Fukuda knew better than to trust the sound of silence.

There, in the desk in the corner, there should have been all kinds of cursing and shouting and general annoying ness. Sofa there had been nothing, a whole lot of nothing, not even so much as someone eating potato chips with their mouth opened. Hatori should have been in by now. Fukuda didn't care for his company, he didn't want Hatori back in his desk out of some deep desire for companionship, he just cared that things weren't on fire somewhere. Or imploding. Or exploding. Or any other misfortune that could have bene brewing at this very moment.

Which, this being Claw, could have been literally anything.

It was Sunday, though, and Sundays usually weren't work days. Of course there was a whole summer's worth of work to get caught up on as well as the work being done on the Seventh Division. An entire Division being taken out of commission at once wasn't any small thing. Actually it was a huge thing, a huge thing that he maybe needed some help sorting out the fallout from. Well….not the first round of fallout. The fallout of the fallout's fallout. Hatori may not have been a big help…but he was a help….and he should have been helping.

This was a bad sign.

Fukuda's range wasn't that great but he could tell that Sho wasn't around either. He could always sort of feel Sho at the edges of his perception. He came here because Mukai liked it here…and Mukai should have made her visiting rounds by now. Shigeko should have been there with Sho and Mukai…but she was gone too. That could have meant nothing. Maybe it was just Sunday and the kids were off doing Sunday things and they'd taken Hatori with them…

But that didn't account for Suzuki's aura.

Fukuda could feel him just fine…and he was cycling between highs and lows, ebbs and flows, at the most annoying pace. Sort of like having someone jab you in the back over and over again. Something was wrong….maybe even something big…but Fukuda didn't care. He couldn't let himself care. He had his own things going on like…balancing the budget and rearranging the Awakened and…other such things that kept Claw going for another day. This place was held together with paperclips and rubber bands. Suzuki was the paperclips and Fukuda was the rubber bands…and they were both needed….but Suzuki felt like he was out of commission today…but Fukuda didn't care!

….oh, yes he did.

He cared because he had to care. For as emotionless as Suzuki tried to be he actually had some really big emotional highs and lows. They could be dangerous, Fukuda knew more than anyone else how dangerous they could be, well as much as anyone living. His parents might have had something to say about that if they hadn't passed on already…not that he wanted to think about that. Not that he wanted to think about the smell of blood and viscera…Suzuki's blank expression…just how loud sirens were when they were right next to you. When you were right there on the sidewalk and they were so loud…and bright, too, and you couldn't hear anything above them…not even the beating of your own heart or the churning of your stomach….not even the sound of your best friend muttering about how he hadn't meant to…

He didn't want to live through that again.

So he got up. After waiting for as long as he could for everything to stop on his own he got up and decided to deal with…whatever it was that Suzuki was dealing with. He could tell how wrong things were, he could see his aura, but he still held out hope that this was just Suzuki overreacting. Maybe his girlfriend left him or something. Maybe she told him, like every other woman he'd ever been ha told him, that he came on way too strong and she needed space. The old 'don't call me, I'll call you'. He'd helped Suzuki through plenty of those over the years…those were the sorts of things that upset him badly these days.

Maybe this was nothing.

But this was Claw and things were never nothing. He could have held out hope that Suzuki was just dealing with his usual woman troubles and Hatori's absence wasn't a sign of something going wrong with whatever that group was up to now, no, he was helping Suzuki through this…badly, of course, since Hatori would have had no idea what he was even getting into. Suzuki in the pits of despair…that was well beyond the scope of whatever entry-level attempts at friendship or whatever Hatori was trying. Maybe, if Hatori was in there with Suzuki, he could just leave him to deal with it since he seemed to revel in the fact that he was the closest thing that Suzuki could have to a friend. Why anyone would want that job Fukuda would never know. It was a long, tiring, and thankless job. Incredibly stressful, too, more than anyone could have ever known. If not for his powers he figured that he probably would have looked like he was eighty years old instead of somewhere in his late twenties. He certainly felt like it.

He felt like that every single day of his life.

