Mob already knew how to cook.

But it was nice to have someone trying to teach her. She had felt bad, before, because Sophia had been the one making all of their meals. She and Master Reigen sometimes cooked together but also mostly ate a lot of junk food. Way too much junk food, actually, so it was good to cook something at home. Even if this was not their home to begin with. Well it was Master Reigen's childhood home…but he had moved out. So it was kind of like her with her parents' house. She wondered if it was still her house even if she didn't live there anymore and had no plans of ever going back.

Probably not.

"Am I doing this right?" asked Mob as she stirred a pan full of red sauce by hand. She could have used her powers but it felt better to be doing that by hand. More fun. Cooking was kind of fun. She liked cooking with Master Reigen too but his mom had shooed him out of the kitchen. She said that he was a disaster in the kitchen, which seemed kind of mean to Mob, but Master Reigen hadn't argued so he must not have wanted to cook.

Plus he had all of his scrapes and splinters to tend to.

Getting up the tree had been easy, getting down had been the hard part. Mob hadn't gotten hurt but she was a lot younger than Master Reigen and stuff. She would have used her powers but Master Reigen said that it might not have been the best idea to go do something like that out in public so soon after someone had tried to take over the world with psychic powers.

Which made a lot of sense.

She hated it when people were afraid of her. Now, because of what happened, a lot of people would be afraid of her. It wasn't fair. She had been the one to stop all of that take over the world stuff from happening. Well actually she hadn't been the one to stop Touichirou, he had stopped himself by losing control of himself and almost exploding…but she had helped. She didn't know. She didn't want to think about this.

"You're doing just fine. Now keep that sauce moving or it'll burn on the bottom." Said Sophia. She was such a sweet girl, Mobbu, Arataka had always hated cooking with her. He had always put up such a fuss….not matter, no matter, she had a new little helper now. It was so nice to see Mobbu up and about after the ordeal she had been through. Poor girl.

She seemed so normal now.

"Ok. I didn't know that you could make red sauce on your own. I've only had it out of the jar. Can you make white sauce on your own, too?" asked Mob as she kept on stirring like Sophia had showed her. Master Reigen taught her the same trick for making curry. Always keep stuff moving, that was the trick. Just keep moving.

Just keep moving.

Always move forwards. She was fine. She was fine because it was over. No more fighting, no more getting hurt, no more of anything bad happening to her at all. She was fine and everything was fine. Really, there was nothing more fine than what they were doing right then and there together on their own. They were fine and the world was fine. All was right with the world. That was what had happened after instrumentality in the show. Well the movie of the show. She didn't think that it was a bed ending at all. Instrumentality…

But now she had lived it.

She watched her hand as she stirred. That was her hand. That was a limit. It had a limited range of motion. Around and around and around. Her powers on the other hand were not limited. But she liked her limits. A life without limits was not a life at all. She needed to be limited, she needed to feel her limits, because without limits she was both nothing and everything at the same time.

She wanted to be neither nothing nor everything. She wanted to be Mob.

"You can. White sauce, Alfredo sauce, is a lot harder than marinara. So much cream and cheese. I never really bothered making that on my own." Said Sophia. She watched Mobbu stirring. It was hard to imagine that the fourteen year old girl in front of her was the same kid who had stopped that man…the man who went live on national TV and told the world that he was it's new lord and master…she had taken down a grown man…

And now she was standing there in her pink cat t-shirt and matching skirt, compete with adorable tail, making marinara sauce like it was nothing at all.

Where had she come from, this girl? She expected more eye rolling, more stomping more shouting, more…something. She was a fourteen year old girl who had been through hell and come out the other side without a single scratch on her. She was just…so sweet. She was so sweet and…and Sophia almost wished that Mobbu would have acted more like Arataka had, little Arataka had, and he hadn't gone through even an iota of what Mobbu had gone through.

Poor kid.

"Why are we making this on our own, though, if it's easier to buy it out of the jar?" asked Mob. She liked this better, maybe, if she were to go by smell alone. The constant stirring while it boiled, reduced Sophia called it, was tiring for her arm…but she liked it. The exercise part of this. She liked to exercise. She would have to work even harder if she ever got back to Body Improvement Club. No, when she got back. She needed to go to school.

Because she was a kid and kid's went to school.

Even now she felt like a kid. She had rarely been in the kitchen with mom when she was a kid…but she still felt like a kid now. More like a kid than she had in a while, anyway. She was only fourteen but she had always felt so much older….but now she was fourteen again…if that made sense. Her age was a limit just like her vessel was. There was so much that she couldn't do when she was a kid…but so much that was going to be done for her.

Freedom to and freedom from.

Before, when she had lived outside, she had been free to do whatever she wanted. She was free to go wherever she wanted to. She even could have left the whole city. She could have even flown off the face of the earth. She could have done a lot of things but the city had acted like a sort of limit to her, too. She liked limits. With limits she had to think less, to do less, like leaving the city. If she had left the city then she would have had a whole world all around her…and that would have been too much. Or like if she had been the one to pick dinner. There were so many things that she would have had to make and she would have had the responsibly of making sure that dinner was good and also something that everyone liked…but Sophia had been the one to decide that they would be making pasta with red sauce. That took the freedom of choice away from Mob but also gave her the freedom of responsibility.

So there was a limit there.

"Because it's better this way. My mother…well my mother was a firm believer that the best food in the world either came in the form of an appetizer or a dessert. Everything but sauce. She took her marinara sauce very seriously. This is her recipe so I thought that I would…pass it down to you." Said Sophia. Taka-chan had run away when she'd tried to teach him…but that had been ten years ago. Over ten years ago….but she felt like teaching Mobbu now. She was the closest thing that she had to a Daughter, anyway.

It was not good to think like that.

