Mukai, in Mob's opinion was a little too young for Go Fish.

She had all of her cards just out on the floor in front of her. She sometimes picked them up but most of the time she left them right there on the floor with what they were facing upwards. Mob didn't like to cheat at games, in fact she usually reverse cheated so that Sho or Mukai could win, but now she couldn't help it. The cards were right there and she could see everything and…well maybe Serizawa had the right idea. He had his eyes closed…maybe she should have borrowed the braille cards from Shimazaki…but then she would have had to talk to him. She couldn't use the excuse that she was busy because he had braille cards so he could play this with them. Well dad was here and dad didn't like him but Shimazaki said before that he didn't care about that.

He should have.

Dad was intense enough over a game of Go Fish of all things. She could see it in his aura. He hated losing, even when she had been little and the two of them would stay up late and they'd play Chinese checkers his aura would get all…like that. He kept on looking over at Serizawa, too, so maybe he was feeling competitive because there was another boy playing. She hated to see what he would have been like if Sho had wanted to play. He was off making tiny dinners for his hamsters and that was more important then, like he'd called it, a game way too big for Mukai and way too little for dad. Mob agreed with the part about this game being way too big for Mukai.

Dad disagreed.

"Mukai, do you have any threes?" asked Suzuki. Mukai shook her head. He frowned but said nothing. He didn't care if he won or lost, he just enjoyed the act of playing. There was something freeing, something that made him feel light, about sitting there and playing a simple game with his two daughters. He'd been away from them for one night but it felt like at least a month had passed. Maybe he was just getting old…no…time passed quicker the older you got. Maybe because he had grown far too accustomed to their faces.

The fourth player in their game on the other hand….

In an effort not to cheat Serizawa chose to play with his eyes closed. He didn't know if it was the associate with Shimazaki that was making him feel like a pot that was about to boil over or Serizawa's proximity to Shigeko. He always sat far too near to her. He was always reaching for her hand, too, or she was reaching for his. That was…that was too much….but then the rational part of his mind reminded the rest of him that this was Serizawa he was talking about. The man was barely a man, more of a child than Hatori, and something more akin to a child or a pet or a doll to Shigeko than, well, a man. She didn't see Serizawa as a potential partner, she had said as much as well, though she had said the same thing about Shimazaki…

If that man decided to just teleport himself in asking after Shigeko then Suzuki…well he couldn't be held responsible for his actions.

"Go fish." said Mukai. She liked this game. You said go fish and then you got another card. Then she won. This was a really fun game. She didn't understand why everyone's colors seemed so sad and mad.

"Mukai, you have a lot of threes." Said Mob as she leaned over and pointed to the threes on the floor in front of Mukai. Mukai was much more interested in trying to touch her aura, though, with hers. It was a good thing, right? That she had gotten her aura so soon? She was going to grow up to be very powerful then…hopefully fast. Hopefully dad wasn't thinking of making the process any faster like…like what he had done to Sho. Mob took Mukai's hand and put it down on the three. She could teach Mukai her numbers….that was at least one thing that she could help with.

"Go fish!" said Mukai as she took her hand away. She pointed at the cards as soon as she got her hand back. They all had to take cards now! She just said Go Fish!

"Shigeko, don't look at your sister's cards. I trust her." said Suzuki. He wasn't blind, though the cards did look a bit fuzzy at this distance, he could tell that there were threes right in front of her but, really, it was of no consequence. Shigeko should have known better. Mukai was very prone to fits at this age, ones that she couldn't control, ones which were very annoying to anyone who had to listen to them. If Mukai fell into one of her fits then Suzuki would have no choice but to leave, he hadn't been able to put up with that from any of his other children, and he didn't want to leave. He may not have been invested in the outcome of the game but he was invested in two of the people who he was playing this game with.

