"Oh hell no!"
The door was slammed in her face.
Mob knocked again. This wasn't how she had seen this whole thing going. She didn't know what she had been expecting but not that, not having a door slammed in her face, and certainly not Master Reigen yelling at her. She hadn't even gotten a 'hello' or anything like that. He just slammed the door in her face like she was a pushy door to door salesman.
"Mob, go home to Serizawa." said Reigen through the door. No. No way. He was not dealing with this shit again. She had made her choice. She had chosen Serizawa and it hurt like hell. What, was she here to rub salt in his wounds? Well she could go right ahead, there was plenty of salt around his house. Maybe she'd end up exorcising him from existence. Maybe that would have been for the best.
"Not until you tell me why." Said Mob. She wondered why this hurt so much. This hurt more than anything else, he door in her face. The door was only wood, she could have taken it down easily with her powers, but she didn't. She was going to go around breaking doors down.
She had broken enough as it was.
"Why I want you to get the hell away from my apartment? You really don't know why? You have no idea why I would be pissed at you? Really? Mob, you are not this clueless." Said Reigen. He was not opening that door. No. Not because he had been threatened, and beaten up by, a fourteen year old boy. If he opened that door and saw her and…and then he didn't know whether he would end up kissing her or killing her.
"I think that you're still mad at me." Said Mob. That made sense, that he would still be mad at her, because she was dating Serizawa after all. She was mad at him, though, for telling on her. He didn't have to do that. If she hadn't gotten in trouble then she maybe wouldn't have…wouldn't have gone to live with Serizawa. She loved him, she had to she was his girlfriend after all, but if she hadn't gotten into all of that with her mother…she didn't know what she would have done.
Because she really, really, really wanted to be with Master Reigen.
"You think?" asked Reigen sarcastically. He was not opening the door. There was no way in hell he was opening the door. He didn't want to see her….yes he did. He did but he was not opening the door. He couldn't…if he opened the door he was either going to kiss her or kill her…and both of those were not in anyone's best interest. Serizawa had texted him back. They were making up.
How were they supposed to make up and put all of this behind them when Mob was literally right outside his door?
"Yes, I think so….and I'm mad at you, too." Said Mob
"Mad at me? Why? What the hell did I do you?! Mob, you are the one in the wrong here! You're the one who-" said Reigen
"You didn't have to tell my mom on me!" said Mob stomping her foot and making the building shake. That last part was on accident. She was just so mad at him. She couldn't remember ever being this mad at him before in her entire life. First he rejects her and then he tells her mom on her? Who did that?!
"….yes I did." Said Reigen. Ok, he could have lived a long life without having told Mrs. Kageyama about what her daughter had been getting up too. He had been petty and immature and it was a goddamned miracle that Mob hadn't told her mother EVERYTHING that she had been getting up to. He didn't have to but he also kind of did. It had made him feel better in the moment.
He wondered how he could possibly feel better in this moment.
"No you didn't! You didn't have to tell her about me and Serizawa but you did and then I-" said Mob. The door rattled a bit. She didn't know if that had been him or her. She was mad. She was so mad. She was so mad at him. This was all his fault! If he hadn't told his mom on her, or if he hadn't told Serizawa that they had sex together, or if-
Or if she hadn't cheated in the first place.
"You're pinning this on me?" asked Reigen. He may have been speaking too loudly. She may have been speaking too loudly. Maybe the neighbor who was banging on his wall and telling him to shut his mouth was just being too sensitive. Maybe he should have opened the door. Maybe this was not the thing to be talking about through a closed door.
Maybe he wouldn't kill her.
He wanted to.
Maybe he wouldn't kiss her.
He wanted to.
"I shouldn't have cheated, that was wrong of me, but you shouldn't have told on me. You're not supposed to tell on people like that. It's not ok." Said Mob
"But what you did is?" asked Reigen
"No. I already said that it was wrong of me to cheat." Said Mob
"On who?" asked Reigen
"On Serizawa. I was his girlfriend but I had sex with you and that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have had sex with you that night no matter how much I wanted to or how much I loved you." Said Mob. She also maybe shouldn't have been saying 'sex' so loudly but it was what happened. She didn't want to call it sleeping together because that would have been too impersonal. Making love didn't fit because…that was what she had felt when they did that…and it was the best that she had ever had in her entire life…but it had been wrong. Even though she loved him.
She loved him so much.
"Mob….don't say that." Said Reigen closing his eyes. Right. He had done that with Mob. He had done that with Mob and there was no going back from that. It was a thing that had happened. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him…for about ten minutes. For ten minutes he had been making love to her, actually making love for the first time in his life, with Mob…the first person he had actually loved in his entire life. The only person he had ever loved, truly loved, and it was Mob.