Because this was not her child. This was someone else's child. She had her own mother and…and that mother had abandoned her. Not even a phone call. That…Sophia didn't even have words for Mobbu's mother, hadn't even called to see if her Daughter was even still alive. Did her mother even know what happened? The whole of what happened?

Did she know that her Daughter had saved the world?

Did her parents know anything at all about what was happening? That their child had been homeless? That their child was now kilometers away from Seasoning City? Did they even care? Obviously not. They had left their child in the care of a man they barely even knew after all. They had no idea what sort of man Taka-chan was. They knew the image that he put up but not the sort of man he was.

He was not that sort of man.

But they had no way of knowing that. He was the man who was in a codependent, but thankfully nonsexual, relationship with their fourteen year old daughter. Did those people know? Did they care? Of course they didn't know or care. Mobbu…they were damn lucky that Taka-chan was not the sort of man who would take advantage of her obvious crush on him. She hoped that she never ran into those people or she'd end up giving them a piece of her mind.

"Oh, well I know that this is going to be good. I don't know if my mom has any recipes to teach me…she always said that it was too dangerous for me to be in the kitchen….but sometimes me and my boyfriend cook things together." Said Mob. She wanted to reach into her skirt pocket to check her phone…but she didn't have one. Her phone was still broken. She missed him so much.

She wanted to at least talk to him.

She wanted to talk to him and to hold his hand and to see if he was ok. His whole apartment had blown up…and now he was all alone…and maybe she should have stayed. She had wanted to go with Master Reigen but maybe, just maybe, she should have stayed at the hotel with Teru. At least he had found a place to stay that wasn't the awakening lab. Teru said that there was too much bright red there. He said that it was hard on the eyes…and Mob agreed. Not that she'd had her eyes opened that often while she had been there. She had either been asleep or….or with Teru…and that had been the best. It hadn't ever been that good and…and now she was blushing because she was thinking about it while she was standing right next to Master Reigen's mother.

"Tell me about him." said Sophia. That was the trick. Instead of freaking out over a school girl's crush like Taka Sophia decided to take a more direct route to the end of it. This girl already had a boyfriend and judging by that blush, and the way she had spoken about him before, they had a pretty good relationship together. She loved him, and maybe for real, not in that way that kids said that they loved each other.

So, really, the best thing to do would have been to encourage this.

And not think about the fact that the sweet little girl in front of her apparently had a very good sex life. She was too young for that. She wanted to take Mobbu and shake her and tell her that she was too young for all of this. That sex was more than just having fun, there was a lot of responsibility, and it was not something that a girl her age was ready for. That she could get sick or pregnant or have her heart broken. To repeat the things that Mobbu had probably heard a million times before from a million other adults in her life.

"About Teru? Um….what do you want to know?" asked Mob. She certainly did not want to know what was on her mind right then and there. The way that Teru laughed when she kissed her way across his back. The way that he smiled when he told her that she loved her. That noise he made, the high pitched whine, that he made when he was really happy….and she needed to stop thinking about this. She didn't know why she was thinking about this so much….maybe because it felt ok to think about it again.

Before it had felt weird.

Having him on top of her and within her….it had been a lot after what happened with Mogami. But after what had happened…after she had saved the world…after she had put her body back together…all she could think about was how good he felt. How good he made her feel. Now her mind was just stuck like that. Maybe it was because of all that stuff they talked about in health class…that must have been it. She should have been thinking about the other things that she liked about him….

There was so much.

"Just about him I guess. Like…what's his favorite color? Favorite food? Favorite song? What do you like about him? What's he up to these days?" asked Sophia. She settled herself in for a monologue about a fourteen year old boy. She would listen. This was how you got a fourteen year old girl to get over a crush, point out a bigger crush that she had. Simple. Taka always overthought things.

"He likes all colors, especially bright ones, and he really likes steak so I think it's his favorite food. Like this one time we went to this restaurant and he sent his steak back three times because they didn't get it right and I told him that he shouldn't do stuff like that because they might spit in his food, I heard that people in restaurants did that when you were rude to them, but he said that it was just a myth. He sends food back a lot, actually, even though I don't like it. Like this one time when I got fries, I like fries, but they were too fried so he sent them back even though I didn't mind that much…" said Mob. She stirred as she talked. Maybe she talked a little bit too much. She tended to go on and on when she talked about the people she liked.

Loved.

She was in love with Teru. She loved him and she…she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. She had to. Master Reigen was an adult and he was not going to wait for her to grow up. Even if she grew up then he would still be a lot older than she was…and also she had already promised Teru. Back when he thought that he was going to die.

As if she would ever have let him die.

He was hers. There was no way that she was ever going to let anyone, even death, have him. He was such a dummy, well he had been such a dummy, and he'd had something of a death wish it seemed. Going after the man who took on the world. He was in no way strong enough to take him on. No, only Shigeko was strong enough to take him on. She had taken him on and she had won.

No.

Nobody had won.

That was the other Shigeko thinking like that. Mob knew better. None of them had won. Not her, not Touichirou, nobody. They had all lost in the end…and now it was over and it was in the past and she was not going to let it hang over her. Not her and not the other Shigeko, either. She was going to live her life. She was going to talk about Teru, all the stories she had about him, and she was going to help make dinner and she was not going to let what happened hang over her.

She refused to let it hang over her.

"It just hangs over me I guess. The stuff I did. Even if I know that it shouldn't hang over me, that I was just a kid when I had to do all of that stuff, and that I had only been doing what my dad told me….I guess that it's still hanging over me. Stupid, huh?" said Sho. He normally wouldn't have wanted to talk about it. Normally he wouldn't have wanted to talk about any of that stuff. There was no point to it. It had happened. The past was in the past.

But it felt good to talk about it.