Every day seemed like he was either putting out some fire or preparing to put out some incoming fire. One fire after another after another. This was not at all how he had seen his li gong he had never thought that it would go this far, he had never thought that Claw would ever become anything other than a fort in the woods and a club with two members. Well now it was this building, these people, everything that he was responsible for…including the president of this mess. Suzuki, whether either of them was ready to admit it out loud, was his responsibility….

So he had better get to it, then.

"Hey, you have a minute?" asked Fukuda as he did the old knock and open. Well he tried to. The door slammed right back in his face as soon as he got it opened. Pain, quickly subsiding pain but pain none the less, and the sound of a door slamming. He rubbed his nose and debating trying again or going away and coming back later…he wanted to go away…but he knew better. Suzuki wasn't well…and he was the only one who could help him.

Even if Hatori had been in there it wasn't like he had any idea what he was supposed to do in this situation.

"So I'm going to take that as a 'no'." said Fukuda. There was some silence. He reached for the doorknob. He knew better than to trust the sound of silence. If Suzuki was silent back there then he was brooding or stewing or just overthinking whatever there was to overthink over. Not good…at all. Not good for anyone.

"Fine, I shouldn't have just let myself in. I'm assuming that you're in there dealing with something important and I shouldn't have interrupted you. I'm sorry for that." Said Fukuda. Nothing. More silence.

"I can help you with whatever it is. I actually had somethings I wanted to talk to you about." Said Fukuda. There. Suzuki liked being needed. He liked having his authority validated. He liked groveling, too, and apologies. He should have liked all of this. He should have felt better…but it didn't look like Fukuda had made any progress. Suzuki's aura was the same as it had been and the sound of silence was, still, the deafening sound of silence…

Even the door opened silently.

There hadn't even been a click. It just swung opened…slowly. He didn't even get hit in the face…not like Suzuki at all. Hurting people always calmed him down…if Fukuda had been in the mood to reflect on their friendship he might have seen something there in their dynamic. Suzuki hurt him but he healed. Suzuki hurt himself but Fukuda healed him. Suzuki needed him a hell of a lot more than Fukuda needed Suzuki. They needed each other, maybe, or they had at one point. Now only Suzuki needed him.

At least that was what he told himself.

He walked slowly into the office. He knew how much doors could hurt, he knew how hard Suzuki could slam a door with his powers, and he knew that he could heal…and he knew that healing fast didn't mean that he was immune to pain. He wasn't much in the mood for Suzuki's mood to flip-flop…he wasn't in the mood for a door to the face…but he didn't get one. He just got silence…a hell of a lot of silence. Even the clock on the wall was silent…well of course it was, Suzuki had broken it. The entire face was smashed in…there were broken glass everywhere…the smell of alcohol…

The single tumbler on Suzuki's desk.

"You know if you wanted to drink-" said Fukuda. Suzuki. Was. Drinking. That was not ok. That was…not a good sign. Suzuki didn't drink. Suzuki knew better than to drink. Fukuda looked out the window behind him…Tokyo was still there, at least…though he had no idea for how long. No Hatori…so the group was either dealing with whatever crisis this was or they were out doing whatever nonsense they did on a Sunday.

Just him and Suzuki. Good. He could work with this…or at least he could try to.

"I don't want to drink. I have to drink." Said Suzuki. To make his point he reached over and drained whatever was left in that tumbler. In one gulp. That wasn't normal for him. Usually he sipped it, made a weird face, and then sipped it again. That was how he'd drank since that time back when they'd been kids and they got their hands on a bottle of cheap sake. Suzuki reached over with his hands, not his powers, and poured himself another glass.

Fukuda snatched it away.

He drank it down before Suzuki could even react in any meaningful way. Sure the books on the shelf all came crashing to the ground but Suzuki at least didn't do anything to him. He wasn't drunk…it would have been worse if he'd been drunk…and of course he wasn't drunk! This was…this was tea. This tasted mostly like tea…at least Shigeko was replacing what she drank…at least she had enough courtesy….

He almost wanted to thank her. Almost.

