Sho knew better than to avoid a problem.

Fukuda had taught him that. When you avoided a problem it just got bigger and bigger until it was practically out of control. At the time Sho had thought that he had been talking about the time they rescued and mouse and it turned out to be a mom mouse and then the mouse had babies and then those mice had babies and then the next thing Sho knew he had been hiding suitcases full of mice every time they moved to a new safehouse….and then Dad had found out and told him to feed them all to a cat.

Sho hadn't.

Fukuda had wanted to. He had told Sho that it was better that way, that mice were cat food anyway to at least they weren't disturbing the circle of life. Sho, of course, told him that it wasn't going to happen. There was no way he was feeding his mouse family to a cat! The whole idea was sick and evil and totally something that Dad came up with! Fukuda had told him that if he had just listened and gotten rid of the original mom mouse in the first place none of that would have happened. He knew that he wasn't supposed to have pets but he had gone and gotten one anyway despite what Dad had said and, then, all that was left to do was take care of the problem that he had created before it got any worse.

'Problems always get worse if you ignore them.'

Sho could solve his own problems, though. Before they left he bought a whole bunch of cheese, hid it in the walls, and set all of the mice free in the safehouse. It had been a much better plan than Fukuda's 'do whatever Dad said' plan. He had been like that before, when Sho had been little, and Sho had always just figured that it was because Dad was terrifying…

But now he knew better.

"Hatori! I know you're in there and I know you're asleep! You don't get up before two!" shouted Sho as he pounded on what he was pretty sure was Hatori's front door. He had gotten the address from Serizawa after all and Serizawa didn't know how to lie. The Ultimate Five were still living together, not in the same apartment anymore but close enough to each other, so at least they were easy to find. Hatori wouldn't have moved away from Serizawa even if those guys had cut ties with each other.

Who else would Hatori have been friends with?

"Open the fucking door!" shouted Sho. He heard a door open, not Hatori's, and someone stuck their head out. Sho tried the lock with his powers, the door lock and the special one that Hatori always put on his door. Some kind of electromagnetic thing that could have kept a nuclear blast out…or the Japanese government.

They came for him sometimes, too, though they weren't nearly as scary as Sho.

"Hatori-" said Sho as the door swung opened. He looked up and was eye to eye with Hatori. He glared at him through his glasses, sleep stuck to the corners of his eyes. Sho had been right, he had still been asleep. He was still in his boxers and stuff. Not that Sho was looking. This was Hatori.

Who would have ever given him a second look? The first one was hard enough.

"Suzuki. You're still alive." Said Hatori before he yawned and stretched. Sho wanted to kick his ass and tell him that they didn't have time to wake up but he knew better now. He wasn't a kid anymore, he knew that you couldn't solve all of your problems by hitting them.

Just most of them.

"I need you help." Said Sho

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" asked Hatori, crossing his arms. That part was for the best, he was wearing one of those shirts with the girls' faces on it. Straight people were so weird sometimes. Sho liked guys but he didn't walk around with a bunch of guys finishing on his shirt.

"It's eleven fifteen in the morning, you know, when normal people are awake?" asked Sho. He even held up his phone to prove it. Hatori clicked his tongue and his screen turned to…his search history!

"Hey! That's private!" said Sho as he immediately shoved his phone into his coat pocket. Hatori didn't even have the decency to look guilty! He just rolled his stupid eyes behind his stupid glasses in the most stupid way imaginable-

Calm. Down.

"That's what you get for waking me. You know I don't get up before three." Said Hatori

"No, you don't get up before two." Said Sho

"That was before you imploded my entire life and destroyed the organization I devoted my life to." Said Hatori

"You're only seven years older than me, and anyway you didn't devote your life to anything, you're an orphan Dad found. If anything he devoted your life to Claw." Said Sho. Hatori made a fist….oh, right. Orphans hated being reminded that they were orphans. He didn't know why, it wasn't like Hatori hadn't had years to get comfortable with the idea of his parents being dead. It hadn't taken Sho long to get comfortable with the idea of his Mom leaving and that must have been much harder than knowing she had been dead. At least if she'd been dead then Sho could have had come closure and a grave to visit when he wanted to spend time with her.

When he had been young enough to still want to spend time with her, that is.