"But dad, she doesn't even know her numbers yet." Said Mob. She knew what was coming, Mukai was going to have a tantrum. All the signs were there. It was like how at the beach they had signs that said if the water went backwards into the ocean and didn't come back then it was time to start running for higher ground. Mukai's aura was showing, she was kicking her little feet, and she was starting to scream. Those were the signs of a coming tantrum and since Tsuchiya was busy helping Shibata make dinner, she had a headache she said, Mob would be the one who had to calm Mukai down…and that took a long time! She may not have cared too much about this game, winning was never one of her priorities even when she had been Mukai's age, but she did care about spending time with the people she was playing with. Even dad.

"Neither did you at her age. She's learning." Said Suzuki. He would have thought that Shigeko would have been more conscientious about her younger sibling's limitations…but then again her behavior had been very surprising lately. Growing up….she was growing up…but that was alright. He had another Daughter and when this one grew up as well then he could just have another and another until Shiori was no longer able to bear his children. The oldest mother in history had been nearly seventy so they still had plenty of time.

"I just think that we should play something else." Said Mob. Of course she knew that Mukai was learning. She was the one who took care of her. Dad just played games with her and stuff. Mob was the one who did the hard part, like teaching her and…and teaching Sho and…she felt her skirt pockets for her pen…and then remembered that she'd left it on the charger. She'd have to get it later…or sooner, depending on if she ever stopped being mad….a little bit annoyed…at everything.

"No, this! Play this game right now!" said Mukai. She pointed to the cards just to make sure that the grownups could hear her. They didn't, or they didn't understand, most of the time.

"Serizawa, what do you think?" asked Mob. She knew what Mukai thought and…and she wanted to be nice but she also didn't want to have to deal with a tantrum. Serizawa would be on her side, he agreed with her about everything. He was a really good friend like that. She always agreed with him and he always agreed with her…even on things that they didn't really agree with each other on. Like how she pretended that she liked Gundam and Evangelion and other giant robot shows for him and he pretended to like makeup tutorials and nail art videos for her. They had things in common, though, so it wasn't like…all the way pretending. Like they were just pretending to be friends. They both liked the twenty four hour live feed of the cat family, Harvest Moon games, and slice of life shows. They had a lot of stuff in common and they were very good friends so Mob knew that Serizawa would vote the way that she wanted him to.

She would have done the same for him after all.

"Me?! I-I-I think that…that we should…um…we should…use the deciding hat!" said Serizawa. He had no idea what Miss Suzuki wanted him to say. She usually wanted him to agree with her but she also liked it when he agreed with her little sister and brother and…and he kind of had to agree with the President because he was the President….but he kind of had to agree with Miss Suzuki too because she was his best friend and she was the only reason he was even out of his room in the first place…and also he had to agree with Mukai because she was small and adorable and also she got really upset really fast…she was sensitive…her whole family was and-and-and what if he made everyone upset and then they all stopped liking him?!

What was he supposed to do?

"The what now?" asked Suzuki as he syphoned off some of the extra energy that came off of Serizawa's barrier. Honestly. He and Hatori were like brothers sometimes…but Hatori was much less destructive when he got to this point. Well at least he knew that Serizawa wasn't planning on taking Shigeko from him. The man could barely leave his bedroom let alone try anything with Shigeko…and she knew that she could do much better than him anyway…not that he wanted…he didn't know what he wanted in terms of Shigeko and…and he just….he had just heard a new term and he needed to have it explained.

Right now.

"The deciding hat is…a hat that…decides things?" said Serizawa. That was the stupidest definition that he could have come up with. That was just the name of the thing with extra words. He had no idea what was wrong with him. He had no idea what he was supposed to say and he had no idea what he even could say and-and-and-

Miss Suzuki grabbed his hand. He knew, now, that everything was going to be ok.