"What are we drinking to?" asked Fukuda as he put the glass down. Suzuki balled his hands into fists…spider cracks began appearing in the glass in front of him. Fukuda put his hands behind his back. Digging glass out after he healed over it was never fun. Pain was never fun. He would have thought that he would have gotten used to it by now…but maybe this was one of those things that not even he could get used to.

Huh. And here he'd always prided himself at his ability to get used to anything….to deal with anything.

"I am drinking…for my own reasons. You are drinking because…I don't know. I don't have the mental space to know." Said Suzuki

"You're that worried how we're going to make it out of this quarter?" asked Fukuda. He pulled a chair close and sat down. He braced himself. Suzuki was just as liable to keep talking as he was to tip Fukuda backwards.

"No, no, I'm not worried about that at all. If we absorb….well I can't remember what we're absorbing but it's causing a lot of extra work…I don't know. I can't think about this now." Said Suzuki

"Well what are you thinking about?" asked Fukuda

"What I am thinking about is none of your concern." Said Suzuki

"Are you sure? Because I know-" said Fukuda

"You know nothing! Now leave me!" said Suzuki. He slammed both of his hands onto the desk. The lights above them flickered. Not a good sign…not that Fukuda let it show. No, he kept his aura as placid as ever. He'd had a lot of practice over the years.

"Alright, alright, I can see that you want to be left alone. Sorry to disturb you." Said Fukuda. He knew what this meant. He was going to make it to the door and then Suzuki was going to tell him what was wrong. Woman troubles. All of Fukuda's money was on woman troubles. He couldn't think of anything else that could have gotten Suzuki this upset.

Well…anything that he could deal with.

He made it right to the door, his hand was right on the knob, when Suzuki did just as Fukuda had predicated. There was a shuffle. The squeak of chair wheels. A sigh. The sound of glass clanking against glass was new but Fukuda wasn't worried about that. That was mostly tea…apparently all the alcohol had been in the decanters that had shattered. Unless Suzuki felt like getting the alcohol out of the rug, that is. He might have even been that separate if he was drinking in the first place. He always drank like this when he had woman troubles…well at least he always used to.

He had taken Masami's leaving much better than this….but Fukuda wasn't going to go down that train of thought.

He tried to let that train of thought pass him right by in the station. He tried to throw away his ticket…but he couldn't. It was like getting on the train during rush hour, when the crowds were so thick that you couldn't help but be pushed onto the train. He tried to fight it but he couldn't. He had to fight it but he couldn't. He knew that if he didn't fight it then this, what he felt, would show in his aura. The pure and utter…he didn't know much. A mixture of anger and loathing, maybe, for himself and Suzuki. Suzuki for drinking for some woman he had only known for a year and himself for being hurt on Masami's behalf. She deserved so much better than what Suzuki could be…she deserved him…but she couldn't have him and he couldn't have her…so there was no point in thinking…no point in ruminating…no point in wishing that he was strong enough to do...he didn't even dare to think…

He did his best to stop thinking.

"I think I need to have another child." Said Suzuki. Well that was the thing that did it. Yup. There was no way that he could think of anything aside from what Suzuki had just said to him. Thoughts of Masami, of the way that Suzuki had just carried on without a single thought to her, the way that he tore himself up over someone who didn't deserve it…he couldn't think of that now. The only thing he could think of were the two worst words that Suzuki could have uttered.

Another. Child.

"You…you got your girlfriend pregnant?" asked Fukuda. He took a moment to compose himself. His aura had been flaring, what little aura he had, and he had been shaking. He could hear the sound of the doorknob rattling…he was still shaking. He took a deep breath and wretched his hand free from the doorknob.

He still couldn't turn around.

He needed more than a minute. He needed an hour, a day, a year, a lifetime even. This was…this was the worst thing that could have happened. This was…this was pure and utter…he didn't even know. Stupidity? Suzuki had always been stupid about these things. He'd insisted, since there had been anything to insist over, that the pullout method was a perfectly viable form of family planning. Of course it only worked if he was planning on starting a family…which it seemed like he was…even though this was how Sho and Mukai had come into the world….