"Well 'if anything' you're the reason everyone on your contacts list just got a nice view of your entire search history." Said Hatori

"What the hell?!" shouted Sho. He felt his phone vibrate. He ignored it. He already knew what it was about…and then it vibrated again…and again…damn it! Now he had two problems to deal with.

"Serves you right." Said Hatori

"So I woke you up and you showed everyone my search history? How is that fair?" asked Sho

"No, you imploded my life so I'm imploding yours." Said Hatori. Sho wanted to kick his ass, he came close to it. He could see his aura. He took a step forward. Hatori took a step back. Part of Sho liked this, Hatori remembering how easily Sho had kicked his ass back during the uprising, but a bigger part of Sho, the smarter part of Sho, knew that if he kicked Hatori's ass then he'd probably never get any help and then he'd never be able to solve his problems and they'd get bigger and bigger and then the next thing he knew he and Dad would end up growing up together!

"Everyone already knows that I'm gay, I don't care." Said Sho through gritted teeth.

"Fine, truce before you break my collar bone again?" asked Hatori

"Truce." Said Sho. The bowed to each other quickly. Good, they were getting somewhere! Now all they had to do was-

"Now get out." Said Hatori. He put his hand on the door but before he could close it Sho blocked it with his powers.

"Wait! I need your help!" said Sho

"What makes you think that I'm going to help you?" asked Hatori

"We just called a truce!" shouted Sho

"Yeah, a truce. That means that we aren't going to ruin each other's lives any more than we already have. It doesn't mean that I'm at your beck and call. That part's over. Claw's finished, I don't work for your father anymore…I don't work for anyone anymore but that doesn't matter…just leave me alone!" said Hatori

"Wait! It's important! And anyway, you owe me!" shouted Sho as he held the door opened. Hatori was trying to close it, now, even though he knew that he wasn't strong enough. What, were things really that bad between them? Sho knew that he had beaten him up, and broken his collar bone, and his drones…but still! It had just been one fight, it wasn't like Sho had killed him or anything!

"In what universe do I owe you?" asked Hatori as he tried to close the door.

"Because we used to be friends." Said Sho. Hatori stopped trying to close the door.

"Friends don't fuck their friends over like that. Even your Dad wouldn't have fucked me over like that and we both know how much of an asshole he can be." Said Hatori. Sho nodded.

"Yeah…alright, I kind of did fuck you guys over but Dad was going to take over the world and-" said Sho

"I know, I was there. Are you done yet? I've got mining to do." Said Hatori

"I just need your help, ok? It's important. Like, world endingly important." Said Sho. He was practically pleading now. He was ready to get down on his knees and beg for help. If there was anyone who could have helped it was Hatori and…and after this he didn't know what he could do next. It had taken this long to figure out how to ask Serizawa if he knew where Hatori was without making him suspicious.

"You've got my attention. What's going on? Did I miss a Claw cell?" asked Hatori

"No…wait, what? You've been messing with those guys?" asked Sho. He knew OF those guys, the ones who wanted a piece of the pie that Dad had baked even though the pie was all rotten and burnt and filled with something gross like peaches. Sho had wondered when those guys were going to make their move. He had been prepared to defend the world, of course, all by himself if he had to…if it came to that. It wasn't like there was anyone else who could have helped him.

At least it had felt like there hadn't been anyone else who could have helped him.

"I've been finding them and turning them in. You know, their lives for mine. We aren't all kids, you know, some of us are old enough to be executed. High treason isn't the kind of thing that the government just forgives." Said Hatori

"They wanted to execute you guys? Why didn't you say anything! I never wanted anyone dead!" said Sho

"They wanted to but I saved us, thank you very much, and your Dad too. Not that I expect you to thank you do for that. He's not even going to thank me for that." Said Hatori

"They…they wanted to kill my Dad?" asked Sho. That…that didn't make sense. Well, it did, he pretty much broke every single law that there was, but he hadn't known that they still killed people and…and actually he hadn't really thought too much about what would happen to Dad after he stopped him. He wanted to stop Dad, get him locked up in prison for the rest of time, but not…not have him killed…

"Again, high treason. I managed to talk them down to life in esper prison, which isn't as bad a normal prison, but they stick a bomb in you and send you on missions too dangerous for even the JSDF." Said Hatori

"I didn't know that they did that. I just thought that they locked you up for the rest of your life." said Sho. They put a bomb in you…well, Dad deserved it! He was a jerk, an evil jerk, and now that he'd met Dad as a kid he knew that Dad had started off just as evil and just as jerky so…so there!

