These apartments had very thin walls.

Tsuchiya wondered why Suzuki had cheaped out on their accommodations. Was real estate really that much more expensive in Shanghai than in Tokyo? Or maybe Suzuki just had the only soundproofed apartment in this entire building. They were living on the top floor, which was largely empty. Normally that would have been good, Tsuchiya was starting to get over the whole 'living like sardines' thing the group had going on, but now….well it would have been better if the walls hadn't been so thin.

And if Fukuda had watched what he ate.

"I think I might bring him over some soup later, or at least some plain broth. Something to settle his stomach." Said Hiroshi as he gave the walls a concerned look. On the other side of the kitchen wall was, presumably, some part of Fukuda's apartment. She had assumed that it had been the kitchen but if he was throwing up…well that is unless he had eaten one of those blue sandwiches Mukai had been offering people….

Poor Fukuda…but if he had eaten one of Mukai's secret blue sandwiches then he had only himself to blame.

"I'll make him some ginger tea after dinner, he needs it." Said Tsuchiya. She may not have been president of the Fukuda fan club but she knew suffering when she heard it. Ginger would clear that right up. It always did, well at least for her. Mom had always given her some ginger tea when she had gotten sick. It did the trick, even for Mukai back when she'd been a baby and had been suffering from that terrible reflux. Ginger tea….ginger root…and she'd bring him some plain toast, too.

It was the decent thing to do…and there wasn't enough decency in Claw.

"Sounds like it…poor guy. I mean, yeah, it's Fukuda but…I wouldn't wish that on anyone, well aside from Shimazaki." Said Hiroshi. She didn't blame him. Shimazaki was a very difficult man to deal with sometimes. Even Hiroshi had his limits…it was nice to know that he had limits. That he still had some sense as to what was and was not normal. It was easy to forget the rules the rest of the world operated by when you lived in the cloistered world that was the upper echelons of Claw. Being this close to President Suzuki…it was like reality distorted around him. Like his powers were so great that he was like a blackhole, almost, so massive that the rules of reality distorted around him…

"I wouldn't even wish that on Shimazaki…though I might be a little bit biased since he's so good with Mukai." Said Tsuchiya

"You really think he's good with her?" asked Hiroshi. He had asked that before. She got the feeling that there was something that he wasn't telling her…but that was crazy. He could be a very private person sometimes but he wouldn't just keep something secret. Something that she had to know about, anyway, they all had their secrets. If there was some reason why Shimazaki shouldn't have been watching Mukai, besides being an ex-yakuza member and the President's best hitman, then Hiroshi would have told her.

"He got her to put her own boots on without fighting. He's alright in my book." Said Tsuchiya

"Even after…." Said Hiroshi. It was sweet, really, how he looked after Mukai. Well everyone loved Mukai, of course, so she shouldn't have been looking too deeply into that. Mukai was adorable and, of course, he wanted to keep her safe. He was just…he was just a sweet man, it had nothing to do with her. He was just being sweet and overprotective. Well he didn't have to be. Tsuchiya knew that she had been very permissive lately, and that everyone else had kind of stepped up when it came to Mukai, but she was still Mukai's mother. She still knew best.

"I know what he is, what he used to be, but I think that he left that life behind. I mean his entire family, not sure if he meant yakuza or otherwise, got wiped out so he must be out of that life. I mean there's no way for him to get back into it." Said Tsuchiya

"Yakuza families are one in the same, blood and work, when you rank highly enough. Shimazaki was born into it and he managed to really climb the ladder before he got kicked out. You can tell by his tattoos, the dragons on his chest and back. Those are real, the rest are just things he put on himself….what's up?" asked Hiroshi

"Nothing. You just know a lot about shady people." Said Tsuchiya

"Well I've been in Claw for a while." Said Hiroshi

"That's all? No sordid past you're keeping from me?" asked Tsuchiya

"No, nothing like that. I mean I've done a lot of things in Claw but before that I mostly just worked a bunch of parttime jobs and took care of my mom. Nothing special." Said Hiroshi. She wondered how he could have meant that. Had he forgotten where they were? This was Claw. A normal life was a rare thing here, a very rare thing.

