If Ritsu didn't show up soon then Sho was going to start breaking shit.
Really, what else could he do? He wasn't going to do something as bad as hit Teru, there was no way Ritsu would ever forgive him for that, but he was going to break shit. There was a lot of shit around here to break. Teru lived in what had to be the world's tiniest apartment. He had a kitchen and then a bedroom and a bathroom. That was it. There wasn't any space for his mom and dad or brothers and sisters…
Well Teru didn't seem to have any.
Teru hadn't said anything about his life besides that he lived here and that he wanted Sho to take off his shoes. Sho wasn't an idiot, he knew that he had to take his shoes off when he was inside. He was in Japan, wasn't he, and even when he wasn't in Japan then he still did this…well he would have if he had ever been inside of anyone's house before. Well he had visited Ritsu but Sho had only seen his bedroom. This was a whole apartment…a tiny one but still.
Teru had his own apartment.
"How do you like your tea?" asked Teru from the kitchen.
"Tea?" asked Sho. He shook his head. Teru must have had something else in that tiny kitchen of his. It was just a tiny fridge, a counter, and a cooktop. Not even a real stove. What did he do if he wanted cake in the middle of the night or something? Sometimes Mukai wanted cake in the middle of the night so Shibata made it for her. Sho didn't know how to make cake. If this was his apartment, if this had been his, then he would have made sure that there was a regular oven in case baby sis wanted big sis to make her a cake…well then it wouldn't have been his apartment…
If this had been his apartment, though, he would have made sure that there had been enough space for both of his sisters…and he would have had something to drink besides tea.
"Don't you have anything else?" asked Sho. Teru's shoulders tensed and his aura flared. Sho sat up straighter. If he just went up and hit Teru then Ritsu would have been mad at him but if Teru started it then Ritsu couldn't have possibly been mad at him. Self-defense was a thing.
"I have tea, water, wheat grass juice-" said Teru
"Do you have soda?" asked Sho. He really needed a soda. He needed a nice cold coke, or maybe something with blue in it, but not orange though. Too many people liked orange soda, weird people, like this guy. He looked like he would have been weird enough to drink orange soda. He had more clothes than big sis, for one thing, and he kept them all over the floor just like big sis did. They were in the colors that she liked, too. Pinks and blues, but girl blues, and purples and stuff. He had one of those makeup mirror things that girls had, too, with a bunch of skin stuff on it and three different brushes. What kind of a guy had three brushes? Big sis was a girl and she only had one.
This was the weirdest guy that Sho had ever met in his life….and he had spent his life in Claw.
Maybe this was why big sis liked him. He liked all of this girly stuff just as much as she did, it looked like. Well there was someone for everyone and as long as that someone wasn't Shimazaki…not that he was still holding out hope for anything with Shimazaki. He was afraid of dad and Sho could never be in love with someone who was afraid of dad. Besides, he had a boyfriend already anyway. He had a boyfriend and big sis deserved a boyfriend too…even this weird guy. He was lucky that big sis liked him or Sho would have kicked his ass. That was what you were supposed to do when a guy liked your sister. Sho knew how guys could be, he'd seen it, and he wasn't going to let big sis get her heart broken and stuff. He knew how guys could be….he'd seen it…and he was a guy…
If this guy treated big sis even half as bad as Sho treated Emmy then Sho was going to kill him.
"No." said Teru. He could feel himself being glared at.
"How do you not have soda? You have juice made from grass but you don't have soda?" asked Sho
"No. Soda's bad for your teeth and skin, you should watch your sugar intake." Said Teru with a click of his tongue. This guy needed a lot of work. He had a whole connect the dots line right at the top of his hairline, his skin was somehow both dry and greasy at the same time, and he needed to spend at least an hour a day in partial sunlight. He looked like a vampire…the more he looked he could see the resemblance between him and Shigeko.
She had been really pale.
Like a ghost but in a good way. Her skin made her eyes really pop. They weren't blue but she could make brown look good. Even the most common shade of brown could be deep and rich, like good cholate, if it was hers. Shigeko…he felt like he was going to float right off the ground. He didn't, of course, because he couldn't show that kind of weakness around the enemy. He also shouldn't have been making the enemy tea and letting the enemy sit on his floor….
He shouldn't have been doing a lot of things, ok?!
"Soda is delicious and something delicious can't be bad for you…and anyway I have a healer for stuff like that." Said Sho
"A healer? Like, that's all he can do?" asked Teru. They had healers…there. This wasn't a complete and total act of stupidity. There were espers around who could heal. Claw had them…which meant that there were others and they could add them to whatever the hell he and Ritsu were going to call their anti-Claw organization.