"Yeah, they do that too. So are you here to ask about your Dad or are you here to ask me to save the world? Because I'll help you with one of those." Said Hatori

"I need your help! I need…two things. The most important thing is I need you to find Fukuda-" said Sho

"Goodbye." Said Hatori. He managed to get the door shut. Sho hadn't been paying attention, he hadn't even been using his powers anymore. Hatori managed to get the door shut. He heard the electronic lock slam into place, and even the lock on the door just for good measure….

Damn it!

"Hatori! Come on, it's serious! I need you to find Fukuda for me, lives will be lost!" shouted Sho, maybe exaggerating a little bit. Or maybe not. He had no idea what would happen to him if Dad didn't get back to his own time, meet Mom, and then make him…gross….but no time to throw up about it now!

The door opened a crack.

"You're hurt?" asked Hatori

"Someone is." Said Sho

"Anyone I know?" asked Hatori

"Yeah…no…does it matter?" asked Sho. Hatori sighed and the door opened again.

"No, I guess that it doesn't…fine. I'll help you this once but that's it. I'm still pissed at you, you know. Everyone is, and that probably includes Fukuda." Said Hatori

"Fukuda's not pissed at me, he's the one who helped me put together my resistance team in the first place." Said Sho. Hatori shook his and held out his hand. Sho handed him his phone. It wasn't he could do anything worse than he'd already done.

"Here, I'm adding Fukuda's number into your phone and every classified Claw document I could save before your Dad had me purge everything. Read through all of that and then you'll know why Fukuda's probably pissed at you." said Hatori as his aura started to show. He glowed and then burnt out just as fast. Sho could still kind of feel him, there, just a little bit. He hardly had any aura at all when he wasn't using his powers…sometimes Sho forgot how weak he was.

How much weaker than Sho he was.

"Thanks…and, uh, I'm sorry I beat you up and broke your collar bone or whatever." Said Sho as he took his phone back.

"And my glasses." Said Hatori as he pointed to the tape holding them together.

"Fine, your glasses too." Said Sho

"And all my drones. Seriously, it took me years to collect that many. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get to any kind of a store when you're on the run all the time?" asked Hatori

"We weren't on the run, Dad just liked to move for no reason…but that's all that I'm sorry for! No more! You tried to kill me too, you know." said Sho

"No, I tried to stop you. I never wanted to hurt you. Come on, you're just a kid." Said Hatori

"I'm not a kid." Said Sho. He wasn't a kid, not now and not then, either. He was thirteen years old, not three. The only kid around was Mukai and she was still more powerful than Hatori! How could he have-

Sho stopped himself before he could sound even more like a jerk.

"Is that all? I really do need to go back to sleep, most of my work happens at night you know." said Hatori

"Just one more thing…but it's not about Fukuda this time! Or anyone you know." said Sho. Hatori made a 'get on with it' motion.

"Ok, so you know how you can hack into pretty much anything?" asked Sho

"I know how my powers work, yes." Said Hatori

"I need you to hack into a scientist's computer or the government or anyone else who would know about time travel." Said Sho. He braced himself. Hatori was probably going to tell him that he was being a moron, that he was crazy, that he had to get the hell out of here before Hatori cut ties with him completely…or at the very least laughed at him.

He did none of the above.

"You're just like your Dad, you know that?" said Hatori

"I'm nothing like him." said Sho. Sure they looked alike but that was it. He knew his Dad, as an adult and as a kid, and he knew that they were as different as night and day, or water and air, or…or hamsters and gerbils!

"Really? Because he had me look into the same thing once, you know. Back before the uprising. I mean everything was before the uprising but back before he had me start preparing for the uprising." Said Hatori

"My Dad, my actual Dad, Suzuki Touichirou with the red hair and weird eyebrows…wanted to go forward in time?" asked Sho

"No, backwards. Something about warning his younger self about something or other, he wasn't making a lot of sense. Mostly just saying that he'd messed up, that he'd been a fool, and then something about Atari games. I'm ninety nine percent sure he was super drunk. Either that or Shimazaki finally got him to do coke with him." said Hatori

"What?" asked Sho. Dad…drank? Sho had seen Dad have wine with dinner sometimes but he had never seen him drink in a fun way. Hell, he had never once in his life seen Dad enjoy himself in any way.