'You have given me no clarification whatsoever." Said Suzuki, his eyes fixed on the space where Serizawa's hand met Shigeko's. She wouldn't have…she had nearly let Shimazaki kiss her right in his office…right in front of him but…but she didn't have those sorts of feelings for Serizawa. She preferred…well powerful men, of course, but men with a more refined sort of power…and men that were actual men….so in that case then Serizawa would have been much better for her since she could control him. She didn't need to worry about the actions of some man, someone with the ability to leave her, to cheat on her, or to do any manner of things to her. She needed someone who was completely and utterly dependent on her. A man who could build his own city sized glass dome to live under, not a man who would leave the planning and logistics of such an undertaking to Shigeko….he still wasn't sure how he would do that…or even what sort of dome Shiori would have liked to live under….but he could find out.

He had all the time in the world to ask his girlfriend…his fiancée these questions…and she would have been a hell of a lot better at making herself understood than the man right in front of him.

"I-I'm sorry?" asked Serizawa. He…he didn't know how to give clarification and…and he was sorry but…but President Suzuki hated it when people apologized…but he had to! He had really f-worded up and now…now…he felt Miss Suzuki squeeze his hand. He squeezed her back. It was just like squeezing the handle of his umbrella. When he was with her he knew that everything was going to be alright.

"Say you're sorry!" said Mukai. That was what you were supposed to say when you were sorry! You said Sorry! So now Seri had to say it!

"I-I'm sorry!" said Serizawa. Mukai was…kind of scary when she got like this. She was getting really close to a tantrum and he had to do whatever she said even if he had just done it. The last thing he wanted to be responsible for was one of her tantrums. She could yell REALLY loudly when she wanted to and when she got upset like that Miss Suzuki had to take care of her and then they wouldn't be able to spend time together and he really liked spending time with her. When he was with her then he knew that everything was going to be ok…that he was going to be ok.

"Say it again!" said Mukai

"I-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa, stop it. Mukai, he already said sorry. Be nice." Said Mob. She didn't want Mukai to have a tantrum but she didn't want her to grow up to be mean either. She didn't need to grow up and end up like dad…not that Mob didn't love her dad, she did with all her heart, but he could also be really mean sometimes. Mukai didn't need that…the world didn't need that.

"Your sister is always nice…now someone explain the hat thing to me. Right now." Said Suzuki. Mukai was many things but outright malicious was not on that list. He had no idea what Shigeko was even on about. Women were so confusing sometimes.

"It's a hat that we use to decide things." Said Mob. There. She didn't know what was so complicated about that. There was a hat. They used it to decide things that they couldn't decide by voting. It wasn't exactly complicated.

"Explain better." Said Suzuki. That was circular reasoning. She had to have known that it was circular reasoning…or perhaps not since she had just used it. He needed to teach her about that…about the dangers of circular reasoning. He had to teach her a great many things…he had thought that there would have been more time. There wasn't. There was hardly any time when he sat down and really thought about it. Even with Mukai he had missed out on so much…and she was only two. With the next children he would make better use of his time. He would be there more or insist that they traveled with him…but that would mean that his current children would have to get accustomed to Shiori sooner than he thought…but he had no idea when that would even be. Shiori was the one who needed a deciding hat, which was apparently a hat which made decisions, since she seemed to have no idea when she even planned on them marrying let alone when the first child would come along.

"We write down what we want, like if we can't agree on a movie, and then we put the papers in a hat and someone pulls them out and then that's how we decide what we're going to pick." Said Mob

"That actually works?" asked Suzuki

"Y-Yes! I mean….yes…I mean it usually works but sometimes one person wins a lot at once…like how Minegishi always wins movie night and we've seen Totoro five times in a row…not that I'm complaining! It's better than that other movie they like…." Said Serizawa. He maybe had said too much…but maybe it made up for the fact that he said too little. Miss Suzuki was still next to him and she was still holding his hand. She would have said something or done something if he had messed up…right? Probably…and…and she was probably happy with him since he'd spoken all on his own. She liked it when he talked to people and he liked to make her happy. He couldn't imagine anything that would have made him happier than knowing that not only was she happy but he was the one who had made her happy.