"How's she doing?" asked Tsuchiya. He had spoken about his mother, before, and only good things. That was a rare thing in Claw. She had never realized, before joining this group, just how many orphans there were in Claw…orphans and people who wished they had been.

"Same as she ever was. Yours?" Said Hiroshi with a shrug. He didn't want to talk about her, she could tell and she could respect that, too. He was a surprisingly private person at times. Maybe he did just it so she'd want to know more…no, no, no. She couldn't think like that.

"Same as they ever were…well I assume. They didn't take it well when I left the temple…they haven't even met Mukai yet." Said Tsuchiya. Mom and Dad knew about Mukai, shed sent pictures, and they hadn't come back with return to sender stamped on the envelope like so many other bits of communication had been. They knew her phone number. They could have spoken to their granddaughter, met her, if they had wanted to…they had made their choice like she had made her choice.

"I'm so sorry." said Hiroshi. Tsuchiya shook her head and finished chopping the vegetables. There was nothing to be sorry about. She knew what she had been doing when she left. She'd made her choice and now she was living with it.

"It's alright, I've made my peace with that. Besides, it could have been worse. I could have been a temple orphan, now that's a hard life. I mean I've heard it was. Takeuichi…he's got stories." Said Tsuchiya. She wondered how he was doing. He was back at the Seventh Division she'd heard…she wondered if he'd finally found what he'd been looking for. Enlightenment but also not, something that was both more and different, something that he had been looking for since he had been old enough to know about it…something that he often lost himself looking for…she hoped that he'd been eating….

"I'm going to assume that they're better than Shimazaki's." said Shibata with a shake of his head. Tsuchiya didn't blame him. Shimazaki was a very nice man, good with kids, and he did genuinely care about people….but he still had his problems. They all did. Some of them just had worse problems than others.

"Comparable…though he did tone them down for Mukai. That's something I don't really appreciate about Shimazaki, he doesn't…well he doesn't really understand the concept of what is and is not age appropriate." Said Tsuchiya. Mukai had all but ordered her to tell the 'stabbing story'. After twenty minutes back and forth she realized that it was one of Shimazaki's…one where he stabbed his father. From what she'd heard it had been well earned, his father had been a real piece of work, but still…not that best story to tell a two year old.

Nearly three year old.

She was so much older now…and also still so small. She was walking and talking, she had been for a while, but she was so sure footed now. The floor creaked with each step. She was so much better at speaking, now, she almost always spoke in full sentences. She was talking to her toys, now, she had been for some time. She always got excited before dinner. It was winddown time…getting to be winddown time. After dinner would come bath time, then stories, and then bed. Even on a holiday she wasn't going to take Mukai off of her schedule.

More so than she had been taken off of it already.

"Yeah…about that-" said Hiroshi. He rubbed the back of his neck and got flour all over himself. Tsuchiya tried not to laugh. He was so adorable sometimes. She covered her mouth, she was smiling. She shouldn't have been smiling like that, not at him….maybe she could pass it off as her smiling at Mukai…

She was adorable after all.

"I saw…I…see a panda and then I eat it and then I stab it and then I kill it…." Said Mukai as she paced past the kitchen, her phone pressed to her ear, her brow furled as she kept up her end of an imaginary conversation. Shimazaki had told her another one of his yakuza stories, hence her latest stabbing obsession. He had balanced it out by taking her to the zoo, hence the panda obsession so…it was alright?

She didn't know.

She was just happy that her daughter was happy. She was surrounded, once again, by people who loved and cared for her. Tsuchiya wondered if she ever missed their old lives at the Seventh Division. It was nearly complete, the reconstruction, and in theory they should have been able to go back. She knew that they couldn't, though, there was no way in hell President Suzuki was going to let Mukai go. She used to dislike him, a bit, for abandoning Mukai…but now she could see that he just felt like being lazy and skipping the baby stage. He never had to change a single diaper, get up for a single midnight feeding, deal with a single temper tantrum…he got all the fun parts of being a parent but none of the work…but there was nothing that she could do about it, no point in complaining….