Why did it have to be Mob?
"But we did have sex." Said Mob. He was not going to pretend like it never happened. Sometimes you had to pretend that things never happened, like when your brother walked in on you getting dressed or like when you were little and you thought you heard your parents fighting…but they weren't fighting….sometimes you had to pretend that things never happened…
But she was not going to pretend that what happened between her and Master Reigen never happened.
"Mob…not so loud…" said Reigen. The world did not need to know about that. The world did not need to know that he had slept with Mob. The world did not need to know that he was the sort of person who slept with, who fell in love with, fifteen year old girls. A fifteen year old girl. That fifteen year old girl. The world did not need to know that he had fallen in love with and slept with that fifteen year old girl standing right outside his door.
His ex-best friend's fifteen year old girlfriend.
He had tried to steal his ex-beat friend's fifteen year old girlfriend. Or maybe Serizawa stole her from him. She had thought that he had rejected her, permanently, so she jumped into bed…and a relationship…with his ex-best friend. Serizawa had no clue that she even…that he even…and then Reigen had to go and hit him…
That had been wrong.
This whole situation was wrong.
The fact that he wanted nothing more than to open that door and kiss her like there was no tomorrow was wrong.
"But we did! We did and you can't just act like we didn't! This is not one of those things that you have to pretend never happened! It did happen! We had-!" said Mob. She was being loud, now, and she had to be. He needed to listen to her. Maybe he should have listened to her since the beginning. Maybe if he had just been in a relationship with her in the beginning then none of this would have happened in the first place!
The door opened.
"Mob! Get in this fucking house before you wake up the whole neighborhood!" said Reigen. Ok, now he had to let her in. He had no choice. He liked where he lived and he didn't much feel like getting kicked out because the teenage girl he was in love with wouldn't stop shouting at the top of her lungs about things that the world needed to mind it's own business about.
"Now you want me to come in?" asked Mob. This was so confusing. One minute he wanted nothing to do with her and now he was…inviting her in?
"Yes! Get in here and stop screaming!" said Reigen. She walked through the threshold of his doorway and took off her shoes. She took her shoes off slowly and deliberately. She put them together, right next to his, and even faced them the right way. Heh. Well she was more polite than the last Kageyama that had come bursting through his door.
"I'm inside and I'm not screaming anymore, Master Reigen." Said Mob as she finished taking her shoes off. She had taken her time with that. She needed her time. She needed to figure out what it was she was going to say. What it was she was going to do.
Not that.
Even though she wanted to. She loved him. She had been hurt by him. She had hurt him, too. Now they were together and he hadn't been so close to her…and she hadn't even seen him since the night that they…since the night they had sex.
Slept together.
Made love.
Did that amazing thing that two people did when they were in love. That amazing, wonderful, thing that she had done so many times before but never as well as she had done it with him. She remembered the way it felt to have him on in, around her, in her. She remembered the way his stubble scratched her face but in a good way. She remembered how good it had felt. Kissing him. Touching him. Being touched by him.
Her hair was floating.
"I know. I know you're here. I know you aren't screaming anymore…" said Reigen. He ran his hands through his hair. He was unsteady, just a little, because it had been that part of the evening.
"You're hurt." Said Mob. She could see him, now, in the light of the apartment. His apartment. She had never been in his apartment before…and it was messier than she thought that it would be. He had a lot of empty cans and food containers around. Lots of clothes on the ground, too.
Why were boys so messy?
If she had been living there she would have cleaned up.
If she had been living there she would have stopped him from getting hurt. He had a black eye, that was the most noticeable, but he also had some bruises too…and it looked so…he looked so hurt. He had gotten hurt and she hadn't been there….but she couldn't be there for him. She shouldn't even have been there now. She had told Serizawa that she was going out but she hadn't said where because she knew that if he knew he would have gotten hurt again.
Maybe she should have just stayed home.
"Yeah. You can thank your brother for that." Said Reigen bitterly. She reached out and took his hand. He pulled away. It didn't matter. She had still touched him. He hadn't seen her, hadn't touched her, since that night…and he had thought of almost nothing else. When he wasn't in a drunken spiral of self-loathing he was remembering the way she felt…the way she sounded…the way the entire thing had felt.
That was the best time of his life.
And it could never happen again. He wasn't going to kill her and he wasn't going to kiss her…even though it would have been so easy. She was there, he was there, and he could have kissed her. He wanted to. She probably wanted to. Heh. Maybe that was why she had crossed the city in the middle of the night.