She was such a good friend…he had no idea how he would ever be able to repay her for all that she had done for him…but he got the feeling that making her happy was a start.

"But isn't there the danger of the person doing the choosing lying about what suggestion won?" asked Suzuki. That was what he would have done if he'd been in that hypothetical person's place. It was too good of an opportunity to miss. He knew that it was unfair but he hadn't gotten where he was today by playing by the rules.

"Dad, that's cheating!" said Mob. She had no idea how he came up with things like this, none at all. He could be kind of mean but he wasn't a cheater…at games. She looked over at Mukai…she didn't want to think about how Mukai had gotten here…or how hurt mom would have been if she'd known…but she didn't know and she would never know because she had chosen to leave and-oh. Serizawa squeezed her hand. He must have seen her aura. She squeezed his hand back. She knew that she was the one who took care of him but sometimes it was just…nice to have him around. Someone who was just always nice to her and never mean or weird…someone who she knew that she would always be ok if she was with.

"I'm aware that, yea, that is cheating. Rest assured I will not be engaging in such behavior. Now go and find us a hat so we can decide what sort of game were going to play." Said Suzuki. His eyes never left the space where Shigeko's hand met Serizawa's. That was…that was nothing…but it felt like something….but it was nothing and it had to be nothing. He would find out if it was nothing or something…he had to for the sake of his own sanity.

"Ok, dad, I will. Do me a favor and watch Serizawa while I'm gone?" asked Mob

"I don't need-" said Serizawa. He didn't need to be watched, no, he could be by himself with other people for at least a little bit and when it got to be too much he could excuse himself to another room. If he had been a worse friend then he would have said something about how she sometimes treated him like he was a lot younger than he was. Not that he felt like an adult or anything, no, he just…didn't feel as young as Mukai was. That was how people treated him and, yes, he knew that he acted young…but he wasn't THAT young.

"Yes. I can do that." Said Suzuki. Shigeko got up and went to go and find a hat. How long that would take he did not know. He did know, however, that he was perfectly capable of watching Serizawa…so that was what he did. He watched him. Every twitch of his body, flare of his aura, every inhale, every exhale, every paused, every single little oscillation he did Suzuki watched. There was a certain handsomeness to him, underneath the poor job he did shaving and the baggy pajamas he wore all the time…and the wrinkled and filthy orange robe he wore over them….and the overly tangled and really quite greasy mess that was his hair….there was a handsome man. Tall. Large…not imposing…large and softness. There quite a bit of softness to him. He was a lot like Tadashi in that regard. Soft and large…probably warm, too. Warm was good. Some people ran colder than others and that was never pleasant to touch…not that Shigeko would have ever…though Serizawa, when compared to Shimazaki, really made for the better partner…but Shimazaki was a much more handsome man…though his personality more than balanced out his looks…and Shigeko wasn't so shallow anyway….

Yes. Serizawa Katsuya was…not as unattractive as Suzuki had once thought.

"S-sir? I don't really need to be-to be watched." Said Serizawa. When President Suzuki said that he was going to watch Serizawa he hadn't been kidding. President Suzuki was staring at him and he hadn't stopped, not even to blink. His eyes were so pretty…but the scariness of them kind of took away from how blue they were…and…and Serizawa…he liked the President's aura too but even that was starting to get scary….

"I know. I still want to." Said Suzuki

"Why?" asked Serizawa. He knew that he should have been happy. Very few people even wanted to be in the same room as him let alone be right across from him and…and he staring was a good thing…even if it did make him feel kind of weird. Kind of like he needed to run away right now.

