"How do they make the dogs fall in love?"

Minegishi didn't think that people were meant to get quite so high on Constitution Day…but here they were. Sitting on the living room floor sharing a blunt with their boyfriend. They were supposed to be….what did people even do on Constitution Day? Think about their rights? That sounded like a complete and utter waste of time. If they were rights then why did people have to think about them? Wouldn't they just be there in the background? Why did they have to contemplate their God given….government given….Claw given….huh. They had more rights in Claw than they did as a citizen of Japan. They had the right to do this, for example. The right to marry whoever they wanted to, if they were so inclined. The right to inflict bodily harm on whoever they wanted to so long as they had a good reason. The right to one cup of jello with lunch at every Claw cafeteria…..they had a lot of rights…but this was boring.

Ryou's weird dog thing was better.

"Plates of spaghetti." Said Minegishi as they exhaled. How else did he think that dogs fell in love? He'd listened to the same movie they'd listened to. He knew what happened. The two animated dogs shared spaghetti with each other and then they fell in love…or maybe they just humped. Was that really that different from people now that they thought about it?

Did that mean that Suzuki's bizarre nightmares about the rat city was real too?

"You want me to make us some pasta?" asked Ryou. Minegishi shook their head. The last thing they wanted to do was get up, or lose Ryou. He was like trying to hold onto smoke, sometimes, like they were trying to catch it with their bare hands. They didn't know what they would have done with him when they caught him….but they had a few ideas…

But first the dog thing, since Ryou asked so nicely. Ask and you shall receive.

"No, I mean that's how they make the dogs fall in love. They obviously put out plates of spaghetti and then whichever dogs to the same plate and share strands of spaghetti are the ones in love." Said Minegishi with a shrug. Ryou passed them back the blunt and shook his head.

"Huh….but tomatoes are really fucking poisonous to dogs. Believe me, I know." Said Ryou

"Only the strongest dogs survive." Said Minegishi

"Toshi….that's dark as hell." Said Ryou. They hadn't gone to any place that he hadn't just gone to. He was the one going around talking about how one of the most beautiful scenes in dog love movie history would actually have ended in death…well that movie its self was dark as hell. Dogs getting put down in the pound, Tramp's whole pump and dump or whatever they called it in whatever era that movie was set….and this shit was for kids?

That movie was dark as hell….so there was nothing wrong with them going to dark places.

"For the love of….Ryou, I was fucking with you. Dogs don't actually fall in love, they just hump indiscriminately." Said Minegishi with a shrug. Ok, so they were wrong to have gone anywhere near the whole 'dead dog' thing but he had gone their first so…they had no idea who they were justifying themselves to. Maybe to themselves. They'd hurt him. They hurt everyone. They had been told, so many times before, that they were like a rose…and not in a good way. Ryou was deep in thought, they knew what that face was about. He was probably going to teleport away…or maybe he was going to come back with some nonsense about how dogs actually lived better lives than people. Well aside from the lack of autonomy of course.

"Aw…poor little guys." Said Ryou. They raised a space where an eyebrow should have been. Well then that was…interesting. A life spent running around, eating junk, and fucking indiscriminately. Not too far from the lives they lived now.

"I thought that you were going to say something like 'lucky bastards'." Said Minegishi

"No way, Toshi, I feel bad for the little guys. They never get to be in love and go on dog dates and have little dog weddings or anniversaries." Said Ryou

"True but, hey, there's sex. Good sex can make up for just about everything." Said Minegishi

"That's true. But sex when you're in love is just…you know something? Actually you've always been amazing so I don't know. I mean I love you more than anyone else in the world but also sex with you is really fucking amazing." Said Ryou

"I'm going to go off on a limb here and say that you're horny right now." Said Minegishi. The shook their head as he tried to pass them the blunt. They were getting up there…it may have been a vacation but they knew their limits. Besides. There were other things they could have been getting up to.

"Yeah, of course I am. You've got it going on. I can't see shit past you. You're just…it's like you're everything right now. You're the whole world and I like it that way." said Ryou. He reached over with his free hand and cupped their cheek before he kissed them. They kissed him back, of course. He was so warm….he smelled good, too, very good. He broke apart from them. Much too soon.

"I love you too, Ryou." Said Minegishi as they leaned back. He was watching them, now, they could feel it. He was focused on them. Their blunt was sitting in the ashtray now, burning down on it's own…they really shouldn't have been wasting it. They hadn't grown any in a while, so much moving around and all, and Ryou's contacts back in Tokyo were all dead. They leaned forward to reach for it.

"Hey…can I ask you something, Toshi?" asked Ryou. Minegishi shrugged after they got ahold of their blunt.

"Asking me if you can ask me a question is-" said Minegishi before they inhaled.