Fucking. Suzuki.

"I mean…not that it's any of my business." Said Fukuda. That was what Suzuki had told him twelve years ago. He had come home one day, sat down at the table, and told Fukuda point blank that Masami was pregnant. When Fukuda asked…well he couldn't fully remember what he'd asked, but it had been enough for Suzuki to slam him into the wall and tell him to mind his own business…even though Suzuki had been the one to drop all of that right on his head like it was nothing!

Stay. Calm.

"Not yet." Said Suzuki simply. Fukuda nodded. That was…good…and bad. Not yet…which meant that for once in his life he was actually planning his family…but….the world did not need more Suzuki's! Fukuda didn't need any more Suzuki's! Sho…Sho was enough…and he'd already dropped the ball past the point of no return when it came to Shigeko….Mukai was alright but she was still only a toddler. There was so much that could still go wrong in her life…especially with Suzuki as her father…he really was a piss poor excuse for a father…

Maybe he thought that the fourth time would be the charm.

"So you and…your girlfriend…are getting pretty serious, huh?" asked Fukuda. His back was still to Suzuki. This was for the best. He knew that if he turned around he might not have been able to control what came out of his mouth. He had words, most of them profane and out of line, for Suzuki. Words like 'what the fuck is wrong with you?' and 'are you out of your mind?' and other things along those lines. He kept his back to Suzuki. He didn't need to make this any worse than it already was…and it was already close to being as bad as it could be…

She wasn't pregnant yet, though, so there was still hope that Suzuki got back to his right state of mind.

"We have been for some time. I love her and she loves me." Said Suzuki

"Wow. I missed…a lot. So I take it she called you up and asked you to….take the next step with her?" asked Fukuda

"No, I haven't spoken to her about this subject yet…well we have spoken at length and she expressed that she did not desire children at this time." Said Suzuki

"So what, then? You're just going to start poking holes in condoms or something?" asked Fukuda. He couldn't stop himself. This was…Suzuki had no business having any more kids. Suzuki had already messes up two out of his three kids…and the third one was still too early to call. Because she was two. His youngest child was two but here he was sitting there talking about how he was going to talk some poor woman into having another one…if he didn't plan on tricking her…or poking holes in condoms like Fukuda said. He wouldn't have put it past Suzuki…he wouldn't have put anything past Suzuki at this point.

"No. She would notice." Said Suzuki

"Then what? If she doesn't want to have kids then it sounds like you're not going to be having any kids." Said Fukuda

"I…am going to ask her why she feels like she doesn't want to have children…and then I'm going to convince her to see things my way. I have to have another child." Said Suzuki

"Why? You're youngest kid is two….and you're forty five. If you have a kid now by the time it's an adult you'll be sixty five." Said Fukuda

"Yes, I can do basic addition…and I'd be closer to forty six since it takes nine months to gestate an infant." Said Suzuki

"Yeah, I know about basic human reproduction…and I know when it's a bad idea. Before you say anything, yeah, I know that I'm overstepping-" said Fukuda

"If you're going to overstep can you at least do it facing me. It's disconcerting talking to your spine." Said Suzuki. Fukuda sighed and turned around. It took everything in him to keep his mouth shut. Suzuki was still sitting there with a decanter of brandy watered down with tea in front of him. He was just sitting there like all of this was nothing….him there in the pit of despair…him trying to crawl out by doing the stupidest thing imaginable….

"There. No I'm facing you." Said Fukuda

"Good. You should face people when they speak to you. It's polite." Said Suzuki

"I know. I'm the one who taught you that." Said Fukuda. Suzuki, back when they'd met, had a bad habit of talking to people from behind books. Schoolbooks, manga, even newspapers if he could get his hands on them. He had explained, later on, that he only did that because he knew that the people around him could never be worth his time. That he had other things to do. Fukuda had felt honored at the time…honored that Suzuki valued their friendship so highly…

"No, I was aware of that rule before I even knew you. You just complained so much I thought that you might have dissolved our friendship if I did not work harder at matching social norms." Said Suzuki

"Oh." Said Fukuda. Well that was…he was pissed off, god damn it! He was pissed off and well beyond the point at which he cared about these little kernels of caring that Suzuki threw him sometimes. Like the unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag…but better….or worse. He didn't know. He was too busy wrapping his head around the whole 'kid' thing to be thinking about popcorn and popcorn kernels or…or whatever….

