Serizawa had always liked the nighttime best.

Nobody was around. He knew that this sounded mean, even if it was just inside of his head, but he liked it best when everyone was either asleep or out of the house. It was easier to walk around, to leave his room, and just to…to be. It was like he finally had enough room to breathe. He didn't have that weight hanging over him, the weight of his powers, of what he could do to people with his powers if he wasn't careful. His friends were all espers, like him, but they weren't exactly like him. They had better control than him. They didn't have to worry about losing control and hurting anyone. They were so much better at this than he was. They were so cool, that was a good word for it. They were so cool and he just…wasn't. He was himself.

It was better to be himself all by himself.

The walk to the kitchen, alone, was usually a long one. Miss Suzuki got him up most mornings, she made sure that he had at least one meal with company. That was very important, she had said, so he could get used to people. It was easier walking there on his own, though, when it was nighttime. Mukai was asleep, he loved her but she was so small and fragile…and also she liked to jump out and scare people. Shimazaki and Minegishi were out somewhere, which was best, especially after how Minegishi had kissed him and how Shimazaki…well Serizawa knew that they were friends and all but Shimazaki could be kind of mean to him sometimes…a lot of the times. Shibata was nice but sometimes he was too nice…same went for Tsuchiya. She was a mom and mom's were ok but when he spent too much time around her he thought about his own mom and how he hadn't seen her in so long and sometimes it was kind of hard to remember that she was better off without him.

Sometimes it felt like everyone would have been better off without him.

Miss Suzuki didn't think like that, though. She said that she was happy for him, to know him, and to be his friend. He didn't understand it but he didn't have to understand it to understand that she was his friend, his first friend, and his best friend. He wished that she had been there. The kitchen wasn't so scary at night but it was lonely…such a weird feeling being lonely. He had been lonely for so long, for most of his life, that he hadn't even noticed how lonely had he been. It was so weird to be lonely now of all the time, when he was in a house full of people.

He didn't understand himself sometimes.

He didn't understand himself and he didn't understand this kitchen. He understood the part about putting things back where he found them and making sure that the labels were facing out, the last thing he wanted was for Shimazaki to wind up opening everything again because he couldn't find what he was looking for, but Serizawa just…didn't understand why things were where they were. He had gotten up looking for some kind of a midnight snack and found his whole cabinet full of…he didn't even know what. Mukai's toys, someone had hidden a bottle of wine, and what looked like part of someone's shoe. Why was it always his cabinet that got messed up? Why…no, no, no. He wasn't going to get upset. What would Miss Suzuki have thought if she had seen him getting upset like that?

He was about to find out.

He could see it, her aura, the blue and pink. She was close…getting closer. He wasn't that good at telling where other espers were based on their auras, he hadn't had the lifetime of practice the others had. He could tell that she was close, though. She was probably heading back to her own house. She had a party to go to tonight, her best friend's party. He felt sort of bad for her friends, the purple haired girl who was kind of mean, because she had been born so close to the New Year. Her birthday was probably overshadowed by the holiday. Miss Suzuki was so nice to go to her party. She was so nice all the time. Serizawa wished that she had been here so he could tell her how nice she was.

He got his wish.

"Minegishi! Please be home…" said Miss Suzuki. Serizawa gave up his search for a midnight snack. She was much more important. She was looking for Minegishi…well of course she wouldn't have been looking for him. She may have been his best friend but he wasn't hers and that was fine. She liked Minegishi better but that didn't mean that she didn't like him at all. They were still friends. He reminded himself that with each step he took.

It wasn't a long walk to the genkan.

"Minegishi….you're not home…" said Miss Suzuki as she took off her…socks? She closed the door behind her with her powers and was peeling off her socks….but not her shoes. Had she been outside without shoes on? She could do whatever it was that she wanted to do…but that was strange to him. Not wearing shoes…but there were places where people walked around with shoes on…but this was not one of those places. Honestly it seemed sort of gross to him, walking around outside without shoes on, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

She was his friend. He could never have been so mean to her.

"They…they went out somewhere with Shimazaki." Said Serizawa. He aura jumped when he mentioned Shimazaki. The rest of her jumped, too, after a few seconds. She jumped from the genkan right into his arms. He hugged her back. She felt cold….well of course she felt cold. She didn't have a coat on or any shoes, either. If she needed to be warm then he could warm her up, like people did when they got lost in the snow…before they froze to death…..but he didn't want to think about that part.