It wasn't like she was unhappy here, anyway….or at least unhappy right now.

"So…I guess I'm making panda tomorrow night?" asked Hiroshi

"You don't have to make anything for dinner tomorrow night…you shouldn't even be helping me tonight. It's Valentine's Day, I should be making dinner for you." Said Tsuchiya. It took her two seconds to realize what had just come out of her mouth. Those had been the longest two seconds of her life. How could she have just said….she hadn't meant it like that! She…oh God, she felt like she was in high school again. Her face was red and her qi was pooling her limbs, ready to carry her away if she needed to run…but running would have made it worse…

As if there could have been anything in the world that could have made this worse.

"I really don't expect-" said Hiroshi before a pink nerf ball hit him over the head and splashed into the sauce…the sauce that had raw chicken soaking in it...Tsuchiya now knew what was worse. A tantrum. A 'dinner is late and I want to play with my salmonella ball' tantrum. A 'I'm not even three but I can yell as loud as a grown adult' tantrum….it was worse, objectively, but also…well also the distraction was nice….

"Why didn't you catch the ball! What's the matter with you!?" shouted Mukai as she ran into the kitchen. She came to a stop behind Hiroshi and pulled her hand back like she was going to take a swing at him. Tsuchiya grabbed her hand at the last moment. There was a brief glow of red, her qi, before she brought the other hand down against Tsuchiya's arm.

The one with her phone in it.

"Mama, let me go! Right now!" shouted Mukai

"No, Mukai, you know the rules. No hitting unless you absolutely have to, and you didn't have to hit Hiroshi…Shibata…just because he couldn't catch the ball. Now say 'sorry' to Shibata right now." Said Tsuchiya

"No! I don't want to!" shouted Mukai, her phone hand flailing around wildly.

"She doesn't have to say that she's sorry, I know that she didn't mean to-" said Hiroshi. She liked him, he was a nice guy, but he was way too soft when it came to Mukai. Sometimes Tsuchiya felt like she was the only sane person around….what is unless everyone else WANTED Mukai to grow up to be a spoiled brat.

"She needs to learn to apologize when she does something wrong." Said Tsuchiya

"But I'm sure she-" said Shibata

"Mukai, do as your mother asks and apologize. Even if you don't mean it sometimes it's best to preserve the social order." Said…what? Tsuchiya took Mukai's phone from her hand. She could have sworn she had let the battery on this thing die…that is unless Shigeko charged it for her again…and taught her how to dial numbers. Though, really it wasn't that hard these days and it wasn't like Mukai had that many contacts. She really shouldn't have had any contacts. She wasn't even three yet, she shouldn't have had a phone in the first place but her…her father…had decided that it was time for one….

And there was no arguing with President Suzuki

"Hey! Mama, give it back! Talking to Caterpillars!" shouted Mukai

"Mukai….I…" said Tsuchiya. She didn't know if she even had the right to tell Mukai to get off the phone with her father. She'd spent so many years, well only two of them, wishing that President Suzuki would have at least acknowledge his daughter's exitance now. He had done that and a whole lot more and…and she should have been grateful….

It was hard to be grateful when she had someone derailing every effort she made at parenting her own daughter.

"Touichirou? Are you arguing with a toddler right now?" asked…a woman's voice…a woman who was calling the President by his given name. She looked up, her eyes met Hiroshi's. He mouthed it, 'Touichirou' in disbelief. She let go of Mukai. She snatched her phone back and ran away, eager to get back to her conversation with President Suzuki and his….girlfriend?

Girlfriend.

That was….a thing. He'd been married before…amazingly enough. A woman had wanted to marry him, be with him, at some point. He had three kids, women must have seen something in him, though Tsuchiya had no idea what. She knew where Mukai had come from, some kind of love affair, and…and she knew that it could happen again. She could have wound up with another sibling…and a stepmother. Another woman trying to raise her…she was getting ahead of herself. There was no way that President Suzuki would ask her to step down…and even if he did then Shigeko would never have allowed it….somehow she was the one with power in this situation…

That should not have been reassuring but it was.