"Yes. I am…I was glad…that you didn't dissolve our friendship at the time…and I have no idea why. I have been…I have spent the entire day examining my life….my own emotions…and I have come to the conclusion that I need to have another child." Said Suzuki. Fukuda normally was proud of the fact that he could, sort of, see that path that Suzuki's mind took. It's twists and turns. This…this was a path too twisted and turned around for even Fukuda to take….

"Because we were friends when we were kids….you want to get your girlfriend pregnant?" asked Fukuda

"Yes." said Suzuki

"I don't follow. What is this….like a midlife crisis or something? You know most guys just date twenty year olds and buy sport's cars. They don't go out and have kids-" said Suzuki

"This isn't a midlife crisis…at least I don't think that it is….I have no idea what this is…" said Suzuki

"Well…good….I mean at least it's not a midlife crisis. I mean…maybe don't have another kid. You're youngest kid is two, you know, so maybe whatever this is shouldn't involve having another. At least wait until your youngest is toilet trained." Said Fukuda with levity that he didn't feel. Suzuki didn't notice or didn't care, Fukuda had known the man long enough to believe either.

"Mukai is normally dry all night. She's very proud of that fact. I'm surprised she hasn't told you." Said Suzuki

"I…don't spend a lot of one on one time with her." said Fukuda. He hardly spent any one on one time with anyone but that damned cat and however many hamsters there were now. Sho hadn't even visited him, really visited him like before, since before everything went wrong. Mukai was a sweet kid, just like Sho had been at that age, and he would have loved to have been able to get to know her better…but he couldn't…and it was all…he didn't know who's fault it was…and he didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about anything besides solving the problem right in front of him.

"Oh? I would have thought that you had. You love children…it's amazing that you never had any of your own." said Suzuki

"I haven't met the right woman yet, you know that." Said Fukuda. He had met the right woman….Masami had been the right woman…but she had been with Suzuki. If he had met her first then…then maybe they could have been married. Maybe they could have even had some kids at this point. Sho…a boy like him…a girl like Shigeko had been back before she turned into the person she was now…maybe some other kids too. Maybe he and Masami would have come together and had…and created….someone entirely new. Someone new…someone that was the culmination of the love they shared…that was what it was to have a kid. That was how Fukuda had always seen it, anyway, even if it was on the overly romantic and juvenile side. It was a hell of a lot better than how Suzuki saw it, having kids, the way he treated it…like it was nothing…

Like it was something to leave up to fate….like it was something to roll the dice on…

"I don't know why. You're…well you can be incredibly annoying. You overstep all the time…and you've broken my trust with all of your overstepping…but you're still…you. You're a fascinating conversationalist when you're not overstepping and being annoying. You're one of the few people that I've been able to understand in this world. You've always been able to make yourself understood and…and I…have always enjoyed being near you-" said Suzuki

"Well, yeah, it's been thirty-" said Fukuda

"Being near you has always made me…happy. Warm, sort of, in a good way. It's been better…well it had gotten better when we got older…but now it's back. This feeling…it's been twisted into something painful since your betrayal but it's still there." said Suzuki. He had his hands folded on his desk. He was staring at them. Even his aura was focused away from Fukuda. Fukuda was glad. If Suzuki looked at him, if he made eye or aural contact while he was talking about….whatever this was…it would have been weird. Weird and…unpleasant….so unpleasant….

This was pretty damned unpleasant already.

"Yeah, I like handing out with you too…I mean I did back when we were kids." Said Fukuda quickly. Suzuki…was going to a bad place. Fukuda had always known that Suzuki could be sort of…weird…about him. Weird and clingy and…and maybe there had been more there when they'd been young besides hormone fueled exploration….but that had been years ago! They were grown men now…they were in their forties and men in their forties did not do…whatever the fuck Suzuki was planning on doing or saying whatever Suzuki was planning on saying!