"M-Miss Suzuki…um…you're cold." Said Serizawa. He wondered if he should have hugged her back…that would have been a good thing to do…but her aura kind of hurt. She was breathing really heavy, too, and she was…he patted her on the back. She was really sweaty. Was she overheating? Or maybe she had a fever….oh no!

"I'm fine. I'm not fine. I-I'm here….I don't know how I am!" said Miss Suzuki. He hugged her back fully, now. He knew how she felt, not knowing how she was. How she felt. It was neve good, not knowing how you felt. If you didn't know yourself then how could you know anything? At least that was how he saw it…not that he was going to say anything to her. No, he just…he had to bring her fever down. Yes. He knew that he couldn't do a lot of things on his own, that she did a lot more for him than he did for her, but…but he could be there for her.

What were you supposed to do for a fever again?

"M-Miss Suzuki? Do you know…um…what to do for a fever?" asked Serizawa. He wondered if it still counted as helping if she had to walk him through what to do. He really didn't know. Mom used to give him medicine and bundle him up but he had no idea what medicine it had been and he had nothing to bundle her up with….so he was lost…

"I-I don't know…chicken soup? I don't know, I've never had a fever before. I don't know what to do besides get Fukuda…but I don't want to talk about him or to him or-or to even be in the same country as him! I want Minegishi!" said Miss Suzuki

"I….I don't know where they went…um….here!" said Serizawa. He let go of her and took off his robe. He was cold, now, and he felt all exposed and naked and stuff…but she was cold. She only had that dress on and it didn't look very warm at all. He covered her with it like a cape. She didn't put her arms through the holes…maybe she wanted to wear it as a cape…even though it was much warmer to wear it like an actual robe. Serizawa didn't know, though, if it was ok to tell her that. President Suzuki had said, before, that it was dangerous ground to criticize a girl's clothes and hair and stuff and Serizawa didn't like any kind of danger, ground or otherwise.

"What's this for?" asked Miss Suzuki

"You-you were cold and…and I think that you might have a fever! Because you're hot and cold at the same time…I mean you're shivering but also sweaty and…and you were out without a coat so you might have gotten sick and when I got sick then my mom used to bundle me up and…and this was the only thing that I had that I couldn't bundle you up with." Said Serizawa

"I'm not sick. I just did a lot of coke." Said Miss Suzuki

"Oh…alright." Said Serizawa. He didn't think that she meant the soda.

"I'm not…I mean I am cold…and….and I just…I want to change clothes! I want to change clothes but I can't change clothes because my house has my Dad and my brother in it and if I go home then-then I'm going to fight with them and-and I don't want to fight with anyone! I want to go…I just…I don't want to wear this dress anymore! I want to-to throw it away or give it to the poor or to the rich or to the people who-who-who….I want to give it to anyone who would want it!" said Miss Suzuki

"You can borrow some of my clothes!" said Serizawa. There, that was something that he could help her with. He didn't know why she hated that dress, it didn't look like a winter dress but it looked pretty. It was pink and girls liked pink…but he didn't know anything about clothes. He didn't even have that many clothes, mostly just pajamas and they were all his size and….and he should have thought this through! Of course nothing he owned could have possibly fit her. She was so small and-and-and maybe he should have….he didn't know what he should have done! She was probably mad at him now for being so dumb and-

"Thank you, Serizawa." said Miss Suzuki. Serizawa sighed. Good. He should have known that she never would have been angry with him. She liked him a lot, they were friends, and she would never think that he was dumb. He needed to stop thinking about himself. He had to think about her and what she needed…and right now she needed something to wear.

Nothing he owned fit her.

The walk to his room had been a short one. The house was a lot smaller, now, that she was walking through it with him. She led the way and he was happy to follow. He knew his way, of course, but it was nice to follow her. He would have followed her to the ends of the Earth if she asked him to. He kind of had. They'd been to the North Pole after all…farther than he ever could have gone on his own. If it weren't for her he wouldn't have been here, in Tokyo, or anywhere. He hadn't even been able to leave his room. Now he was going back to his room but…but he could leave. If she wanted him to leave he would leave and if she wanted him to stay then he would stay.

She asked him to leave.