Especially when he was hanging upside-down from a tree branch with Ritsu. The sun had gone down a while ago. Nobody was outside anyway. Not in this cold. He hadn't been back in Japan for a winter in a long time but he couldn't remember it ever being this could. Not that he minded the cold. He had saved the world. The cold didn't bother him at all.

He wasn't cold anyway. How could he be with Ritsu so near?

"Maybe that's just the feeling of the blood rushing to your head." Said Ritsu. He didn't know how he got roped into these things. One minute he had been sitting between his parents watching some drama his mom had put on but was also too many episodes in already for Ritsu to have become invested when he felt an aura pressing against his. He went upstairs to find Sho just hanging out in his room like it was nothing.

Then they got to talking.

Not about something heavy at first, no, they had traded funny videos and laughed as quietly as possible. He couldn't have his parents discovering Sho…that would have been a lot of plaining that he was not prepared to do. If they asked why there was a boy in his room in the middle of the night he would have had to explain how he knew Sho and how Sho had gotten into his room, which was on the second floor, and then he would have had to confess to not only having powers but his part in what had happened…and he had no idea how his parents would react when they learned that he had powers…

Maybe they'd kick him out, too.

Maybe. He didn't know. All he knew was that his room had eventually begun to feel like a claustrophobically small world unto itself. A world that was just him and Sho…and that was how it always felt when he and Sho were alone together…which was always. Different from being alone with anyone else.

Probably because he liked Sho.

Not that he would ever tell a soul. It was hard enough to even admit it to himself. No, he would never tell another living being how he felt about Sho. Especially Sho himself. He couldn't know. If he knew then…then nothing could come from it. Nothing good. Either he told Sho and Sho was pissed off at him, like most guys would be when they heard that another guy was into him, and then he wanted nothing more to do with him….or Sho liked him back and then…and then Ritsu was in an even bigger mess than he had been in before. The biggest mess that he had ever been in his life. He had a girlfriend and he was never going to break up with her…

So either way it would have been a mess.

But he had at least been able to enjoy the world that had been his bedroom. The world that was just him and Sho sitting on his bed exchanging funny videos. Most of Ritsu's had come from Rei, she was always sending him funny things that she found, and even then he had been able to ignore the knowing feeling inside of him whenever he clicked over to something else that she had sent him forever ago but he had put into favorites because that was what you were supposed to do when your girlfriend sent you a link to something funny….

He wished that he hadn't been able to remember his login.

Because if he had forgotten then he would have lost all of the videos that Rei had sent him links to. With the loss of his phone, this was actually his dad's old phone, he had lost all of the pictures he had taken with her and their previous textual history and…and he shouldn't have been relieved every time he clicked on his phone and didn't see that picture of him and Rei…why did he suck so much? As a person?

He didn't know.

But he did know, back in his room, that he was so happy. He did know that with his parents downstairs and his sister safe and his girlfriend safe in her own home that it was easy to pretend things that he shouldn't have been pretending. Things like him and Sho…things like it being ok to be with Sho…thoughts that he shouldn't have had.

It had been an easy thing to think, an easy world to get lost in, and an easy world to be pulled out of.

Rei had texted him. She did that a lot. She must have spent her entire day at her laptop waiting for him to message her. He almost never did. She always messaged him first. He didn't have much to say to her. He didn't really do anything. He had practically been under house arrest since mom and dad came home. She had been stuck in her house, too, but she just did not run out of things to talk about…even after he had run out of things to talk about long ago. He mostly just sent her stickers and emojis and agreed with whatever it was that she said.

Talking to Sho was different.

And, within his mind at least, it was best to keep Sho and Rei separately in his mind. Rei was his girlfriend Sho was his…friend who he had feelings for. Kind of like Teru but…more intense. Even though he knew what it was like to kiss Teru. It was one of the best things he had ever felt in his life…and it was never going to happen again.

And he was never kissing Sho, either, so there was no point in thinking about it.

But he had been thinking about it. Since the moment Sho flew in through his bedroom window his mind kept on going back to kissing Sho. What it would be like to kiss someone and not be afraid for his life. Sho had never kissed anyone before, Ritsu had done more kissing in his life than he could count. He was good at it, according to Rei, but he didn't really do much. He just matched what she did. Sho had no idea what he was doing. That meant that Ritsu would have to lead…

The combination of his not entirely ok thoughts towards Sho coupled with the vibrating of his phone after Rei messaged him….his room had suddenly gotten too small. The world of it, so small, had become claustrophobic in a bad way….and he just had to go outside….

Which was what brought them to this tree.

"No, that feeling is what's making me want to faint." Said Sho. Ritsu was so good at bringing him out of his shit. Living with mom….it wasn't great. He just couldn't stop thinking about things that were over and done with. Claw was finished and it was time to live his normal kid life!

Not that it was looking like it was going to be easy.

Maybe it was because the rest of the world wasn't normal yet. The adults were freaking out about reconstruction and the environment and the economy and all of that. Maybe when life got back to normal then he could figure out his normal kid life. Maybe if he spent more time around Ritsu then he would have an easier time with it.

Either way it felt so good to be near Ritsu.

"Then maybe we should stop?" asked Ritsu

"No way. If I faint then I faint." Said Sho

"But wouldn't you rather, you know, avoid fainting?" asked Ritsu

"Hell no. If something's going to happen then it's going to happen. I'd rather be here, with you, about to faint from hanging upside down like a possum than go back to being right side up and then having to go…back….or something like that." Said Sho

"Going back to being right side up doesn't mean that we'd have to go back. I don't…I don't want to go back either." Said Ritsu. He didn't want to go back to the claustrophobic world that was his room. He didn't want to go back to him and Sho all alone…but also not alone. The war at home was back and worse than ever, or maybe it just felt like it, and he knew that if he went back then tomorrow would just end up happening faster, well it would feel like that anyway, and then he'd get up and get right back to where he had been yesterday and the day before. The bad parts of it, not the good parts, not this part. Not the parts that involved Sho.