"Seriously?" asked Sho as he stared back at Teru. He was looking at Sho, now, like he was a germ under a microscope. Sho stared right back. He did his best dad impression. He did his best to make his eyes really wide and his face super still. He didn't know how to do the pupil thing on purpose, though, so he had no idea how scary he looked.
"What? It was just a question. The polite thing to do is to answer." Said Teru. Sho didn't give a fuck about politeness…mostly. He knew about taking off his shoes and shit like that. That was important. Answering whatever question he was given, though, wasn't important.
"The polite thing to do is not ask someone a million questions when they're a guest in your house." Said Sho
"I only asked one question." Said Teru
"You asked me how I wanted my tea, too, that's two questions." Said Sho. There, now he was the winner!
"….fine. We'll go with the first question then. How do you like your tea?" asked Teru. He rolled his shoulders. He was calm. He was not going to freak out. He was not going to throw the hot kettle at Sho and knock some basic manners into him. Ritsu had the weirdest taste in guys. What did Ritsu see in this guy?
Well he was kind of cute.
If you could look past his skin, of course. His skin, his damaged, unruly hair. That godawful green and white jacket that he thought he could pull off. Maybe if there had been more green in it, or maybe if it was tighter, or maybe if it didn't look like the very worst of the nineties threw up then it could have been halfway flattering. Then Sho could have been halfway cute. He wasn't. He was…he had potential.
Just so long as he didn't open is mouth.
"…plain, I guess. I don't know. I don't really like tea." Said Sho. He had to calm down. He didn't know what he was supposed to do until Ritsu came back…but fighting with his friend wasn't going to help when he did see Ritsu again.
"A splash of milk and a lemon wedge then." Said Teru
"No lemon! You trying to kill me!?" said Sho
"You've got something against lemon?" asked Teru
"I don't like it." Said Sho. He was incredible allergic but he wasn't going to just go and tell Teru that. They were, technically, on opposite sides. Technically Sho was still a part of Claw. He didn't want to be. He didn't want to be the heir or whatever to Claw. He wanted it to burn to the ground. He didn't know what he would do when it was over but he could figure it out.
He and Ritsu could figure it out together.
It would have been perfect. Like…like they could get a place like this. They could get an apartment that was little but still big enough for the two of them. He had lived in a castle before, a house as big as a castle, and he knew that it was lonely. It was lonely even when you had a sister…big sis would have to live with them too…and baby sis. Baby sis was going to get a lot bigger so they would need a bigger place…so bigger than this….
It would still be theirs. That was what mattered.
"Here. Just milk then." Said Teru as he sat down in front of the table. Sitting on the floor was still…he wasn't used to it yet. This place was too small for a real table. He used to have a real dining table in a real dining room….but that was back in Berlin. This was Japan and things were better here. He had his own place. He'd had his own place for almost a year, if he rounded up, and that was a lot for someone his age. He was twelve but he was mature, mature enough to live on his own, and mature enough to know how things were going to be from now on. Like his parents had said.
He was old enough to know how things were going to be…to accept the new situation.
He handed Sho his teacup. That was real china. Girls were always impressed that he had real china. They cared about things like that, how mature you were. What could have mattered more than what girls thought? When they liked you they let you kiss them and do more than kiss, too, but only if they really liked you. It took at least five dates before a girl let you do so much as feel her up. If Teru had still been living with his parents then he wouldn't have had the time. He wouldn't have been able to bring girls home, too, since they hadn't liked that. Yeah, things were better now….
But not as good as they could have been.
"Thanks." Said Sho as he took a sip of the worst cup of tea that he'd ever had in his life. He'd had black tea before and it hadn't tasted like this…wait…what if he'd been drugged? He stopped drinking…he felt fine…but that had tasted weird. All smoky and stuff….
"What?" asked Teru as Sho looked at him in horror. He took a sip of his tea. There was nothing wrong with it. He knew how to make tea.
"Drink from mine." Said Sho. Teru raised an eyebrow.
"If you're going for an indirect kiss then I'll stop you right now. I could never do that to Ritsu." Said Teru. There was no way. Girls did that sometimes. Come have a sip of mine. It was a way they tested the waters. If they wanted to kiss you they had to see if you wanted it to, otherwise it was incredibly embarrassing. Not that Teru had ever turned down a real kiss or even an indirect one.