Really, they were too old for this.

"I think that it went beyond enjoying your company." Said Suzuki. Fukuda pulled at the collar of his sweater. It was summer, that was it, he didn't actually think that Suzuki was…what? Getting ready to confess? No. This was just more of Suzuki's weirdness. That was all. The lifetime of weirdness that he'd cultivated in himself.

"What does any of this have to do with you and your girlfriend having another child?" asked Fukuda quickly.

"I have to have another child." Said Suzuki. Fukuda waited a moment…it looked like that was where Suzuki was going to end this. He sighed, he couldn't help it. Suzuki…was exhausting…even on a Sunday he was exhausting.

"Because?" asked Fukuda

"Because I need to continue my legacy and my bloodline. In order to do that I need to have another children…and soon. As you said, before, I'm nearly fifty years old. I would like to have another child as soon as possible so I can actually live long enough to raise it…at least to have some part in raising it. I'm only the father…raising children is the mother's area of expertise…and Shiori is very good at raising things. Nurturing them. She's very much like Masami in that regard.

"Why don't you just enjoy the children you have? Your youngest is only two after all." said Fukuda through clenched teeth. He kept his aura under control. The last thing he needed was Suzuki asking why Fukuda was getting so upset at the mention of a woman who he was barely even supposed to know.

"My youngest child is female. I need a son." Said Suzuki

"You have a son. I know it's hard to remember sometimes-" said Fukuda. That time he hadn't been able to keep the anger out of his voice. What? Did he think that he could just replace Sho? What had he done now? Fought with Shigeko? Forced Suzuki to acknowledge his existence in some way? Or maybe he'd just breathed too oud in Suzuki's direct…he calmed down…he did his best to calm down…

It wasn't like there was anything that he could do about this anyway.

"No, I remember…I doubt that I will ever forget." Said Suzuki

"Well, yeah. You're responsible for his existence." Said Fukuda

"I am…I'm responsible for everything about him…everything wrong with him…" said Suzuki. Fukuda…well he wondered why Suzuki couldn't just have a normal midlife crisis. Why couldn't he just date a woman young enough to be his daughter, dye his hair, and do whatever else he could to reclaim whatever youth he'd thought he lost or however it worked?! Fukuda didn't know….he'd stopped aging at some point…though he had been feeling introspective lately….but that was where it ended! He didn't go off and…do whatever the hell it was that Suzuki was planning on doing. Being introspective enough to realize how terrible a person he was and then…what? Having a do-over kid?

"You know he's only twelve. Sure you made some mistakes but-" said Fukuda

"He's still eleven. He doesn't turn twelve until the first of December…but it don't expect you to know his birthday. You're not his father…you weren't there when he was born. He may say that he wishes that you had been his father but that doesn't make you his father…" said Suzuki

"Sho…said that? To your face?" asked Fukuda. Sho hadn't said that in years…Fukuda had thought that he'd fucked up so badly that Sho had moved past that…but not only had he said that but to his own father's face…wait…no…that wasn't….there had been something happening that morning at Suzuki's house but it hadn't seemed bad enough to intervene…

Sho…

"Yes." said Suzuki

"Yes?" asked Fukuda

"Yes. That's what I just said. Pay attention." Said Suzuki

"And…what did you do to him?" asked Fukuda. He kept his hands in his lap. He had to. He couldn't let Suzuki see the way they shook, the way they tried their best to become fists. He wasn't completely ignorant of basic body language…and right now he was in too precarious a place for Fukuda to be adding anything to that.

"Nothing." Said Suzuki

"Nothing?" asked Fukuda. Real nothing or Suzuki nothing? Suzuki nothing was just something but not something that he thought was worth mentioning.