He would have left on his own, of course, since she was changing clothes. She was a girl and he was a boy and even if she had been a boy then he would have left the room. He had never liked changing around other people. That was the only thing he was glad about, honestly glad about, that he had missed out on. He had been kind of scare of it, having to change in front of other people in middle school and high school. He had at least missed that part. That was good. He had missed out on a lot of good things, too, but at least not that. He could make up for all the good things he missed, though, now that he was back in society and he had friends and stuff.

It was good to be normal…sort of.

He wasn't all the way normal yet, he still couldn't leave the house on his own and he didn't even like leaving his room on his own…but he at least wasn't in his old room. He didn't live in the dark anymore. He lived in…well the hallway was dark but it wouldn't be if it was daytime. Nighttime was better than daytime…but any time was good when he was with his best friend. That was what friends were for.

Friends helped each other out, and built each other up, and also friends made sure that friends didn't freeze to death.

"You can come back now." Said Miss Suzuki, her voice carrying through the door. He hoped that she didn't end up waking Mukai. She needed to sleep, she was so little, and if she woke up then she would want to play with him and he didn't want…he didn't know if he could play with her right now. He had that feeling like…like he was moving too fast. Like the ground under him was moving and he didn't know where it was going but he did know that it wasn't going to stop. He just…he needed to hold onto something…and Miss Suzuki was the thing, the person, that he needed to cling to. Like he was going to be swept away….the last thing he needed right now was a little person who was trying to cling to him….a little person so small and fragile and helpless….

Little kids were kind of scary, sometimes.

Miss Suzuki wasn't scary, though, and she wasn't scared of him. She was happy to see him, she smiled. That was good…she nearly never smiled, not that big anyway. She smiled and, before he even knew it, she was hugging him again. He hadn't been hugged this many times in…he didn't know when. He hugged her back, of course, even though her aura kind of hurt. It was…fidgeting? That was the feeling he got from it.

It hurt but he didn't mind. He knew that she wasn't doing it on purpose.

"Are you…are you alright? I mean your aura is fidgeting and…and you're hugging me a lot." Said Serizawa

"I need to hug someone. I need a hug and Minegishi isn't home…but that's a good thing. It's good that they're with Shimazaki because if they were here then they would have seen Shimazaki hug me and kiss me and stuff and then it would have been weird…and also Shimazaki would have hugged me and kissed me. I'm so tired of people hugging me and kissing me." Said Miss Suzuki

"I-I won't hug you anymore! I didn't mean to, I mean you were hugging me first, and I didn't know that it bothered you. If I ever do something that bothers you please tell me and I'll stop! I mean I should know what to do and what not to do but there are so many things to remember and sometimes it's hard and-and I don't want us to stop being friends and-and I'm sorry that I hugged you!" said Serizawa

"No, no, I wanted to hug you…wait! Did you not want to hug me? Oh no…no, no, no, no, no!" said Miss Suzuki. She paced back and forth, now, and he just watched her. He didn't know what he could do to make her stop or if he was even supposed to do anything. This was…he was so far out of his depth here….it was like when he had really little and accidentally paddled into the deep end of the pool….

Hopefully this ended better than…than that day had….

"I-I don't mind…um…are you alright?" asked Serizawa

"No, no I'm not alright. I hugged you and…ok, you wanted to. That's good. I just….I'm so tired of people touching me! It's like…why does everyone want to stick their hand up my dress!?" asked Miss Suzuki. The room jumped, a bunch of his models fell off of the shelves. That had been his doing. Someone had…what?! No, no, no! That was…you weren't supposed to do that to girls! Nobody had ever told him not to do that to girls but…but it was one of those things that you just knew not to do! Don't steal things, don't mess with the stove, and don't stick your hand up a girl's dress! Someone had done that to Miss Suzuki…how could they have done something like that to her?!

He needed to keep her safe.

It was a thought. It started off small and got bigger and bigger until that was all that he could think about. Someone had done something terrible to her and…and he needed to keep her safe. He knew that he wasn't as strong as she was, she was a very powerful esper, but he was bigger. He was bigger than her and…and older and…and he should have kept her safe. He should have been the one who was there for her, not the other way around.