"I-I wasn't even thinking about that! Just taste mine and stop thinking weird thoughts!" said Sho
"What? You think I poisoned it or something?" asked Teru
"…maybe…" said Sho
"Oh for the love of….here." said Teru. He leaned in and took a drink. Yeah. That was Lapsang. Obviously Sho was just a tea philistine. He was such a little kid. Even the way he was sitting. Cross legged like a little kid. Teru had no idea what Ritsu saw in Sho. Ritsu could have done so much better than this weird, rude, pasty redheaded kid. Ritsu was a lot cuter than Sho, for one thing. His face was a lot less round. He was mostly sharp angles. His hair looked like it would have been dry and brittle but it was actually smooth and really thick. Even at the ends it was thick enough that Teru needed his stiffest brush just to get through it. Ritsu was a hell of a lot nicer, too, well not nice…he was weirdly intense…but he was better to be around. His aura felt better and it was just…nice…being around him….
Better than being around Sho, anyway.
"Thanks." Said Sho as Teru took a drink from his tea. Now he could drink it…he didn't really want it, now, not after Teru had said that thing about the indirect kiss. That was the kind of stuff that was in big sis's manga. When people shared food and drinks and stuff. Like kissing someone but not kissing them…he couldn't cheat on Ritsu. He loved him and when you loved someone for real then you didn't cheat on him…
Sho sucked…but he didn't have to completely suck.
"What now?" sighed Teru
"I don't want to drink after you." Said Sho
"For the….if this is some new form of torture you guys thought up then it's working." Said Teru
"It's not torture, I just don't want to cheat on Ritsu. How in the hell do you think he'd feel if he came in here and saw me indirectly kissing you? He'd feel like shit!" said Sho
"Right…when Ritsu gets back." Said Teru. He couldn't feel Shigeko. He was playing a dangerous game and he knew it…but he was the main character here. He felt like he was the main character and things always worked out for the main character and things had always worked out for him. Shigeko had always been there to save him…
She'd be here, she'd come, and if not…well then he was going to have to beat Sho up.
"When's that going to be. No offense but your house is anything but fun." Said Sho
"What-what's wrong with my apartment?" asked Sho
"You don't have a Switch or a Wii-" said Sho
"Who still has a Wii?" asked Teru
"People who don't want to have to download all their games again. You wouldn't know. This is like if my sister was allowed to take over our whole room. It's just clothes and lotion and girl stuff." Said Sho
"Girls don't have a monopoly on self-care. You should try it sometime." Said Teru
"You said-" said Sho
"Oh…grow up." Said Teru
"Grow down." Said Sho
"One of us needs to be the adult here." Said Teru
"You're not an adult. You're my sister's age…hey! That makes you my age too!" said Sho
"No, that makes me older than you. You see, you're younger than me. That means that I was born first." Said Teru slowly
"Don't talk to me like I'm my baby sis." Said Sho
"What? You're the one being ridiculous. If she's your older sister then you can't be the same age." Said Teru
"We are. I know how old I am. This is the part of the year when we're the same age. Then she'll be older again in May." Said Sho
"So that's her birthday…" said Teru. He'd missed a couple…but he could make her next birthday amazing. He had no idea what day in May…but he could do a month of gifts and dates and stuff. Yeah. That would more than make this up to her. Also on one of those days she'd be sure to let it slip when her birthday was and then he would be prepared for the next year…and the next…and the next.
"You didn't know my sister's birthday? I thought you liked her." said Sho. He didn't like this guy. When you loved someone then you knew her birthday. Hell, he wasn't even in love with Emmy but he knew when her birthday was. December twenty seventh. That meant that she didn't get a part because it was between Christmas and New Year. He knew Ritsu's, too, it was July…July something…he'd figure it out later! He knew the month at least and then he could just keep giving Ritsu presents every single day until he was all 'my birthday's over'….unless he held out for more presents.
"I do….I just haven't had time to get to know her. Things haven't exactly been good for building a relationship." Said Teru
"Yeah, Claw sucks." Said Sho
"Are you planning on helping us take it down then?" asked Teru getting right to the point. Was Sho on his side? That was all he needed to know. Could he trust Sho or was he going to have to kick his ass later?
"I'm planning on taking it down on my own. I'm the only one who can do it." Said Sho. He needed more guys, he knew that he needed more guys, but he didn't need these guys. Ritsu was brave enough to want to take down dad, which of course made Sho's heart beat out of his chest, but he wanted Ritsu's heart to keep beating so, no, he wasn't going to be going up against dad. He didn't care that much about Teru…well kind of. Big sis liked this guy for some reason and he didn't want to piss her off any more than she'd be when he took down Claw and made them orphans.