Or maybe she had just come all this way to give him a piece of her mind.
"Ritsu? Why would he…well he never liked you….but he shouldn't have hit you. I'll make him say sorry." Said Mob
'Mob. Don't." said Reigen
"But he shouldn't have-" said Mob
"Do you really think that you're in any position to start moralizing at people? Are either of us?" asked Reigen. He did not want to get into it with her little brother. The kid might actually kill him next time.
"What?" asked Mob. She didn't see how telling her little brother not to go around beating people up for no reason was moralizing. Even if it hadn't been for no reason. Even if Ritsu knew…well if Ritsu knew the whole of what happened then she could never set foot in her house again. She'd have to flee the city. It was the only way. It was bad enough that Ritsu knew about her and Serizawa but now….now he knew about Master Reigen too….maybe….
"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Said Reigen
"They make glass houses? But why? Everyone would be able to see inside. How would you change clothes? Take a bath? Who's buying these houses? And why would they go around throwing rocks if they lived in glass houses?" asked Mob. That was…that was weird. It made no sense. None at all. She must have missed something. She must have because now Master Reigen was smiling at her.
Then he laughed a little.
Then he laughed out loud at her. She crossed her arms and looked down at her shoes. She knew that she was bad at things like that and he didn't have to laugh at her. He knew it, that she was clueless, and he shouldn't have been laughing at her. First he rejected her and then he told on her and now he was laughing at her.
She was just about to get her shoes on and go home when he said something that she didn't know if she wanted to hear.
"Mob….Mob I fucking love you…" said Reigen. That was a pure Mob-ism. He hadn't heard any of her Mob-isms in so long. He loved her. He loved everything about her, even her cluelessness…and he shouldn't have said that. But he could read her. He had known her long enough to be able to read her. She was about to leave. She had taken that the wrong way and she had been about to walk right out that door…
And she couldn't.
Because he didn't know if he would ever see her again. That was the worst part of all of this. She was still so perfect, he loved her so much, and she still wasn't his. If she had walked out that door then she would have been walking right back to Serizawa and he…he didn't want that. He never wanted that. He wanted her to be there…and all to himself….and that was the worst and he was the worst. She was fifteen, she had an excuse, but he didn't. Not for loving her, not for what he had done to his best friend, and not for wanting to do nothing more than to pull her into his arms and kiss her until they…until it went to it's natural conclusion.
"Master….don't say that." Said Mob softly. Her hair was trying to float away. He still loved her. The thought was enough to carry her right off the ground. She was rising off the ground. First her heels, then the middle of her foot…was it called the arch? That part rose off the ground until only her toes were touching the ground. She could feel the tips of her toes trying desperately to grasp the carpet.
He loved her.
She loved him.
And wasn't that just the worst?
"Don't call me that." Said Reigen as he reached over and held her forearms. He pulled her back down to the ground. It was better for her to lose control and float away instead of her losing control and destroying his apartment. But if she were to float away, away and out of his life forever, then it would destroy him.
"Master? But you're Master Reigen….but I can call you just Reigen if you want…since I guess that you don't…I thought that you didn't like me anymore but you just said that you loved me and this is very confusing for me." Said Mob as she let him hold her. The more he held her the more she felt like she was going to float away. He was so strong. He was so strong and she was in his arms, like she had been that night, and she was starting to forget Serizawa like she had forgotten him that night. But she couldn't forget him.
Not again.
That would have been wrong.
The whole thing would have been wrong. She wanted to lean in and kiss him. There was a couch across the room. She wanted him to carry her to that couch. She wanted him to carry her over and lay her down and make her feel everything that he had made her feel that night…
No.
She remembered why she had come all the way to his apartment in the middle of the night. She had been mad at him and she had to keep on being mad at him because otherwise she could have, and would have, done something stupid. That same stupid thing that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. He was so close…he was close enough that she could even smell him. He smelled, before, like green tea and smoking and incense and aftershave. Now he mostly smelled like smoking and his deodorant and…and something that could only be described as Reigen Arataka.
She pushed her thighs together.
She had done that because she wanted…she wanted a lot of things with him…and she thought that maybe it would have been best if she stopped herself before she did something stupid like step between his legs, or step so that he was between her legs like he had been that night, and then a lot of stupidity would happen. She could not hurt Serizawa again. He loved her.
He loved her.
He did a lot for her.
He had forgiven her once. He might not have been able to forgive her a second time.
"Mob…I'm pissed at you. I love you but I am so, incredibly, pissed at you." Said Reigen with a dry laugh.