"Because I promised Shigeko that I would. I want only her happiness. Do you understand that?" asked Suzuki

"I-I do! I mean I know…I know I feel the same way. I only want Miss Suzuki to be happy and…and if I can make her happy then that's even better than knowing that she's happy from…from just being happy." Said Serizawa

"Yes. I do." Said Suzuki. That….he didn't know how that made him feel. He was happy that Serizawa was so devoted to Shigeko's happiness but on the other hand that was…a level of devotion which Suzuki felt for Shiori…and had once felt for Masami…and may have felt for Fukuda. There was so much devotion there that…that he knew he should have been happy but instead he just had this feeling in the pit of his stomach like he was going to be ill….and Mukai licking the cards did not help.

"Go fish! Yummy fish!" said Mukai as she pretended to eat the fish. She did it again…but nobody looked!

"Pr-President Suzuki? Is…is everything alright? You….you've been staring at…at me for a while and I know that Miss Suzuki asked you to watch me but I get the feeling that I did something to make you mad and…and I just…whatever it is that I did I promise that if you tell me I'll fix it and never do it again!" said Serizawa

"It isn't anything you did. I am angry because of…because of the actions of Shimazaki Ryou, not you." Said Suzuki. That was it, wasn't it? What had gotten him all turned around like this. Shimazaki Ryou. If he hadn't been such a powerful esper and a friend to his children he would have had the man reassigned to the opposite end of the earth years ago. He was…there was nothing redeeming about him. He was an annoying man and not only that he thought that he could try and-and-and Suzuki even shuddered to think, with Shimazaki. Suzuki so wished that if given the choice, which she was, she would have chosen a man like Serizawa…though he would have preferred her to live a life with him with sojourns out into the world to come back with grandchildren for them to raise together, in addition to the ones that he and Shiori would have, but this was not one of those situations where he got a say. They were few and far between but they did exist much to his chagrin.

But many things existed much to his chagrin so, really, it was downright illogical for him to be getting this worked up.

"Ryou! Ryou! Ryou!" said Mukai. If pretending to eat a fish wasn't going to get their attention then she could pretend to be like Ryou. She hit the card in her hand against the ground like she was making flour lines and then she leaned down and breathed in really hard….yay! Now caterpillars was looking at her.

"Mukai, you're so-" said Serizawa. She was so cute right now! He had no idea what it was that she was doing, he got the feeling that he had seen that before somewhere but he just couldn't place it, but he knew that she was adorable no matter what she did.

"Don't say a word." Said Suzuki. No. He didn't want Mukai doing that ever again…and her mother had been quite clear on what to do. They were to ignore this behavior. It seemed counterintuitive to Suzuki but Mukai's mother had said this and she was a woman. Women knew much more about childrearing than men ever could. Also he didn't want to punish Mukai, he actually couldn't bring himself to, he didn't want little time they had together to be filled with frustration…and also Shigeko didn't want him punishing Mukai or Sho and of course he trusted her when it came to childrearing. She was a woman and they knew about these things after all.

He so hoped that Shigeko and Shiori wouldn't have conflicting views on childrearing…not that Shigeko needed any more rearing…but she would probably expect to be left in complete command on any of her future siblings.

"Oh! Sorry! it's just that Miss Suzuki likes it when I tell Mukai when she does cute things." Said Serizawa. He wasn't entirely sure what she was doing but she did it every time someone mentioned Shimazaki and that was kind of cute. Well…everything she did was kind of cute. He loved kids her age, they were cute and never mean, and he hoped that if Miss Suzuki ever had any kids then she would let him play with them.

"That isn't cute…do you honestly have no idea what she's imitating?" asked Suzuki. He had been to university. He watched movies. He moved, when he had to, in less than savory social circles. He knew what it looked like when someone inhaled cocaine…and that looked very close to what Mukai was doing right now. Her mother had told him not to say a word when she did that, she was looking for attention, and by giving this behavior any attention at all, positive or negative, he was rewarding it….though he had no idea where she had picked it up from…or how someone Serizawa's age could have had no idea what it was that she was doing.

"No, not really, but I just…I think that everything she does is cute." Said Serizawa. The President didn't say anything, he just stared. Serizawa had no idea if this was good staring or bad staring or just…just thinking really hard about something staring. President Suzuki was a very complicated man!