"Good luck with that." Said Teru. That was damn suspicious now wasn't it? He didn't need to be able to read minds to know that Sho was hiding something…but what? He was going to have to figure out how he could get more out of Sho…what he was planning. If he was even planning anything…if he was even telling the truth….
"Hey! I stand a better chance than you guys do! At least nobody's going to suspect me." Said Sho
"People…suspect us?" asked Teru. His aura expanded outwards…he didn't' feel anyone….but that didn't mean anything.
"No. I mean you guys aren't on the list…not that list, anyway. Ritsu's not on any list. I'm not sure about you." Said Sho
"That's….Ritsu at least is going to be happy about that." Said Teru. He wasn't….not that he would say so. Not now. He could keep his curse filled rants in his head for now. He couldn't fight with Sho and he couldn't kick Sho out, either. Shigeko was coming. Shigeko….he had to see her…even for a second. Even if he just kissed her and she had to run away again. He just had to see her.
"When's Ritsu getting here, anyway?" asked Sho
"I…am not sure about that. He's out with his family and that can take a while…anyway! I do, actually, have a Switch so if you're interested…"said Teru
"I'm listening," said Sho. He could kill time by playing whatever games Teru had. It would have been nice to have a new opponent. Big sis always let him win, baby sis didn't know how to play anything, Serizawa only played boring games, Fukuda sucked, Hatori used his powers to cheat, and Fukuda sucked at everything he tried. Playing against Teru might have been better….
It was.
Sure he only had FIFA.
FIFA was…better than playing games with big sis and Serizawa. Everything that they played had something to do with farming. Maybe they wanted to move to the country and start a farm. That would have been nice….but only in real life because real life animals were a lot more fun than virtual pets. Also chores weren't fun in real life or in games.
Big sis sure was weird.
So it made sense that she would like guy as weird as she was. Teru was weird. He had so much girly stuff everywhere and he drank weird tea and he even cleaned up their cups when he was done. That was the weirdest thing around. Why did he have to clean? He didn't have anyone to complain when the ants came. It made more sense to just throw your dishes and cups and stuff away and buy new ones. Big sis was going to be really happy with Teru, he figured, which was why Sho didn't kick his ass.
In real life, anyway.
"That…is not possible." Said Teru. He was slipping. He was going to go down a rank. He was never going to make it in the top one hundred…or even the top one hundred and ten. How in the hell could someone who had been complaining that FIFA was boring….how in the hell had Sho beaten him!? This was….breathe, Teru, breathe.
"Really? Seems pretty possible to me." Said Sho. Teru looked like Hatori did before he had one of his freak outs. That was another reason why he hated playing with Hatori….if Teru was going to go nuts over a game then he was waiting for Ritsu somewhere else. He was going to have to come into Sho's range eventually and Sho…well he didn't want to have to wait outside in the cold….but he didn't want to have to deal with another Hatori…one was enough….
What was with big sis and weird nerds?
"This…rematch! We're having a rematch right now…another one!" said Teru. This wasn't the first time they fought…played against each other….but it wouldn't be the last. Sho's victory was a fluke, that was all. There was no way in hell that he was stopping now!
"Fuck yeah! You and me, right now…head to….head…" said Sho. His aura had been out for a while, stretched out pretty far. It was December. All the Awakened were going to the big Divisions for the Christmas parties and stuff. They threw them even if big sis wasn't going to. Nothing really happened during the holidays…not in Japan anyway. He shouldn't have been able to feel any other espers, anyone other than Teru, anyone like…like…
There was no mistaking that aura for anyone else's.
"What is it?" asked Teru. His aura covered him…he felt…he didn't know. It was like there was something, someone, big just out the corner of his vision…his range sucked. It had always sucked. He knew that he felt…did he run? Did he hide? Did he fight? He….he had no idea what that even was…
"That's…my sister." Said Sho. Big sis had found him….and now she was moving. Fast. She didn't know how to teleport but she did know how to fly. Had she FLOWN here? He knew that there had been a good chance that she wouldn't have been able to cover for him, that the guilt or whatever at lying to dad would eat her alive, but he expected her to be able to hold out at least until nighttime! She was such a….why did she have to ruin everything!? Why did she…she didn't ruin things. She just did what dad told her to…he told himself over and over…he tried to stay calm….he had to…to run or…or to hide or…or even to fight her….he didn't want to have to fight her….but he didn't want to go home either….
…and he really didn't want to start breaking shit.