"I don't know what's so funny but I'm mad at you too." Said Mob
"What are you mad at me for? Mob, you're the one who deceived me. I would have never done any of that with you if I knew that you were in a relationship with my best friend….you hurt me, Mob. You hurt me when you did that and you hurt him too." Said Reigen. He still held her. Her face was flushed. Her hair was rising up from her back. Her eyes were free of her bangs and he could see just how brown they were…
And she was rocking back and forth with her thighs together.
Chaste arousal in all of it's glory. Not that he was going to make the mistake of thinking of her as a virgin. That ship had sailed long ago…and he had missed the boat. Not that he attached any meaning to first times. God knew that she hadn't been his. She had wanted him and he wanted her…then and now…but he couldn't. The first time he hadn't had even the faintest idea that she had been with Serizawa. Now he knew and there was no way for him to justify his actions to himself let alone Serizawa.
"We were both there….we both wanted to." Said Mob
"Yeah, but I had no idea that you were in a relationship with Serizawa. How in the hell did that even…and why are you even still with him? Mob, you thought that I rejected you, that was on me, but you didn't have to go messing with Serizawa like that." Said Reigen
"I don't want to talk about this." said Mob
"Well we're talking about it right now. Mob…hurting him is on you. I shouldn't have hit him but you…you should have told me at some point that you were with him." said Reigen
"But then you wouldn't have wanted to be with me like that….and I wanted that with you…I had wanted it with you for so long….and then it happened and it was the best thing ever…" said Mob
"Mob…don't…don't say that. Your words have meaning. Don't just say things to me that aren't-" said Reigen
"I'm not lying….it was the best ever….you were the best…and I feel bad that I think that. I feel bad about what I did and what I want to do…." Said Mob
"You and me both." Muttered Reigen
"But you still love me?" said Mob. Her eyes held his gaze. She needed to know. Even if she couldn't love him back she still…she still wanted to know how he felt. The truth this time, the whole truth. If he had just been direct in the first place then none of this would have happened. Then she could have been his girlfriend like she had wanted to be for all of these years….
"Of course I still fucking love you, Mob, there is nothing in the world that will ever make me stop loving you." Said Reigen. He meant that from the core of his being. No matter what she did he would never have stopped loving her. Had she been anyone else he would have noped out of this drama-rama ages ago. But he didn't because it was her. He felt this way for her….
For her, for her, always for her.
"If you love me then why did you tell on me?" asked Mob softly
"Because I was hurt. Mob…I love you so much and when it all came out I just…it hurt. It hurt and I felt so cornered that I…that I just…I wanted to hurt you…" said Reigen. She stared at him. She was trying to understand him. He knew that look. He knew all of her looks.
"How can you love me but also want to hurt me?" asked Mob
"I don't want to hurt you now. I wanted to hurt you then because…Mob….what would you do if I or…oh God if Serizawa….slept with another girl. Woman. If either of us slept with someone else. Imagine that and tell me how you feel." Said Reigen. Mob closed her eyes and tied her best. The problem was that she didn't know any other women that they all knew besides her mother…and that was gross as all else….or maybe Minegishi…who used to be a girl but was now a boy but still got a period….she wasn't sure if she should have asked how that one worked….
This was hard to imagine.
Maybe he didn't mean any specific woman. She didn't know any real, specific, women so she imagined Asuka from EVA because she seemed like the sort of person who, when she liked someone, would just ask them to have sex with her. She had tried that in episode….now was not the time to think about EVA…but if either Serizawa or Master Reigen had slept with Asuka then she would have been impressed because Asuka was an EVA pilot and she could have…
That was not the point of this exercise.
But it didn't bother her. Not really. She knew that Master Reigen had been with other women before her. It didn't bother her. Serizawa had never been with anyone else but if he wanted to be with someone else then she wouldn't have stopped him. All of this fighting and hurt feelings and jealousy and stuff was just too much. It would have been simple if people could just be with one another and not have to worry about other people's feelings.
But that was not how it worked.
People paired up. Boys and girls. Boys and boys. Girls and girls. Girls who used to be boys and boys who used to be girls. Any combination of those. But it had to be a pair. People were in pairs, they paired up, that was what they did. That was how it went.
"Mob….you…ok?" asked Reigen shaking her a little. Well she had certainly been deep in thought there…and that may or may not have been a good thing.