"That…is true. She is very cute…but from this moment on you will react to things in whatever way I order you to. Is this clear?" asked Suzuki. There was a childlike innocence to him that Suzuki decided that he liked. Even if Shigeko had feelings for him he wouldn't have been able to reciprocate. When the time came and Shigeko decided that she needed to take a husband he would simply order Serizawa to propose marriage to her and then things would largely be like this…games of Go Fish or whatever with the children…and the grandchildren…and Shigeko too of course. Serizawa could go play a videogame on his own. Shiori would be there as well…Sho would be off on his own running the world…it was a good picture, the one he painted, a very good picture.

Which was good since he had never been much of an artist.

"Y-Yes sir! Whatever you want!" said Serizawa. Well that certainly made things easier. Being told what to do and how to do it was so much easier than figuring it out on his own. He felt himself relax, it stared in his shoulders and moved all the way down his back. President Suzuki was so nice to take the time out of his day to help guide Serizawa like that. He really was amazing, all the Suzuki's were. He could see why everyone loved their family so much. They were so amazing…but Miss Suzuki was the most amazing of all.

"Dad, are you being nice?" asked Mob as she came back with a hat. She'd had to look really hard to find their winter stuff…but that was good. Winter was coming and she got the feeling that they were going to be in Tokyo for a while. It was pretty much their home now. They always came here when they stayed in Japan because of the big HQ it had. They had a home…..well they used to have one. She had no idea where the castle was and…and she had no plans of going there anyway. She was fine right here even if it did get really cold in the winters.

"Be nice! Be nice, caterpillars!" shouted Mukai. She pointed right at Caterpillars so he would know that she was talking to him and none of the others. Dad was another word for Caterpillars after all.

"Of course I was being nice." Said Suzuki. Shigeko knew better than that, she knew him, and she knew that he never would have done anything to hurt one of her friends…not unless they deserved it…though he did let a lot of things go when it came to those people…maybe too much. If Shimazaki had been any other man he would have been long dead by now.

"Was he, Serizawa?" asked Mob. Serizawa jumped. His whole body and his aura…and part of the floor, too. For a moment she worries that he's going to cause an earthquake. The one that dad had caused had been scary enough, she had barely had enough time to run outside so she didn't get crushed incase the house fell down, and Serizawa had much less control over his powers than dad did…not that she was afraid of him or anything! Of course she wasn't, she was his friend, and anyway she had powers…though sometimes she got too scared to control them….or access them….she wasn't afraid of Serizawa. She was fine, perfectly fine.

"Your dad…um….President Suzuki was being nice, Miss Suzuki. He really was!" Said Serizawa as he made room for Miss Suzuki. She had a hat and one of her brothers notebooks and some of his pencils….he hoped that Sho didn't come over and notice her touching his things. He was very sensitive about people touching his things…well all Suzuki's were sensitive, it looked like, so that was ok…and it was ok for him to be the way he was too…since they already were…if that was even how it worked. He didn't know how things worked, he didn't know anything, anything at all except for the fact that being near Miss Suzuki made him feel a thousand times better than he felt when he was without her.

"Good. Ok, now everyone write down what you want to play and then we'll put it in the hat and Mukai can pick….and I'll write for her since Tsuchiya isn't here but don't worry, I won't cheat." Said Mob as she passed one of Sho's old homeschool notebooks around. It was full of drawings to but there were plenty of blank and nearly blank pages. There was enough paper for everyone and whatever they chose they would end up playing…even if it was one of dad's boring games…or one of those games that she and Serizawa liked but dad didn't…or something that Mukai couldn't play, like Go Fish. She just wanted everyone there to get along and be happy and she didn't think that was so difficult, not as difficult as trying to play Go Fish with Mukai anyway.

Go Fish, in Mob's opinion, was too old for Mukai…but that didn't stop her from putting it in the deciding hat just because Mukai wanted it.