has been carried for so long it has become a structural, load bearing part of his very being, even as it hollowed him out.
Beneath that, far below, she could feel the faded warmth he once possessed. It was smothered, almost entirely faint, but it was still present. This man had once had a hearth, he had once been surrounded by people who loved him and whom he loved in return. She could feel the ghost of that warmth, and how bright it must have once been.
But that was now empty, put out cold for a very, very long time.
The only real sense of warmth she could feel from him, were the six tiny, burning matches around him, helping to keep him moving forward.
"Oh…" The sound slipped out of her before she could catch herself, her hand unconsciously rising to her chest.
Loki, who had been gearing up for another verbal salvo, noticed the shift in Hestia immediately. "Oi, what's with the face? Don't go gettin' all soft on me mid fight, that's cheatin'."
Hestia didn't respond to her. Her blue eyes were fixed on Yuji, and when she spoke, her voice carried none of the theatrics from moments ago,
"Who is this person, Loki?"
Loki glanced between Hestia and Yuji, her squinted eyes calculating. "A friend. Name's Yuji Itadori. He helped my kids out during the last expedition."
Hestia continued to look at Yuji, and the man looked back at her, and for a moment their eyes met.
"Nice to meet you, Hestia." Yuji said, offering her a slight nod.
"...Likewise." She replied, but her voice was distant, still caught up in the feelings that rose up in her. She wanted to say more, to ask him if he was alright, to offer any sort of comfort to him.
But she didn't know him, and doing so in the street wasn't the right place.
Instead, she gave him a small, sad smile that didn't reach her eyes before she turned back to the stall.
Yuji merely raised a brow at how she was acting, but he wasn't allowed to ponder on it for long.
"Oi, Brat."
Yuji felt his brow twitch from Sukuna's voice calling out to him. Turning to him, he was still leaning against the counter, elbow propped up on the wooden top as he leaned against his arm.
"Just couldn't help yourself from saving them, could you?" Sukuna began. "How very noble of you. The great Yuji Itadori, extending a helping hand to the bumbling trash. Still playing the martyr after all these centuries."
Yuji narrowed his eyes at him, knowing this was just another way of him trying to get under his skin.
Loki's smirk twitched at hearing the insult thrown at her Familia.
"Oho? Trash, you say? What does that make you, then? The great Ryoman Sukuna working a potato stall while my kids rake in millions in a week." Loki said, tilting her head up, hand on her waist.
Sukuna didn't deign to respond to her, still staring at Yuji with a growing smirk on his face.
"I'm not playing at anything." Yuji simply replied to him.
"No? Could've fooled me." Sukuna let out a short chuckle, with Loki's smirk twitching once more at having been ignored so blatantly. "Are you still trying to follow in his footsteps? No, maybe you've gone a step further and bastardized it. Someone offers you a helping hand and you slap it away, because accepting help would mean admitting you can't do everything alone. You'd rather suffer in silence than let anyone close enough to matter."
Sukuna's words rang through the air as the other three Gods fell silent.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Yuji replied, his voice was level but there was an edge to it now.
"Oh? Don't I?" Sukuna stood up to his full height once again, his eyes fixed onto Yuji as for a moment, he embodied the same expression and presence of the one that shared the same body and soul, for however brief it was. "I was inside you, Brat. I felt everything you felt. Every death you mourned, every person I slaugthered with your very hands, and every time you convinced yourself that you didn't deserve to live."
Hestia flinched, and Takemikazuchi's expression had gone very still. Loki's smirk had long since disappeared, as she stayed silent, but her eyes opened for a tiny sliver. Sukuna didn't mince his words, not caring about the implications his words could bring to these other gods. To him, they were outsiders.
"How's that strategy working out for you? Centuries later, standing on a street in a corner in a world that isn't yours, with no home, no family, and no one who knows what sort of abomination you are." Sukuna's smirk grew even more before it reverted back to an easy, laid back smile. "Maybe you really haven't changed."
The silence that followed was loud.
Yuji stared at Sukuna across the gap of the street, and for a moment he could envision Sukuna's head being detached from his body. Sukuna likewise, felt the very same intent being directed at him, causing his smile to grow ever more.
Then, Loki stepped in.
"Alright, that's enough of… whatever this is." She put herself between Yuji and the stall, her hand landed on Yuji's arm, a gesture that was both casual and firm.
"Come on, fossil. You still owe me a conversation remember? Somewhere private?"
Yuji didn't respond immediately, his eyes still fixed on Sukuna who had already returned to wrapping sweet potatoes, a satisfied smile on his face.
"...Yeah." Yuji finally responded, turning away. "Let's go."
Loki steered Yuji away down the street, and the moment they walked away Sukuna's voice reached their ears.
"You know where to find me, Brat. I'll be waiting, as long as it takes. After all, who better to trust in this world than family?"