"I'm fine, I was just thinking. I wouldn't mind." Said Mob
"What?" asked Reigen
"If you slept with someone else. I mean I know that you must have, you were really good, and you're you…a lot of people must want to be with you, so it doesn't bother me." Said Mob
"No, I didn't mean-" said Reigen
"Also if you wanted to be with someone else while we were together than I would be ok with that too. The way I feel, the way you feel, and the way Serizawa feels…they aren't good feelings. I don't want to feel like this and I know that Serizawa doesn't want to feel like this and I guess that you don't want to feel like this if it's anything close to how Serizawa and I feel….so if there was some way that we could all be with whoever we wanted to be and have everything that we wanted but also if we could be with other people I would like that. It wouldn't hurt me." Said Mob. She wondered if she had said the wrong thing. Master Reigen was still staring at her….
"Mob…that's called an open relationship….and people do that all the time…with varying results." Said Reigen. Well then. WELL THEN.
He had learned something new about her.
Maybe she just didn't understand monogamy. She was notoriously clueless in every other area of her life so why would her romantic life be any different? That would…that would have explained a lot, actually. Well then. There went all of the anger, what little anger remained anyway, it was hard to stay mad at her. It was so hard to stay mad at her when she was there, in his arms, so small and there and perfect. She wasn't trying to rise off the ground…or maybe she was. He didn't know. All he knew was that she was there and she…she wanted to be his…and he couldn't because…because that would have been wrong…
But not in the perfect world that Mob was imagining.
"Why doesn't everyone do that? It would make things a lot easier….and people could be happy…we could be happy…" said Mob
"Because not everyone's made for that, Mob. A lot of people can't handle it…like Serizawa. Mob he could not handle that. You don't…you don't know how he talks about you. He loves you and he genuinely wants to spend the rest of his life with you. Those aren't just words, Mob, when a person says that to you then they mean it." Said Reigen
"I know, he told me. I told me a bunch of times and he…and he told my mom when she came to visit…" said Mob
"What the ever loving….your mom…and she didn't kill him?" asked Reigen. Well he had missed a hell of a lot. He knew, somewhat knew, her mother…and she would have killed Serizawa if she could have. But she had just…come over for a nice visit?
"She hit him with her ring hand a bunch of times and then left the house really fast when Serizawa said that he wanted to marry me. We aren't going to get….I mean I guess that we are because he wants to…and if he wants to then I want to….and I was about to when I thought that I was pregnant…" said Mob. Master Reigen let go of her like she was on fire.
"You're pregnant!? What the…ok….ok you don't…this is not my decision….God damn it! How could I have been so stupid!? Ok…ok….don't panic. You…you have options. You have options and I-I support you in whatever you choose….I can't raise a kid! A kid that might not even be mine! Sorry I just…that was not conductive to anything just….how could I have been so stupid?!" said Reigen. He began to pace back and forth. He and Mob had unprotected sex on the office couch and this was what came of having unprotected sex on the office couch…or anywhere…
If Mob was regularly having sex then she should have planned for this better!
Or at all!
But she hadn't and now they were in this mess and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about this and there was nothing that he could do because he couldn't force her to do the only sensible thing that there was to do and he knew that she wouldn't do it either because Mob and sensible went together about as well as milk and orange juice and now there was going to be a new person in the world that he was going to be responsible for and oh God! He had gotten a fifteen year old girl pregnant! How was he supposed to explain this to his mother or his father or-or-or anyone?!
He had gotten a fifteen year old girl pregnant.
He had gotten his ex-best friend's fifteen year old girlfriend pregnant.
There was a human being in the world, now, because he couldn't keep his pants on for five minutes!
"Master, I'm not-" said Mob
"Will you please stop calling me that?! We are well past the point of being master and student! We are having a fucking baby together! That kid might not even be…and if it is I can't….Mob, look around! I can barely take care of myself let alone a family….what the hell are we going to do?! Serizawa….this'll kill him. This will put him in the ground faster than your mother ever could….your mother! Your mother is going to do more than slap me around with her ring hand! And your brother already tried to run me out of town….he might actually kill me…and if doesn't your father will! I'm guessing that he's the one your brother gets it from! Oh my God….Mob I have a half-brother your age….I have a half-brother that I haven't seen since three days after he was born and now someone's going to have to explain to him that the brother he's never really met got a girl his age pregnant…my father is going to explain it to him…and then he's going to drive to Seasoning City and murder me…and then my mother is going to murder me…and then Serizawa is going to exorcise me because I got his girlfriend pregnant-" said Reigen
"But I'm not-" said Mob grabbing his arms to keep him from walking back and forth across the dirty carpet. His feet crunched when he walked, the ground was covered in chips crumbs, but they stopped when he stopped.