"Nothing." Said Suzuki

"That's…not like you at all." said Fukuda

"I'm aware…but there's nothing that I could do. Shigeko told me that if I punished Son….Sho…that if I punished Sho then she would take him and leave…and I can't have that. I lost her once. I can't lose her again…so I have to have another son." Said Suzuki

"You don't have to have another kid just because Sho…said something to hurt you. You know how he is, how he lashes out. He's a lot like you in that way." said Fukuda

"Of course he is…and it's all my fault. I have set a terrible example for him." said Suzuki

"Well he's not even twelve yet, like you said, and if you want him to be less angry-" said Fukuda

"I don't care how angry he is." Said Suzuki

"Then what are you so upset about?" asked Fukuda. He was getting to the end of his rope. Suzuki…he wished that Suzuki would have just written down whatever it was that was on his mind. Hopefully with arrows so he could see the path Suzuki's thoughts took…because right now he was making no sense whatsoever.

"I'm upset because my son spent the night with a boy. Romantically." Said Suzuki. If this had been one of Sho's TV shows the sound of silence that followed that statement would have been broken by a record scratch. That was certainly how his brain felt…like a needle had been ripped off of a record…like…like his brain was just spinning but nothing was happening…..something had to happen! It was WAY too quiet….

He was getting tired of the sound of silence.

"Th-there must be some kind of…of misunderstanding. Maybe he just made a friend. He's only eleven after all…and he does have a girlfriend. You…you can't forget Emmy." Said Fukuda. His voice was wavering….Suzuki didn't notice…at least he acted like he didn't notice…no. He really didn't notice. Fukuda had made the mistake, the rare mistake, that he was sitting across from a normal man. He should have known better than to think that for even a second.

Nothing about this situation was normal.

"I haven't forgotten her…but he forgot her. He learned that from me." Said Suzuki

"You…you didn't…" said Fukuda. No. His mind…he couldn't stop his mind from going to…to things that he and Suzuki had agreed to never speak of again. He could not begin to understand why Suzuki would have shared any of that with Sho…but he could not begin to understand why Suzuki would have done that…but he didn't really understand why Suzuki did most of the things he did.

"I didn't do anything but leave….I have no idea what I should have done…what I even could have done. He learned his from me…and I have nobody to blame but myself." Said Suzuki

"Why…why do you think you have nobody to blame but yourself. What…what do you think that you did?" asked Fukuda. He couldn't say it. He couldn't just come out and say 'hey, you didn't tell Sho about all those times we made out when we were kids, did you?'. No, that would not have gone over well if he had even been capable of getting the words out.

"You know what I did…and if you forgot then you need to see a healer. That would be very bad, you know, for both of us…if your powers could fail. For one thing the fact that powers can fail leaves me with a deep sense of existential-" said Suzuki

"My powers are working just fine." Said Fukuda

"Then you should be perfectly capable of remembering how Mukai came to be." Said Suzuki

"Well…yeah. You slept with a woman…but you just said that Sho spent the night with a boy. I think you're probably looking way too deeply into this. Sho's eleven, he probably doesn't even know-" said Fukuda

"He came home this morning covered in...well you'll see his neck…and fix it when you see it. I can't have him walking around like that." Said Suzuki

"Sho…came home this morning….with his entire neck covered in hickeys? Are you sure that he didn't just…get punched in the throat a few times?" asked Fukuda. He wished that Sho got punched in the throat…it would have been better than…than….what had he been THINKING?!

"Fukuda, I know what those look like…and what is this throat punching thing? Does everyone think that I have no idea what hickeys look like? I have three children…two by blood…honestly." Said Suzuki

"Well…um….you…how do you know he was with a boy? The cheating thing…he may have picked that up from you…but there's no certainty that he was with another boy…and I don't even know why you would think-" said Fukuda

"He told me. He told me to my face that he was with another boy last night…he told me that he thinks that he's a homosexual." Said Suzuki. There was silence, more silence, after that. An oppressive sort of silence. Suzuki was done and…and Fukuda…he had no idea why he wanted Suzuki to keep talking. He had no idea what he expected Suzuki to say….but…but maybe it was something that could make this better…

Like…like maybe Sho had been….