He kind of really sucked as a friend…even though mom had said that he wasn't allowed to say 'sucks'.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. I just…I should have been there for you and-" said Serizawa

"-it's like what I want is just…nobody ever thinks about what I want! It's like what I want is selfish and…and everyone just keeps on trying to kiss me….and I'm tired of it! I'm tired of people trying to kiss me and…and touch me and….and I don't want to be anyone's girlfriend! I don't want to be anyone or anything and…and it's just…Minori kissed me and Shimazaki kissed me and Minori's friend kissed me and….and I didn't even know his name! You can't just kiss someone if you don't know their name? Right?" asked Miss Suzuki

"Um…I've only ever kissed one person…and I knew their name." said Serizawa

"Exactly! But it's just…Minori said that I had to go in the room with him and he tried to kiss me and touch me and I wanted to go but then Minori was all…all being all….she said that I was being selfish and….and why do I have to kiss everyone!?" asked Miss Suzuki

"I-I don't know! I mean you're very nice but…um…I don't want to kiss you! I would never want to kiss you…um…but not in a mean way!" said Serizawa. He didn't know what he was supposed to say there. This was just…kind of a lot to take in at once. Her friend had kissed her, who was a girl, not that there was anything wrong with that! He was happy that she had someone who liked her and…and lots of people liked her. When he had been her age he had wished that people liked him, like in anime's where a whole bunch of pretty girls liked the same guy….but that was just him and that was just in anime. Also she was a girl and girls didn't like that kind of thing…he would have been scared if that had happened in real life….so of course she was upset! Of course she was going to pace around and….maybe she was cold….he knew how to fix that. Well he didn't have pants that fit her but he must have had an even bigger t-shirt and…and that was at least something that he could fix…

He had no idea what to do here and it certainly didn't look like she was going to be giving him instructions anytime soon.

"It's like…kisses are supposed to be special, you know? Like…I always thought that when I had a boyfriend, or at least a boy who liked me, that I would…that I would be happy and everything would be ok…but life isn't like that. Real life, I mean. I just…I don't know what I want. I wanted to have a boyfriend but now I do and….and I'm not happy and I wanted to have a friend my own age and I do, did, or…or just…I don't even know if she's my friend anymore! I've never not had anyone stop being my friend and…and it doesn't feel good and….and….I just…I'm tired of people touching me!" said Miss Suzuki

"I-I would never do that to you! Kiss you or touch you or…or anything and…and if I had been there then I would have kept you safe! I mean I don't know what I would have done but I know that I would have kept you safe because…because you're my friend. I just want to make you happy and…and to keep you safe…Miss Suzuki." Said Serizawa

"Thanks, I really mean that. I just…I don't feel good….that's all." said Miss Suzuki. She stopped pacing now. That was good. His eyes had been following her, back and forth, sort of like playing Pong with President Suzuki. They were both good and President Suzuki didn't like it when people let him win. So the games just went on and on and on. Back and forth, up and down, the sort of thing that could have given him a headache…

Not that Miss Suzuki gave him a headache.

He just…he didn't know what to do…not that it gave him a headache! He just….he wasn't overwhelmed. He didn't get to be overwhelmed. He had to be there for her. She was his friend and she was always there for him so…so of course he just….he had to do something. He didn't know what but…but maybe she would tell him….

It wouldn't have hurt to ask…..right?

"Is there…is there…anything I can do to help, Miss Suzuki?" asked Serizawa. She nodded. He leaned forward. She was playing with the front of his, her, his shirt now. Did she wanted a different one? Whatever she wanted he would do for her.

"Can you just…can you just be my friend? That's all I need right now. I need someone to be my friend so I can…so I can just….I just want a friend right now. I want a friend and I want to walk and I want some milk and….and that's selfish but that's what I want." Said Miss Suzuki

"I-I can help with that!" said Serizawa. He could and he did. He got her a glass of milk, that was the first order of business, and then he set up his seldom used Wii. He mostly just played that with Mukai since she could sort of understand the Wii Fit games. Miss Suzuki wanted him to be a friend and this was the best way he knew how.

He mostly just knew about videogames.

So much of his life had been videogames…he knew them. They made sense. They were easy, a lot easier than…well a lot of things. He didn't know, exactly, if this was what she needed but she was happy. She was moving like she had wanted to, said that she wanted to, and she was laughing and smiling…that was all he wanted. Her happiness and her safety. He didn't knew what else he could do. He wished that he could have kept her safe from what had happened to her but he couldn't. He just…he wasn't strong enough or brave enough or….or enough….but he could at least make her smile.

He liked those times the best, the ones where she smiled.