"Mob, you cannot begin to understand the gravity of this situation. We. Are. Fucked. If you don't have an abortion right now we are fucked. You need to….Mob it's the only sensible thing to do! We can't raise a kid together! Not now! Mob, you are fifteen…you don't want to be a fifteen year old mother! Nobody wants you to be a fifteen year old mother! Girls your age cannot raise kids! You're not even in high school yet! And me…I don't live well! Look around you, I am not doing well for myself at all! We cannot raise a kid here! This…this is not place for a baby…" said Reigen. She was holding him in place with her hands, not her powers, which was…odd. She had been so close to floating off the ground before but now she was just…there. She wasn't freaked out in the slightest. That meant that she had made up her mind…
Maybe she hadn't just come by to yell at him for tattling to her mother.
He was fucked. They were fucked. This whole, entire, complete, situation was royally fucked.
"Can you just listen-" said Mob. He just…he just would. Not. Stop. Talking. He was freaking out. Serizawa hadn't even been this freaked out. He had been worried but he had also been sort of excited. He had a plan while she was there waiting for the longest five minutes of her life to pass. He had a plan for how they would make money and take care of the baby and where they would live and all of that…and what he didn't know he said that they had time to figure out together….
Master Reigen was just freaking out.
Maybe freaking out was the normal thing to do. Having a baby was a big deal. She hadn't given it much thought in the past, people just had babies, but it was different when she could have been the one having a baby. It was a huge thing, making another person, and she…she didn't think that she could have gone through with it at this point in her life…even with Serizawa's help….and Serizawa hadn't told her to do anything. He said that he supported her in whatever she chose to do…and Master Reigen had told her what to do…
But he was right, she didn't want to be a fifteen year old mother…
But she wasn't even pregnant! She had peed on the stick and the stick said that she wasn't pregnant, she just hadn't had a period in a very long time….but she wasn't pregnant…..so maybe that was the sort of thing she needed to bite the bullet and get her insurance card from home so she could see a doctor about it and make sure that she wasn't dying….
Also Master Reigen was freaking out over nothing! She and Serizawa hadn't been this freaked out and here he was all upset about something that he wasn't even giving her a chance to tell him wasn't happening!
"….can't marry a teenage girl…it's not even legal unless your parents sign the forms…and they are not signing anything! Oh God…I need air. There is not enough air in here! How can you be this calm! Mob, you are having a baby and I'm guessing you plan on raising it….it's your right to….Mob think about the kid! The kid does not need a kid for a mom! The kid does not need a functional alcoholic for a father! The kid needs-" said Reigen
"Stop freaking out! Serizawa and I didn't even freak out like this! There isn't even anything to freak out about! I'm not even-" said Mob
"I will freak out! Mob, this is huge! You're PREGNANT! There is a human being growing inside of you right now! You're just….you need to freak out! And how was Serizawa not….well he'd like this. Now you can't leave him. You can never leave him now…because it's probably his kid….and you can never leave him now….or it's mine….but there's a kid involved in this mess now….you came here to tell me that there's a kid involved in this mess now….could be my kid…" Said Reigen. Mob took a deep breath and dug her nails into his arm. She didn't mean to do that last part but she'd had all that she could take and she could take no more.
"Reigen Artaka…I AM NOT PREGNANT! I peed on the stick and it said negative! I am not having a baby and you would have known that if you had stopped freaking out and had just listened to me! I came here because I was mad at you for telling my mom on me! That's all….and also I guess because I miss you….but not to tell you that I was pregnant! Because I'm not. I thought that I was but I'm not." Said Mob. She was breathing heavy, now, like she had just run her school's marathon and finished in first place. She just needed him to shut up for five seconds and listen to her!
The room was trembling.
She was trembling.
He was trembling.
"Mob…" said Reigen softly. He had never been so relieved in his entire life. She wasn't pregnant. He hadn't gotten a teenage girl pregnant! Wait…that wasn't the sort of thing he should have been patting himself on the back about because he shouldn't have been having unprotected sex with anyone…even her…even though it had been the most amazing…no. It could never happen again. She was holding onto him, now, and she was there and she was….she was strangely attractive when she was angry….and these were not the thoughts to have about someone that he had, just seconds before, been freaking out because he had thought that she had been pregnant.
"Ok…you're listening now…I'm not having a baby." Said Mob. She swallowed even though her throat was dry. She could have let go of him, she should have let go of him, but she didn't…she didn't want to. Her eyes darted over to the couch. It would have been so easy….but she had made a promise to Serizawa….and also she was his girlfriend….and also he had just been freaking out because he thought that she was pregnant!
That was how people got pregnant in the first place, thoughts like that.