"So…he has a…girlfriend now…." Said Tsuchiya

"It's…reassuring. I mean at least we know he's human." Said Hiroshi

"I just can't believe that he actually found someone." Said Tsuchiya

"Well it is Valentine's Day…" Said Hiroshi

"It's a Valentine's Day miracle." Said Tsuchiya. Hiroshi laughed, suddenly, and loudly. The sort of laugh that she knew could be heard through the walls. From the other room Mukai started laughing too. The whole thing was just so…infectious. Tsuchiya couldn't help it. He was just….when he was happy, truly happy, it was a rare and infectious thing. Like some kind of exotic disease but less…exotic disease-y….that didn't make any sense and she was glad that he couldn't read minds.

"Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't laugh." Said Tsuchiya

"It's alright, I shouldn't have laughed." Said Hiroshi

"What, no, I love your laugh. It's like…I can feel it in my bones or…well that makes no sense…" said Tsuchiya

"No, it's ok. I get it. It can be kind of startling…that's why I don't laugh that often." Said Hiroshi

"Please, laugh, laugh as much as you want to. I love your laugh." Said Tsuchiya. Again, she put her foot in her mouth. If she had been the sort of person to hold onto things, to stew on them for years and years, then she would have blamed her social ineptitude on her parents for keeping her away from the world. She didn't, of course, she didn't blame anyone. She was a grown woman and she should have known to think before she spoke.

"I…I love it when you laugh too. I love…a lot of things about you, Tsuchiya. The way you laugh…your smile…just being around you." Said Hiroshi. There was a flush across his cheeks, now, like he'd been training all day. But he hadn't been. He had just been there…with her. She knew…well she didn't KNOW but…well she had suspected. She had suspected for a while now….and maybe he had suspected too. Maybe they had both suspected….or wanted…she didn't know. There was….well it was Valentine's Day after all…

"I…um…I love…I like you a lot, Hiroshi. Living with you, talking to you, how good you are with Mukai…I mean you spoil her but everyone else does too. I just…God, this shouldn't be this hard. I like…doing this with you. And I want to keep on doing it with you, Hiroshi." Said Tsuchiya. Fear was the killer. She wasn't scared. She…had never done this before….but that was alright. She liked him and…and she felt like she was in high school. She felt like she was sixteen years old asking the cutest boy in school out. Hopefully this was going to go better….

He wasn't running away…or saying anything….but not running away.

He wasn't screaming that she was weird and ugly and he wanted nothing to do with her. He wasn't screaming at all, he wasn't saying anything. He was just blushing and shifting in place…the floor shook….but she didn't mind. The silence, that was what she minded. She had said the wrong thing, again, and now…and now she had to deal with it. She was either getting a 'yes' or a 'no'….and….and she was prepared for either answer.

She could always move in with the kids, again, if she had completely ruined everything.

"You know….I…sorry, sorry, nobody's ever…ok. I can do this. I like you a lot and I'd like to keep on doing this too…if you want to." Said Hiroshi. She didn't know why he was throwing it back to her, she was the one who'd asked him…but….she was….ok. She was calm. In for four, out for four, and most of don't-

She laughed.

A nervous laugh. A happy laugh. The kind of laugh that cut through the atmosphere. The kind that could be heard through the paper thin walls of this building. She needed to apologize, later, not now. Now she would just enjoy the feeling of…of this. He wanted to be with her and…she was a grown woman, she shouldn't have been this happy. This was…it felt like a miracle. There were other things they'd have to work out, raising Mukai, their future living situation, what they'd tell the group….she could worry about that later. Right now she was just going to be happy. Right now she just…she was…alright. This was alright and she was alright and she wasn't going to-

She laughed again, a happy one, one that she didn't care if it could be heard through the walls.