"You've always got to go forward, you know, at least that's the way I see it. I mean the past is in the past and sometimes shit happens…and it happens and then it's done so you just have to keep going…no matter what's different now." Said Sho

"Yeah…" said Ritsu

"I mean so what if everything's different. That's how time works. Time moves forward and things change and people change and that's just how it's always been. So what if she had a boyfriend now and she looks at me like she's scared of me….and she's always trying to keep me in the house even though it's so small…and cramped and there's no room…but there is room…but just not enough of it…" said Sho

"I know what you mean." Said Ritsu

"No, you don't." said Sho. This time he did end up right side up. He ended up right side up and he ended up walking away. Ritsu didn't get it. Nobody got it. Nobody ever could get it. What it was like to have someone who had been gone for so long…but also to not have them. What it was like to be without someone you'd had for so long…even if they were an asshole….and what it was like for there to be all the space and none of the space.

Footsteps followed him.

"Fine, maybe I don't. Maybe you're the only person who knows how you feel. Maybe I'm just being an idiot and I have no clue what I'm talking about. Maybe. I don't know. What I do know is that…." Said Ritsu. He didn't know how he was going to finish the sentence. There were a million and one things that he wanted to say but there were also a million and one things that he knew that he never could say. So he said nothing. So he just stood there beside Sho and said nothing and just….let time pass. Was it passing? He didn't know. He couldn't tell. He had no clue. He was clueless. He felt clueless.

"Yeah…I get it." Said Sho. Ritsu didn't have to finish the sentence Sho knew how he was going to finish it. What he knew was that even if he was the only one who knew exactly how it felt it didn't mean that he couldn't still be there. That was why Ritsu had followed him even though he had walked away. That was nice, having someone follow him, follow him and not want to hurt him. Having someone who would never hurt him. Not try to hurt him physically or emotionally.

It was nice.

"Come on, let's see if we'll really faint if he hang upside down for long enough." Said Sho. He tugged on Ritsu's sleeve and started walking. That was all that he could grab. Well he could have grabbed Ritsu's hand, he wanted to grab Ritsu's hand, and that was why he didn't grab Ritsu's hand. That would have been a bad idea for a number of reasons. The first of which being that if he were to grab Ritsu's hand he would end up ruining everything that they had together. The second reason being the same as the first. The third reason being the same as the second and so on and so forth exponentially until you got to infinity and other such math things that he would learn about when he started going to school…

Of course it wouldn't matter anyway….if he never went back.

He had run away before. He had run away before when he had been a kid…and he'd been dragged back to dad…and then he had run away again…and again…and again….and now maybe this counted as running away too. From dad….since dad was in one place and he was in another. Or maybe it didn't because he was the one who put dad in prison in the first place.

Why did he feel like this?

Dad was the worst, literally the worst, person ever. He killed pets and people. He hurt people. He hurt everyone. He declared war on the entire world on national TV, and he gave his full name too just so people would know that he and Sho were related, and it had been so embarrassing…the worst. Dad was the worst and Sho knew that there was no point in missing him…and he should have been happy to be back with mom. He had been wanting to be with his mom since she had left him…she had left him alone with dad….and now he was back with her and there was nothing to be upset with her about. She had to leave. She had keep herself safe…and she had been safe…and now she was ok and Sho was ok and they were ok together…

Even if they weren't ok together.

Because they were apart. Could they be ok together if they were apart? Could you be ok and be apart at the same time? He didn't know. He just knew that he didn't want to be alone. He didn't want to be alone…and he had Ritsu. Who did he need besides Ritsu? Who else would put up with him when he got like that….and other such feelings? Intense feelings? Feelings that made him want to do the stupidest things...things that he knew were stupid but the more he thought about them the more he wanted to do them…because it wouldn't have been hard…it would have been easy…

But he was not going to mess everything up.

What he was going to do was hang upside down until all the blood in his body rushed to his head and then he fainted and fell and broke his neck and then he woke up in the afterlife or whatever. Or maybe he would just end up with a bump on his head and Ritsu telling him that he was an idiot. He didn't know which was worse.

But he did know that this, being with him, was pretty damn awesome.

"Mob, as awesome as this show is, I think that I've reached my limit." Said Reigen. Dinner was taken in front of the TV that night. Mom had, at some point, let go of her 'all meals must be had at the table like civilized human beings' rule. They were eating in front of the TV like a bunch of savages, mom's words, but if she really minded then they would have just eaten at the table like people.

"Arataka, don't be like that." Said Sophia in a tone that she hadn't had cause to use since her son had been a child. This whole thing was such dejavu. Her eating a meal with him…it was like those rare times when he had won the argument about eating dinner in front of the TV. She could almost close her eyes and picture it, her son, as he had been back then….in those bygone days before all of this. Psychic powers, madmen trying to take over the world, co-dependent non sexual relationships, and whatever else her son planned on down at her feet.

"You don't live with her, mom, she'll watch this all night if you let her. The same episode over and over again, too." Said Reigen. He loved Mob, he really did, but this…this was too much like those days after…after she had come back to him. Those days when they had just sat together and watched TV…this show…over and over again. He did not want to go back to those days. That was his fear, going backward, going back to how things had been when she had first come back….he could not let that happen. He could not let herself think that she was terrible again.

"Then let her. It's not like there's anything to watch on TV these days anyway." Said Sophia

"Ok. You can change it." Said Mob as she passed the remote to Master Reigen. She shouldn't have taken up all the TV time, he was right, even if she was the guest and the guest usually got to decide. He was a guest too, right? Or was it different because he had grown up here? She didn't know. All she knew was that while she could watch EVA for hours and hours other people couldn't. Not even Teru and he loved her more than anything else.