"Ok. You aren't…you aren't pregnant….good. Also you're….I mean I got tested so you don't…unless you've been with someone besides me or-or…oh God…or Serizawa…" said Reigen
"We didn't. I mean I wanted to but we didn't." said Mob
"Don't lie to me, you're terrible at it. I know you weren't a virgin, then, I mean I know now that you weren't a virgin…I mean…." said Reigen. She still hadn't let him go. He still didn't want her to let him go.
"I never said I was. I meant that….you were talking about that night….I was talking about how he and I haven't done…that…in a while. Had sex. Not since before…because it bothers him that I had sex with you…that I wanted to have sex with you…and I think he can tell that I still want to have sex with you…but that's wrong. I love…I'm his girlfriend. I have to love him." said Mob softly
"Mob, no, there is no 'have to'. This is a relationship you two…you two have…and relationships should never be obligations…" said Reigen
"I know. I don't…I'm an adult and I have to do what adults do. He loves me and I-I promised him that I would never hurt him again…and he didn't give me any reason to hurt him. all he's ever done is love me…and I didn't love him when we…I think that I was just hurting when we…when we started….after I confessed to you….I think that I just had something to prove…" said Mob
"Yeah, I know. I've…most people have been there before. It's called a rebound and it sucks. You're hurt and rejected so you jump into bed with the first person who…who you know is a sure thing. It sucks but…but it's something that most people go through once. Some people more than once." Said Reigen
"I…it was wrong of me to…I didn't think that he would fall in love with me….I didn't think about what could happen…I only thought about you and…and how much I wanted to be with you…that was all I could think about. Then he said that he loved me and…and I didn't love him then but I think I love him now…I think. The way I feel about him is different from how I feel about you…when I'm with him I feel like…like I have to love him because I'm afraid of hurting him. I'm the one who made him feel this way and he…he's not good with hurt feelings. I don't want him to live in his room and not shower again and he…he's very nice to me. He cares about me. He wants us to get married and have babies and live in his mom's house…I mean he says that we can live wherever I choose but I think he wants to live with his mom…and I don't…I don't even know her! But he knows my mom and he told my mom that he wants to marry me and I told my mom that I want to marry him and I…I've never thought this much about getting married in my entire life! Or having a house or a job or a family or a baby…but I'm an adult now…but it's so hard…but adults are always saying that it's hard…and Master…I mean Reigen….I don't know what to do besides…besides be his girlfriend." said Mob
"Have you…have you told him any of this?" asked Reigen. She wasn't happy. She wasn't happy with Serizawa and he didn't blame her…or even him. Neither of them was…nobody in that situation was mature enough for any of this. Mob for not thinking her actions through, Serizawa for catching feelings and not stopping to think about…anything! And Reigen himself for jerking Mob around instead of just accepting that he wanted to be with her just as badly as she wanted to be with him.
Maybe they all deserved each other.
"No. I can't say mean things like that to him. He loves me and I…I don't know how I feel about him. The way I feel about him is different than the way I feel about you…and I feel like they're both love…and I just….Master Reigen I want to be with you! I want to be your girlfriend even though you rejected me, before, and told on me to my mom, and even the stuff that happened to us before all of this. Master…I mean Reigen….I love you…" said Mob. Reigen stopped listening after I love you. Mob…Mob loved him…and she was hurt…and everything hurt…and she was there and she was hurting and she loved him…
He didn't think.
He just kissed her. He kissed her knowing fully well that she was in a relationship. He kissed her knowing fully well that she was fourteen years younger than him. He kissed her knowing that he may not be able to stop at kissing her. Stop at parting her lips. Stop at tasting her. Stop at is hand buried in her hair and the other around her waist.
But she stopped.
And now she was kissing him again. This wasn't one long kiss, this was several peppered to his lips, his cheek, and then lower to his neck. Then she bit and she sucked and she almost brought him to his knees with her downright shameless moaning of his name.
"Reigen…Master Reigen…Reigen….Aratak…." said Mob. She said his name like it was a chant that could ward off the badness of what it was that she was doing. She was kissing him and he was tugging on her hair and on her shirt and now his hand was…it was….oh.
Oh.
Oh yes.
His hand had made it's way under her shirt and undershirt and now he was playing with her…oh! He was good at that! He went in circles and touched her just enough to…yes! And he pinched…which she had thought would have hurt but not in a good way…
He nudged her head to the side and kissed her again.
His other hand had left her hair and was going down her back. It swept down lower and lower and lower…and then higher. When he got to her legs he went higher. He went up her skirt and…and she knew how good this could feel. She stepped forward just a bit while they kissed, enough for his fingers to have room to move up…and enough for their teeth to scrape, too.
That wasn't the good kind of hurt.
This wasn't good.