"I know, right? First of all Shimazaki is the last person in the world who needs to be doing coke and second of all your Dad…well, your Dad doesn't need any of that either. Bu that's Shimazaki. I'm amazed he's still alive, honestly. That kid didn't kill him, your Dad didn't send out a kill order when he deserted the rest of us, and Minegishi hasn't killed him yet-" said Hatori

"Enough about Shimazaki! Go back to the part about my Dad. He drinks? Really? You're not messing with me?" asked Sho

"You've seen him during Golden Week…wait, no, you haven't. That's actually a good thing now that I think about it. The stuff your Dad got up to…it's actually better that you don't know everything. For your own mental health." Said Hatori

"I know that my Dad's killed people." Said Sho. Hatori shook his head.

"There are some things a kid should never know about his dad and I'm sure as hell not telling you about them so, if that's all, please get the hell away from my apartment and don't come back unless someone's dying." Said Hatori as he closed his door. Sho let him.

He had what he needed.

He didn't need to know what, exactly, it was that Dad did during Golden Week that was so shocking, so appalling, so disturbing that Sho was in danger of losing his mind if he knew. He didn't need to know anything about Dad. He didn't want to know anything about Dad besides how to get him home…nothing else mattered.

He felt his phone vibrate.

Almost nothing else mattered. Someone was texting him…Ritsu. He took a deep breath and opened his messages. A bunch of question marks from Ritsu, Minegishi had blocked him…hadn't they changed their number…Ritsu's brother said that they were good friends but even friends needed to keep some things private…Serizawa asked him if he was being safe…Mom said-

He deleted the one from Mom. He didn't even want to think about what his Mom had to say about all of that.

He had a lot of explaining to do…he'd do that later. After Fukuda had done all of his explaining. Sho opened his messenger again and scrolled down until he found Fukuda's number, his new number, helpfully called 'Fukuda's new number'. Fukuda had just disappeared and…and it made sense, everything was still pretty crazy, he hadn't even known where Hatori had been after all this time and they had always been kind of close since he wasn't that much older than him. Fukuda…things had been different. Things had been…

They had been friends.

Fukuda had taken care of him. They'd been friends for years and then one day he'd just…just gone. Vanished. Left. It had made sense but…but now nothing made sense. He hovered over Fukuda's number. What was he supposed to say? Fuck you for abandoning me and not telling me you and Dad were friends? That wouldn't have been productive.

But it would have felt good.

He didn't say that, though. He wouldn't, he knew better. Unproductive conversations were a complete and utter waste of time. Dad had said…Sho was too old to still care what his Dad said. Back when he had been little, when Dad had been the coolest guy ever, when Sho had been the biggest moron ever then it had made sense but now…no. Nothing that Dad had ever said was even worth thinking about let alone putting into practice.

But telling Fukuda off would have been a dumb idea.

His thumbs hovered over the keyboard. He had to say something. He had so much to say, actually, but…but he couldn't type it out…maybe calling was better? But only people Dad's age called each other…which made sense since apparently Fukuda was actually older than Dad. Two weeks wasn't much but…but he didn't look as old as Dad and he had never said anything. Secrets…so many secrets…

Sho hated secrets.

'Fukuda, it's Sho. We need to talk.' Sho hit send. He was sick of secrets. He wasn't going to let anyone keep any more secrets from him, not Fukuda or anyone else. He was going to…he was going to solve one of his problems before starting another. He held his phone in front of himself as he walked away, fully aware that he was going to trip. He didn't care. His phone was telling him that he was almost out of storage space but he didn't care. He couldn't care.

Not when he had all of Claw in his hands.

He didn't even know where to start looking. There was, apparently, time travel stuff in here but also other secrets, too. People's real names, files before they got blacked out, lists of targets, Dad's personal projects, a file just labeled 'dirt', a file labeled 'good dirty', a file labeled 'extremely good dirt'…if Sho hadn't been in a committed relationship, and Hatori hadn't been so incredibly unattractive, Sho could have kissed him.

But he wasn't going to. He had enough problems as it was…but now, maybe, he'd end up finding some solutions too.