"Taka, stop that. Mobbu, leave it on this." said Sophia as she intercepted the remote and passed it right back to Mobbu. Honestly. She must have sat through at least a hundred hours if not more of Taka's shows when he was young, this thing included, so the lest he could do was be an adult and do the same for Mobbu. Even if this show was just as somehow boring and incomprehensible as it was what Taka had watched it. She didn't get it but apparently it shaped a lot of Mobbu's world view, gave her the words to describe a lot of things that happened, so of course she would sit and watch with the two of them. Besides, her TV her rules.

"But if you guys are getting bored-" said Mob

"Nobody is getting bored. Taka's just a complainer, aren't you Arataka?" asked Sophia

"Nobody's complaining. Do you hear me complaining?" asked Reigen. Damn it, mom, why do you always have to be like this. She could sit through this because this wasn't the only thing that she had been watching with Mob for days and days. Honestly in his opinion Mob needed a new favorite show. She took too much from this show. Words for things that happened to her. Words for what had happened before. She must have been reminded of everything that had happened to her. Why would she ever want to be reminded of that horrible night? He knew that he sure as hell didn't. What he wanted more than anything else was to just forget. Just to close his eyes and open them again and everything that had passed that night would have just been some distant memory that he never would have had to visit. Yes, that would have been just fine….

"You were complaining before, Master Reigen, that's why I said that I could change it if you wanted me to. Really, I don't mind." Said Mob. She didn't get to mind because this wasn't her house. Of course if it was her house then she would have been sitting there on the couch with Master Reigen and he would have let her rest her head on his chest or on his lap and he would have been touching her hair or drifting off or something like that. That would have been so nice…but that was also not going to happen. Not now because they were at his mom's house and there was not enough room on that couch with the three of them sitting there for her to be laying down like that. Also she didn't need that kind of comfort anymore.

She wasn't the only one who had been hurt.

She was not the only one who had been scared of…of what had happened. Before. She was not the only one who had been hurt and scared and all of that. She was not the only one who got scared. She was not the only one in the world who had been scared and hurt and…and that was how she had felt before. She had felt so lost and alone and scared and she had felt like she was the only person in the entire world who had felt like that…and she had been so alone…and then she hadn't been alone anymore. She had been back with Master Reigen and…and then she had sat with him and she…and they had been so close…

But she was not the only one in the world who felt like that.

Everything bad that she had felt, before, was something that someone else had felt before. She wasn't terrible even though she had felt like she was terrible then and she still felt like it, a little, now. She wasn't terrible and she needed to know that she wasn't terrible. Even if she saw herself as being terrible, the her that existed in her own mind, the her that existed in the minds of others was not terrible. The her that existed in Master Reigen's mind was not terrible. The her that existed in his mother's mind was not terrible. The her that existed in her brother's mind was not terrible. The her that existed in her friend's minds was not terrible. The her that existed in Teru's mind was not terrible.

The only her that was terrible was the her that existed in Asagiri's mind.

And the entire thing had left her feeling so bad, so terrible, that she had thought that everyone in the world had felt the way she had. Not only that but, also, that she was the only person in the world who had ever felt so terrible. She hadn't said that to herself at the time, that she felt worse than everyone else, only that she was the most terrible. In thinking that she was the most terrible she had been telling herself that nobody else had ever been through something like she had, had never felt like she had, and that hadn't been true.

So, really, she was fine and she didn't need to be held anymore.

"Well I don't mind this. Go on Mob, let's watch it again. I know that this is your favorite episode." Said Reigen. He was not going to be selfish. If she wanted to watch this, to watch something that she had seen a million times before, to watch something that he knew must have reminded her of what had happened…that terrible word, instrumentality, that she used to describe it….then so be it. He was done being selfish towards her. He was done with all of that. He was never going to be selfish again.

Him being selfish…that had been…that had been what had gotten them into so many messes….

Not that last one. No, that had been…that had been something totally out of nowhere. There had been no way for him to have seen some madman declaring war on the world…and for him to foresee Mob declaring war on him….but it had happened. He could leave Seasoning City, escape to his mother's house like and hide like a child, but he could not leave what had happened. He may have walked out of that without a scratch but there was no way at all for him to escape what had happened….

And it seemed that Mob didn't even want to.

"Hush up and eat dinner, the both of you." Said Sophia. Honestly, these two. She flicked Taka over the head. No need to be so wishy washy. Mobbu did not need to deal with that right now. She had been through enough. They both had. Everyone had been through so much….but nobody so much as Mobbu. She looked over and watched her eating, her TV tray balanced on her knees, her eyes focused on the TV. She was sitting there like normal. She was just so…normal…even though by all means she should have been a nervous wreck. But she wasn't.

She was just a normal fourteen year old girl.

Even though objectively she wasn't. She was someone who had saved the world, done the impossible, risked her life and all of that. She should not have been sitting there watching cartoons and eating pasta like it was nothing. Of course Sophia was not going to say anything to that affect. Let her be normal. Let her reality be one of normality. Hell, that had been her normal. The powers that she had been born with were normal to her. She didn't know anything else.

So of course she had used her powers to save everyone.

And of course nobody had even tried to stop her. How could they have stopped her? She was Mobbu. She could move entire skyscrapers. She could fly. She could do all of the things that Taka had told her about and then some, probably, and there was no one to stop her from doing things that were just plain….stupid! Like taking that man on…she could have so easily died…and there hadn't been anyone in the world who could have stopped her. Not even Taka. Hell, Taka had almost died….and Sophia doesn't want to think about this anymore. She knows that if she thinks about this now then she'll end up driving herself crazy. Right now she can't think about this. Right now she can only think about…about what's happened right now. This scene of boring domesticity. Yes, this is good. A family eating dinner. That's what their reality is. Not crazy fights and supervillains trying to take over the world. A family watching TV and eating dinner….what could be better.