"Already asking you a question. Yeah, I know. I hang out with Mob too." Said Ryou. Minegishi was glad that they had already inhaled. They did not want to talk about Mob. They did not want to think bout her. They loved her and they always would but right now….well Mob could be very stubborn. Sometimes it felt like all they ever did was fight with her these days. She had this idea in her head, so many bad ideas in her head, and there was nothing that Minegishi could do to knock some sense into her.

They weren't actually going to knock some sense into her.

They weren't above smacking around enemies, Awakened, or people they just didn't like. Mob wasn't in any of those categories. They loved her but…but she was really getting to be a headache. It would only get worse. Mob had always been kind of stubborn but they knew that it would only get worse as she got older. She had stopped listening to them completely. They knew what she got up to with Ryou. She was jumping headfirst into party culture or whatever it was called here. Ryou should have known better…but this was Mob. When she wanted something to happen then it happened and, really, a lot of this was Minegishi's fault. They couldn't fault him. They could only fault themselves. So maybe Mob was better off on her own for a while….or maybe she was just better off developing a crippling videogame addiction and arthritis or whatever else with Serizawa. Which, of course, was the best thing that she could have been doing with her time. At least she wasn't out there at some club or whatever picking up guys trying to have a daughter so she could recreate the life she had always wished she'd had or whatever.

Damn it, Mob….

"What's the big question? Come on." Said Minegishi with a snap of their fingers. They didn't care if this was more of Ryou's inane, stoned, nonsense. They just did not want to talk about Mob or anything Mob adjacent right now. He had enough sense to realize that….right?

It was hard to tell with him sometimes.

Sometimes he could be downright thoughtful…and sometimes he could be a complete and total idiot. They got the feeling that they were dealing with thoughtful Ryou right now. He was quiet. That meant that he was either going to come up with something that he thought was profound or he was going to those dark places again. The ones that he spent so long trying to avoid…the ones that they both spent most of their lives trying to avoid….

They would rather have thought long and hard about their constitutional rights than the things that existed in that deep, dark, place…..

"When did you know you loved me?" asked Ryou. Minegishi…had not been expecting that….

"I…." said Minegishi before they took another drag. They had to. They needed time. How…did he just expect them to have an answer to that question just…floating around or whatever? Did he? Did he know the exact moment that he fell in love with them? They honestly…they were bad at this. They knew that they wee bad at this but….or maybe he was the one who was bad at it or…or maybe they were just lashing out because they felt cornered. Maybe this was their own stupid brain sabotaging their life again.

The stopped inhaling.

They were their own worst enemy. There was no other way to see it. They knew what they did, they knew that whenever they got too comfortable they ruined it. The other shoe was always ready to drop so why not just help it along? That had never gone well…well of course it hadn't. They just…it was hard, sometimes, and he didn't make it any easier. Asking them questions like that. Giving them reasons to worry about Mob. Making them feel this constant low level…

They exhaled.

They had to come up with something. Maybe the day they'd met…no, no. They hadn't thought of him as anything other than annoying. This really attractive but very annoying guy who'd been good for a night or two. It hadn't been love at first sight, that didn't exist. Maybe it had come later. Maybe something big and climactic, like their first big battle. The explosion…the way their powers had been useless….no. They had just been annoyed back then too. They'd had that situation under control and hadn't needed him. Maybe when they moved in together…or maybe when they decided to share a room. Clearing him out a drawer….or maybe it had happened when he had told them that he loved them. They hadn't heard it in so long, those three words, but….no. That had been more terrifying than anything.

He was still watching them.

"I don't know. Maybe a combination of things." Said Minegishi with a shrug.

"Same. I mean I think that I always really liked you but then it's like…like I was in love with you but I didn't even know it. Then I did know it. You know?" asked Ryou

"I guess, I don't know. Take your turn already." Said Minegishi. He listened, thankfully, and now maybe his mind would jump to something else. Even if they were just going to sit there and think about the dating lives of dogs or whatever else he had going on in that head of his.

Any moment now.

"Hey Toshi?" asked Ryou

"What?" asked Minegishi trying their best not to sound anything other than bored. He couldn't know how badly he'd shook them. They didn't want him freaking out…and they didn't want to explain themselves. Why did they always have to explain themselves? Why couldn't they just…be?