Yuji walked away as Loki visibly flinched for a moment, but she cooled herself. Taking a hand out of his pocket, he did something that felt very out of place, but at the same time so very right.
He flipped Sukuna off behind his back as he and Loki disappeared down the street, earning a laugh from his uncle.
Hestia watched them leave, her hand still pressed against her chest.
Takemikazuchi looked at Sukuna, who was humming quietly to himself as he arranged the next batch of potatoes.
"Was that necessary?" The God of War asked, his tone carefully neutral.
Sukuna's humming stopped as he became quiet for a moment.
"Necessary? No." He picked up another potato. "But the brat needed to hear it."
His words carried no malice or the same aggression he had earlier when riling Yuji. To anyone else, they might have mistaken his tone as concern.
"You're disgusting." Hestia couldn't help but speak out, not looking at Sukuna.
He merely breathed out of his nose as Hestia continued.
"Can you tell me more about him?"
He looked at the Goddess out of the corner of his eyes, raising a brow before letting out a scoff. "No. Get it out from the Brat yourself."
Hestia frowned and was about to speak up when Sukuna added on.
"Highly selfish of you, to presume to try and fix him."
Hestia paused then growled at him, turning away with a huff, leaving Takemikazuchi to sigh.
------------------
Yuji and Loki walked in silence for several minutes.
Loki had guided him off the main street and into one of the quieter residential lanes near the Western District, with the crowds of people having visibly thinned out. She hadn't released his arm yet.
Yuji was the first to speak.
"I'm fine."
"Didn't ask." Loki replied back succinctly, and her tone made it clear she wasn't going to pretend she hadn't seen what just happened. Or the crazy implications that came from Sukuna's words.
They turned down another street and into a small garden courtyard surrounded by residential buildings.
"I haven't had much interaction with the Eastern Gods, minus Takemikazuchi and some others." Loki said, slowing her pace. "But that one, Sukuna. He knows you, personally."
"Yes."
"He's the reason you were akin' me about divine restrictions."
"Yes."
"He mentioned family."
"...Yes."
Loki frowned but processed his responses in silence, her squinted eyes fixed on the garden around them. The trickster in her wanted to dig, pry and turn every stone until the full picture revealed itself. But the woman who led the Loki Familia knew when to push and when to wait.
She chose to wait, for now.
Loki released his arm and sat down on a bench placed at the edge of the garden, leaning back with her hands behind her head.
Yuji remained standing, looking out over the water.
"Yuji."
He turned to look at her.
Loki's expression was different than anything he'd seen before. The playfulness was gone, and her squinting eyes were nowhere to be seen. Instead, her vermillion eyes were fully open, looking at him with an intensity he'd never seen from her.
"I've been thinkin' about this since the day you walked into Orario with my Familia. I've been thinkin' about it during the post expedition, and after the dinner, and after the walk we had." She let her arms drop to her sides. "I've been thinkin' about it since the moment I realized you were gonna leave the Manor and go off on your own."
Yuji watched her in silence.
"You don't belong to anyone. No Familia, no God, No flag. You're the strongest person I've ever met who isn't bound by a single thing in this world." She paused for a moment, her tone dropping slightly. "And you're the loneliest."
The words settled between them softly.
"I'm not gonna pretend that I understand everythin' bout you. I don't know what Sukuna back there is to you, or what happened between you two, or what you've been through in your lifetime. But I know what I see, what I believe in."
She stood up from the bench.
"I see a man who brings chaos and wonder wherever he goes. Who saved my children without being asked and then walked away without expecting anything in return. Who had looked at the strongest fighters in my Familia and treated them like regular people." Her grin returned, but it was the most genuine he had ever seen from her. The grin of the Trickster Goddess, and the one who loves her Familia. "I have known you for barely a week, and I haven't been this entertained since I descended."
She extended her hand to him.
"Join my Familia, Yuji Itadori."
A breeze blew through the garden as birds on the rooftops scattered as if on command before resettling, her hair whipping in the wind as her vermillion eyes bore into his.
Yuji looked at her outstretched hand, and for the first time in a very long time, he didn't have a ready answer.
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Authors Note:
So, hope you enjoyed that build up, I tried to make it as natural and impactful as I could while keeping in line with Loki's personality/modus operandi
This could be considered the first turning point of the story. I want to see all your guys' thoughts on this and what you think Yuji would do.
I already know whatever path I choose for him, there will be a split in people's reaction, but please do keep it amicable. This is the story I'm choosing to tell out of my own free time for no cost other than my own sanity.
To those that wanna whine and drop the story
I only have this to say.
GOO GOO GA GA What you say won't matter! The agenda will be maintained! You think I can read?! I am far more powerful than the average JJK fan who can't read, I MAKE JJK FANFICTION! THERE ARE LEVELS TO THIS LOBOTOMY!! Mahoraga, fry these frauds!
SuWOOOOOOP