Sho had been idiot. Why…where had he gotten the idea that…that any of this was a good idea?! Where had…from Shigeko. Suzuki blamed himself for this but, really, he should have blamed Shigeko. She was the one who put the idea in his head that there was nothing wrong with…well there was nothing wrong with the way he was…but…but there was something wrong in Suzuki's eyes. She had promised him that if he came out and Suzuki didn't take it well then she would take him and leave…he had no idea where she thought that she was going to go…and she probably didn't either. She never thought things through…like how her actions affected others. She….she was the one who told Sho that this was ok…all of it…including spending the night….

He couldn't even finish the thought.

He had no idea what Shigeko got up to…had been getting up to…but he had some ideas. She kept company with Shimazaki Ryou after all and that man was so transparent he might as well have been invisible. Sho was taking after her in the worst way possible and…and Fukuda…he could NOT let this get any worse. He didn't need a second Shigeko on his hands…

He had already let the first one become…this…he couldn't let the same thing happen to Sho.

"Are you….sure?" asked Fukuda

"Yes. He said so multiple times. I said nothing….I'll have to ask Shigeko what she considers to be acceptable to say…but even then…I have no idea. I…am the reason that he…he thinks that adultery is acceptable…and he thinks that he's a homosexual. He's no more a homosexual than I am." Said Suzuki. Yeah…no. Fukuda was not going to unpack that one.

"He's eleven. He doesn't know what he's saying or doing. He's just…imitating what he's seen in his life." Said Fukuda

"Exactly…he's imitating me. I'm his father. He looks to me for what he should be when he…when he becomes a man….and I have set a terrible example for my son." Said Suzuki

"You…may have messed up…but he's eleven. I'm sure that this was just a onetime thing. If you keep him away from Shigeko-" said Fukuda. No. He'd been too focused on Sho to think of what had been coming out of his mouth. He felt his chair start to tip over…he grabbed the desk for support. Suzuki was making eye contact now….actually he was glaring.

"What's she got to do with this?" asked Suzuki lowly.

"Sho…well he's been watching her and…and you know how she is with men-" said Fukuda. That time he did end up tipping over. There was no way to brake his fall. No way to stabilize himself. No way to stop this. Suzuki had decided that Fukuda needed to be on the ground…so that was where he was…one the ground…

And then he went sliding.

He slid across the room. The rug burned his skin where his sweater had ridden up. His head hit the chair…and then the door. It was closed…it swung opened. Loudly. It had hit the wall behind it…it had hit it hard enough that he hard plaster break. He sat up as soon as the sheer force of Suzuki's powers left his body.

And then he was slammed back into the ground.

"Leave. Now." Said Suzuki. He raised a hand…and then Fukuda went out into the hallway. His back hit the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him. The office door in front of him tried to slam shut…but Fukuda didn't let it. He stuck his foot in the door just in time…it hurt….but he was no stranger to pain.

"Suzuki-" said Fukuda. He didn't know what to say…what he could say…but….he had to say something!

"I said to leave. Do not talk about my daughter….I can't believe you spoke about my daughter like that…leave. Leave me and…and…I want to be alone!" shouted Suzuki before he shoved Fukuda back into the wall. That was…not how he had seen this going. He picked himself up and went back to the door….locked…there was silence on the other side…this was…Fukuda needed to think. He fished his phone out of his pocket….the screen was cracked but it still worked…he had to…to talk to Sho. He had to get to the bottom of this…

Straight to voicemail.

He tried Shigeko.

Two rings and then straight to voicemail.

He went through his contacts….he had very few contacts. The only numbers he had programed, non-work numbers, were Suzuki and the kids….well Higashio and Oostuki but there was nothing they could do to help…there was nothing that anyone could do. Sho….he'd fucked up so badly…no. Fukuda had failed him…he had failed both of the kids now…but he knew what he had to do….something. Boy did he have to do….something….he had no idea what that something was but it had to happen…and soon! Something….something had to happen….but he didn't know what….

And the oppressive sound of silence wasn't exactly helping matters.