She wanted this but she was not….she was not supposed to want this. She was not supposed to want his fingers to push her underwear to the side like he had before…or to do the thing with two fingers inside and his thumb pushing down on the nubby thing….and it wasn't good that her knees went weak or that she was so wet it sounded like he was stirring macaroni and cheese….and it wasn't good that he was kissing her neck now, hard, like she liked it…and it wasn't good that she was getting closer and closer and the closer she got the more the lights flickered and the room shook and she said his name over and over again…
And it wasn't good that she finished.
Nothing about that situation was good.
She had broken her promise.
So she had to leave.
And that was what she did.
"Mob! Wait! Don't-!" said Reigen as she practically ran out of his apartment. She didn't even stop to put her shoes on, she just ran out of there in her sock feet….her shoes followed her out the door…the door that she had left opened….because she had run away…because they had both messed up again….
God damn it all!
Just….God damn it all.
He had messed up again and now she was gone…again.
And this time it was all his fault.
Mob knew that this time it was all her fault. She knew what she was doing was wrong and she had done it anyway….and she could never tell Serizawa….ever. The truth of what had happened would devastate him…so she needed to lie even though she was bad at it….but for his sake she had to do it.
So she lied.
"Mob! Where were you? Not to be weird or anything, you can leave whenever you want…and why do you smell like that?" asked Serizawa. He tried to look like he had just been playing videogames, that was all, and not pacing a hole in the floor worrying about her. He had been. She had just said that she was going out. It was a big city, out could have meant literally anywhere.
He needed to trust her.
Even if she did leave the house in the middle of the night without telling him where she was going or when she'd be back….not that he needed to know her every move. This was just…odd for her.
"The store. I went to the store. I smell like this because I bought perfume at the store. Also I bought snacks. That's where I was, at the store." Said Mob. Not a true lie, she had stopped by the store after…that…and she had bought snacks and perfume. The perfume was to cover up the smell of Master Reigen, she smelled like him and smoking, and the snacks were because it would have been weird if she just came back with only perfume.
"…you went out in the middle of the night for perfume…and snacks?" asked Serizawa. That was…weird. Very weird….but then again he was not a girl and never had been so maybe nighttime perfume runs were a thing that girls did but he had just never seen her do. Also she might have just been hungry, too, even though they had loads of food at the house.
He trusted her.
"Yes. That's what I did." Said Mob quickly. She tossed the bag on the floor and then went to put her nightshirt on. She could feel his eyes on her as she changed. Maybe she should have changed in the bathroom…but maybe that would have been weird. He had seen her naked already and she didn't want him, or anyone, seeing her naked right then….but she didn't want to tell him why….and he was still looking at her.
"Oh. I'm sorry." Said Serizawa as he caught sight of the massive red marks on her neck. Those must have been deep if they had taken that long to show up.
"No! You have nothing to be sorry for! Don't ever say sorry to me again! Ever!" said Mob. The room shook. He stabilized it with his powers. She saw his aura meet hers and she shrank back. He got up and…and she expected him to start accusing her of running out in the middle of the night and doing exactly what she had been doing….
But instead he held her.
And that was the worst feeling in the world.
"Mob….if something's bothering you then you can tell me. I just…you're acting all nervous and I want you to know that I'm here for you. Is this about what happened with your mother? Or about…after that? Or are you just…" said Serizawa trying to find a polite way of asking his girlfriend if this was the whole 'girls are very emotional' time that came before a period that he had heard so much about. Girls were supposed to yell and yell at everything, and men were, supposedly, usually the 'everything', and she said that it had been a while….not that it was any of his business.
"Nothing, it's nothing. I didn't do….can we cuddle? I want to cuddle…" said Mob even though she didn't want to cuddle at all. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to dig a hole and live alone in it for the rest of her life. That way she couldn't hurt anyone ever again. She saw it, the appeal of living in her room for the rest of her life, but she had moved out so she…she couldn't do that. She wished that this place had more than one room. Then she could have just…been….she could have been alone with the misery she caused everyone around her…she just kept on hurting him. She hadn't set out to hurt him but she did…because she wanted to be Master Reigen…and he had kissed her! He had been the one to kiss her so it had been…she hadn't pushed him away. She hadn't stopped kissing him, hadn't stopped him from touching her, even though she knew that it was wrong.
Now she and Serizawa were cuddling in their bed, in the bed, while the TV was on like it was just a normal night and nothing had happened…and to him it was just a normal night…a normal night with the girl he loved most in the world.
He loved , he had done nothing but love her, be there for her, care for her and she had done nothing but hurt him.
And she wasn't even sure why.