And she did consider Mobbu to be family.

She was something to Taka. What she was now was hard to pin down and what she would be when she grew up was something that Sophia didn't really want to think about. Right now, though, that was something worth enjoying. Not thinking about, not drawing out and chewing on and driving herself crazy over….just enjoying. Being in the moment, in this moment, and this was….this was ok. This was more than ok. This was…this was nice….

This was a nice night.

It was not a nice morning.

"Ok, mom." Said Ritsu as mom made them breakfast. She had been upset about something, Ritsu didn't know what, and he didn't really care. It was something to do with dad and how his job was letting him work from home…which should have been a good thing because last night mom had her saying that she was worried about them ending up in the poor house or something….mom was so confusing sometimes. Most of the time it was best just to agree with everything and stuff like that. Made life a lot easier.

"If your father would just join his family for five minutes…." Muttered Hana as she poured her son some juice. She wondered if he was alright. The poor thing was practically falling asleep at the table. He may have been sick…or he may have been up all night because of the way that his parents had been carrying on. Either way she would be there for her son no matter what.

"Thanks, mom." Said Ritsu as he took his glass and set it down on the table. He needed a nap. He had been up all night, literally, and even though he didn't have school he still didn't get to sleep in. Mom would never have let him mess up his sleep schedule like that. She thought that she was looking out for him. There really wasn't any reason for him to get up this early. She just wanted someone to listen to her talk since dad had locked himself in their room. Well Ritsu would listen until she left him alone. The more that he listened the more likely she was to leave him alone.

He didn't much want to be alone.

He wanted….he didn't want to spend another day alone in this house. He wanted to go to school. School at least had structure. There was a list of things for him to do at certain times and certain people he had to see and he didn't know that he would have missed it so much until it was gone. He wondered if Shigeko felt like this. She hadn't gone to school in a while. She was probably…he had no idea how she was doing because he hadn't seen her since what happened. She was fine, though, because she was with…Reigen…and if she was well enough to be with him then she was fine….

He missed his sister.

He missed her so much. It had been stupid to think, even if he hadn't really thought in any serious way, that once the house was fixed she'd come back home. Of course she was not going to come back home. She had no reason to. She could do whatever she wanted now and be with whoever she wanted…someone who didn't yell at her and push her…and he wished more than anything else that he could just take back everything that he had said and done that night…but he couldn't. He had no way of doing that…so he just had to live with what he had done.

Wonderful.

So this was his life? Sitting there at the table with his mom listening to her complaining about anything and everything while he played the part of the dutiful son and listened….wonderful. He wished that he were in school right then and there even if it was for something he hated like recorder practice or the long pointless lectures that didn't say anything that he hadn't already read in the book. Hell, he would have taken hanging out with Rei over this. At least she didn't complain, not like mom did, when she talked and talked and talked….

What he really wanted to do was see Sho again.

Which made zero sense because he had literally just spent the entire night with him…hanging out. That was all. Just hanging out and not doing anything else….not that he was thinking of that sort of thing…especially not at the breakfast table while his mother complained to him about dad, the city, and whatever other stuff that was totally out of both of their control. What he wanted to do was…was go to bed. Yes, that was it. He wanted to go to bed and then…and then wait for tomorrow to happen. Tomorrow which would, of course, be the same as today. Then the next day and the next day and the next day would all be the same. Just one day after another…

He needed to go to bed.

He needed to lay down and close his eyes if just for a little bit…not that he would get the change. He had left his phone upstairs and he knew that when he went back there and checked it there would have been a million and one missed messages from Rei. Not having a phone, relying on her computer, hadn't slowed her down at all. If anything she was messaging him more than ever. She missed him, she wanted to see him, being stuck inside with her family was really starting to get to her and all of that. He always said something back. Maybe not the long and heartfelt messages she sent but he did try and always say something back. She did love him after all. That was why she wanted to be with him, because she loved him, and also because….because of other things that he didn't much want to think about.

Because of THE thing.

Which was what they had, well what she had, settled on calling it. The thing. That thing that they did on her couch the night after the day after they saved almost died trying to save the world. The thing that she had asked him to do for her. It hadn't been any real trouble, really, and it hadn't been that bad either. Awkward, mostly, and also a lot slimier than he had thought…the guys who sat in the back of class and never shut up about it never mentioned that part….but it had made her happy and it was one of the things that he was supposed to do for her since he was her boyfriend so, really, it wasn't that bad….of course she had been terrible when she had tried to reciprocate…or maybe that just had to do with the fact that he did not feel that way about her…

She probably wanted to do the thing with him again.

Which was maybe why he didn't try to fight mom about having to stay inside. Well that and, aside from seeing Rei, he had nowhere else to be. No more school and school stuff to do, his sister was busy with her own life, seeing Teru socially after….yeah, way too awkward. The only person he really wanted to be with was Sho…and he usually came around at night. He was probably at his mom's house now…or something.

He had no idea where it was that Sho went during the day.

But now he wanted to know. He wanted to know where Sho went and what he did. He wanted Sho to show him where he went and what he did during the day, during the times when they were apart. He wanted to get rid of the times that they were apart, to erase them completely, so that there were only the times that they were together. He didn't care what the did or where they went, they could sit around and watch the grass grow for all he cared, he just wanted to be with Sho…to be near him…

Near enough to count the freckles on the bridge of his nose.

He had freckles there, a few, but they were very light. Ritsu…he had been close enough to count them before…and he wanted to be that close again. He wanted to be close enough to count the freckles not only there but…and now he was not going to think about that. He as not going to think about Sho or the fact that he was covered in freckles or any of that. He was going to think about…something else. He was going to think about what he was going to think about next. Yes, that was a good thing to think about…or maybe he was just overly tired.