"This is hard work." Said Ryou

"No, it's really not. You just have to inhale. I'm assuming that after a lifetime of breathing you would have had it down by now." Said Minegishi

"Do you really think that people can forget how to breathe?" asked Ryou

"I've seen stranger things." Said Minegishi

"Oh yeah…like that guy in the Seventh Division with the weird voice." Said Ryou

"Be specific." Said Minegishi

"You know, the short guy with the voice where he sounds kind of like a robot but if a robot was a girl. I mean I don't know why robots need to be guys or girls but if they built one it would sound like him." said Ryou

"Wait….you mean Ishiguro? Them?" asked Minegishi

"Yeah. He…or I guess they, sound like a girl robot. I mean if robots could be girls but not, like, Siri or whatever." Said Ryou

"Well of course there are girl robots. How do you think that they get baby robots?" asked Minegishi sarcastically…and Ryou was thinking on it. Oh God, ok. They took the blunt and put it out in the ashtray. Right. They were both way too stoned for this time of day…or any other day.

"Do you think that computers can fall in love, in that case? And…and do you think that computers have as hard a time of it as we do?" asked Ryou. Minegishi blinked. A hard time? Things had been….well not great but not that bad between them. Sure they'd spent more time with Matsuo but they had never agreed to not being able to see other people. In fact they had come up with the opposite. They could see other people just so long as they didn't fall in love with anyone else. Those were rules they had both agreed to live by.

They liked Matsuo a lot but love…that was reserved for Ryou. Nobody else had even come close.

"I think that if computers could fall in love they would do it so perfectly that we wouldn't be able to comprehend it." Said Minegishi. Computer dating…they would have thought that it would have been easy with computers but they had been told that it wasn't much better. They were done trying to find a partner…and they had assumed that Ryou was done too. But he had been going on about this for a while….someone else?

Good for him.

He needed all the love he could get and if he had found someone who could put up with him while he was at his most needy then good for them. Ryou could be a lot so if he could find someone else, if he had someone else, then good for him. Everyone needed someone. Maybe he would get off of their back about the whole Matsuo thing.

It was a Constitution Day miracle.

"Yeah….." said Ryou

"Where's all this coming from? Don't tell me you met someone else." Said Minegishi

"Met? No, no, I didn't meet anyone new. Same old, same old…it's just…I've been thinking a lot about this stuff, you know? Just about how much work it is…work that I don't think I've been doing. It's just…I love you a lot but you're right, I can be needy and you don't do needy and that's fine. I want kids and you don't and that's fine. I like sleeping on the left side of the bed and so do you and that's fine. It's not about what you like or do or want or what I like or do or want or….or whatever. I just really fucking love you and the last thing I want to do is leave you. I mean you can be kind of mean and shit to me but…but that's just who you are, you know? I love every single fucking thing about you." Said Ryou

"I love you too, now knock it off. You're getting too much in your own head. Nothing good ever happens when you get this deep in your own head." Said Minegishi

"Yeah…you're right. Anyway you want to do mushrooms? I can make us tea since I know you hate eating them." Said Ryou

"What did I just say?" asked Minegishi with a groan. Well there went thoughtful Ryou. Nice to know him.

"That I'm too much in my own head." Said Ryou

"Exactly. No mushrooms or acid or anything else like that." Said Minegishi

"Alright, I'll ask Mob later-" said Ryou

"No you won't. You know she can't handle it. She couldn't handle acid last time so why in the hell do you think that doing mushrooms with her would be a good idea?" asked Minegishi. They wondered what, exactly, went on in his head sometimes. Mob on mushrooms? She wouldn't be able to keep them down, for one thing, and for another she was Mob. She couldn't handle it. She was already halfway out of her mind as it was. There wasn't any need to give her that final push.

"Well she was a kid back then, she's a lot older now." Said Ryou

"That was two years ago, Ryou, not exactly a lifetime ago." Said Minegishi

"Fine, fine, if you think it's a bad idea we'll hold off. You know more about this shit than I do." Said Ryou

"Good. So you do have some sense." Said Minegishi. Something else that they were going to have to look out for. Mob on mushrooms…she should have known better…but she didn't. She was at that age where all of her ideas were terrible but she was completely incapable of seeing it. No, in her mind she was all grown up and everything she did was right and smart….Minegishi shook their head. They did not need to worry about her now. She didn't want them to worry about her and there was nothing that they could possibly do to change her mind.

The only thing that they were doing was giving themselves a headache.

"I try…anyway, you want to lay down and listen to a book?" asked Ryou. He took their hand. Their headache dissipated some.

"Which book?" asked Minegishi. That sounded perfect, absolutely perfect. Just laying there with him…not talking or thinking…heaven. Pure and utter heaven.

"Your choice." Said Ryou

"Want to hear about hobbits again?" asked Minegishi

"Toshi….I fucking love you." Said Ryou before he kissed them. They kissed him back. Before they knew it they were on their bed, in their room. Ryou held them close. He was so warm and perfect…this was so warm and perfect.

They had no idea what they were supposed to be doing on Constitution Day but they knew what they wanted to do. Absolutely nothing. Nothing but lay there with Ryou and just….enjoy the day.