That was something else to think about. Going to bed.

"Ritsu? Ritsu, are you listening?" asked Hana. She had been in the middle of telling him that he should not have treated this little break from school as a vacation. That they all had to do what they could to keep going as normally as possible. That he still had his whole life ahead of him. She had been telling him this when it seemed like he was ignoring her…or just drifting off. Either one was not good…not good at all…

"Huh? Yes, mom, I was listening. I'm just kind of tired, that's all." said Ritsu. Mom frowned and reached over. She put her hand to his forehead in true mom fashion. He had no idea what she could tell by doing that. But then again what did he know? That was a mom power. He didn't have mom powers, just psychic powers, so really he had no room to say anything.

"Are you getting sick? You feel kind of warm." Said Hana as she pressed her hand to her son's forehead. She could have sworn that she felt, when she touched him, that same sort of static electricity feeling that she got when she touched Shigeko sometimes. Of course that was just her mind playing tricks on her. Ritsu was not like Shigeko…in that way. She would have noticed.

"Mom-" said Ritsu as his mom reached her hand out. He wasn't a child…but he was not going to say anything. Sometimes, most of the time, it was just easier to go along with things than to fight. He was so tired of fighting….

"Yes, definitely warm. I never should have left you. You were going from place to place…and all of the excitement could not have been good for your immune system….you might be getting sick. Do you feel sick, Ritsu?" Muttered Hana as she felt her son's forehead. This was her fault too. If she had been there with him then he wouldn't have had to go out in the cold to be with that girlfriend of his. He hadn't spent that much time at her house before either. So many unfamiliar germs. Her poor little boy.

"Yeah, mom, I think that I might be getting kind of sick. I think that I maybe should go to bed or something before I get sicker. You know, that way when school opens again I'll be ready." Said Ritsu. Lying to his mother. Not the worst thing that he had ever done. Not the worst thing he had ever done by half. So much of his life was a lie already what was one more lie to add to the pile?

"That's good thinking. You go up to bed and I'll bring you some tea in a little bit." Said Hana. What had she done to get such a good boy? And how had she gone about getting him in the first place? He and Shigeko had come from the same home, the same two parents, and yet they were night and day. Well obviously it had something to do with the fact one of her children had psychic powers and one of them did not. One of her children was there with her safe and sound and one of them was not. One of her children was sitting there in front of her and one of them was off somewhere-

She did not want to think about this…so she didn't.

She didn't think about all the ways in which she had failed as a woman and a mother. She didn't want to think about how one of her children was off on her own in the world. She didn't want to think about how close she had come to losing her son, to losing both of her children, to losing everything…she didn't want to think about that.

So she didn't.

She took care of her son. What else could she do?

Teru took care of himself. What else could he do?

He had a place to stay now, one of the few open hotel rooms in the city, and there were people trying to find him a place to live. There. Those were the things that he couldn't do himself. Those were the only things he needed his parents for…or at least their people. He hadn't seen his parents in years, not since he was ten, and that was…that was fine. It had been stupid to think that they would some back to Japan after all this time. That they would come back to him after all this time.

Even though Claw was over with now.

He had told them that. Claw was over and done with. That was why they had left him in the first place, because Claw had constantly been trying to kidnap him. Now that all of that was over and done with they were free to come back to Japan. But of course they wouldn't. They wouldn't and it had been stupid of him to even begin to think that they would. Not that he had harbored any serious thoughts about them coming back.

They had no reason to.

He could take care of himself. He had been taking care of himself since he had been a kid. There was no reason for him to be getting all upset now. So what if he was all alone in this hotel room? He was a hell of a lot better off than a lot of other people. And he wasn't even alone. This hotel was at capacity. He could hear people at all side of him. It was sort of like being back at his own apartment…sort of. Not really.

This was not his home.

He rolled over onto his side. He had been sitting on his bed just passing time. At least his laptop had survived the explosion. The internet was back too. That was the thing that had really gotten to him in the beginning. There had been nothing to watch but broadcast TV and every station was broadcasting the same thing. He didn't need to see it on TV, he had lived through it. He and Shigeko…and everyone else…had lived through it.

So he didn't need to see it playing on an endless loop on TV.

He thanked God for the internet being back. Now, at least, there were movies to watch and things to read and all of that. That was what he had been doing, trying to find something to watch, though he had not been able to find anything that he wanted to watch on his own. Everything that he found had been something that he wanted to watch with Shigeko…even horror movies which she could enjoy on a purely technical level…not that they would be watching any horror movies together….

Or anything.

Because she was not there. She was so far away and…and he didn't even know how she could stand it. He had almost lost her, she had almost lost him, they had almost lost each other…and then afterwards they had been as close as two people could possibly be…and now all of it was just…he didn't know. He needed her. She was the only person that he could need. She was his girlfriend after all. So it was ok to need her. Fuck everyone else in the world, he just needed her, but she was just…gone.

Also her phone was broken.

So he couldn't even text her to ask how she was doing. She was off somewhere with Reigen probably having fun ad he was here on his own just being…not even miserable. Just sort of tired. It was amazing, now, knowing that this was all over. That Claw, the people who had been trying to kidnap him since he was only ten years old, was gone now. The people who had had fought with so many times before….it was all over. There was a feeling of what now?

What was he supposed to do now?

He had no clue. There was literally nothing for him to do now. He never would have thought that he would have missed the structure of school but here he was. Just sitting there without nothing to do but get lost in his own thoughts. Just sit there and get lost in a lifetime's worth of memories while time passed around him…

No, there must have been something else for him to do.

Lay down on his, not even his, bed and wait for tomorrow to happen. No school, no clubs, no friends, no girlfriend, just…waiting. He knew that he should have been happy for the waiting, for the quiet, for all of it but he just…couldn't be. Not when he was so alone. Not when Shigeko was so far away. Not when-

Oh.

Someone was calling him over Friendbook…and he had honestly forgotten that was a thing. Right. But who would….he woke his laptop up. Right there in the corner…Shiegeko…she was calling him….he didn't think. He didn't have time to think. He just answered. Even if he looked terrible. He was in an old undershirt and boxers, he hadn't brushed his hair or even properly treated it in so long, and his skin was all broken out from not taking care of it like he should have…

But Shigeko didn't care about any of that.

She loved him. She was with him because she loved him. She had called him because she loved him. There was something in that….that total acceptance that she gave him….that made him want to cry from the sheer…emotion…of it. Of what he felt for her. Of what she made him feel. He loved her so much…

And that was why he had asked her to spend the rest of her life with him.

But he was not going to be bringing that up now. No, that would have been stupid. Even asking her back then had been kind of stupid. They were fourteen. He shouldn't have even been thinking about that…but he didn't really feel fourteen and hadn't felt fourteen for a very long time. He just wanted to be with her, that was all, and he knew that without her there would be no him…or something that sounded just as romantic but a hell of a lot less creepy and dependent.

He'd think of something to say to her, and soon, because she was coming in to view.

"Shigeko, hey. What's-uh, what's up? How have you been?" asked Teru. He attempted to look and sound like she hadn't been the only thing on his mind for the past he didn't even know how long. The last thing she needed was him being all creepy and dependent on her. The last thing that she wanted was to be smothered by him like that.

"I'm fine, I mean I've been fine, and also I'm fine right now. I just missed you so I decided to call you. I hope that it's not too early or too late or…or anything. I just wanted to talk to you and I hope that I'm not bothering you. If it's too late or too early or you just don't feel like talking then I can always call you back later. Well I don't know when I'd be able to because this isn't my laptop but I would call you back as soon as I could borrow this again if you're busy or tired right now." Said Shigeko

"No! I mean, this is a very good time. I wasn't really doing anything." Said Teru with a practiced calm. His heart was pounding, in reality, but he didn't let it show. She didn't need to start worrying about him. She had enough in her life to worry about…but then again if she did start to worry about him then maybe she would come over and…but he couldn't ask that of her. She had just almost died saving him. He was not going to ask anything else of her. Besides, she wouldn't have come anyway. She was with Reigen and there was no taking her away from him…or maybe not. Maybe this would have been one of those rare times where she chose him above Reigen…and he didn't want to know. He was not going to press his luck. He was happy to just be talking to her. He was just happy to see her again. She was in her pajamas and her hair was just as messy as his…and he loved her so more than anything else in the whole world….

What he wouldn't have given just to kiss her.

"Me neither. Well before I was having dinner but now that's done with…um I guess that I'll have breakfast next but it's still pretty early…or late, maybe, I don't know. I didn't sleep too well." Said Shigeko. He doesn't want to think about her having dinner with Reigen. He doesn't want to think about her spending her evening with Reigen. She could have come to him, she could have spent her time with him, he would not have turned her away….but she would always go back to Reigen….

"You couldn't sleep? Why? Do you need me to-" asked Teru

"Oh no, I don't need you to do anything. I'm just not used to sleeping in this room yet. That's all." said Shigeko

"You have your own room now?" asked Teru. He tried not to sound as happy as he felt. He always hated that, how she slept on Reigen's floor. That was where her futon was and that was where she slept even though she could have moved it into his apartment and slept on his floor…or on a real bed, too, if that was what she had wanted. Or whatever. Anything would have been better than Reigen's floor of all places….

"Yes. Well it's not my room, it's a guest room, but I live in it for now." Said Shigeko

"A guest room?" asked Teru. He didn't think that Reigen's place was that big…but then again he hadn't ever really gone exploring or anything like that.

"Yes, this is a guest room." Said Shigeko. She picked up her laptop, the one she had borrowed it seemed, and showed him the room she was staying in. White walls, lots of boxes, and nothing like the kind of room that he and Shigeko would have when she finally moved in with him. She wouldn't have to live in a guest room, no, they'd have their own room and there'd be space for both of them and it'd be colorful and…and it would be, above all else, theirs. Theirs and nobody else's.

"Why does Reigen have a guest room if he knew that you were going to be staying with him?" asked Teru. This time he wasn't going to let on to how upset he was. Of course Reigen was just trying to be with her. Why else would he have made her sleep in his room? Teru was just about ready to get up and leave and fine Reigen and kick his-

"This is at his mom's house, not at our apartment. I still don't have my own room at our apartment but Master Reigen's been talking about us moving-" said Shigeko

"You're at his mom's house? Why?" asked Teru. Hopefully it was because she missed her mom and she needed a mom substitute or Reigen's mom was some kind of frail old lady and she needed a lot of help and stuff like that. Or something. Some other reason which would have made it less painful for him to have to sit there and hear her talk about how she would rather spend time with Reigen and his mom than with him….

"Because Master Reigen asked if I wanted to visit him. Don't worry, it's just a visit. I don't know when we'll come back but I know that we will. It's fun here. There's this cat and…." Said Shigeko. Teru was listening, somewhat, but mostly he was just watching her. She was still with Reigen…she was always with Reigen…but she was his girlfriend…

But she had left him all alone.

But that was not the way to think. Girls did not like it when you got clingy. She could go wherever she wanted to go and do whatever she wanted to do. She was his but not literally HIS…but she was his. Not Reigen's. That was what he had to remember. As she told him about all the fun she was having, without him, he reminded himself that she was his girlfriend…

And that she loved him. He had to remember that.