Reigen was officially out of his depths.

Usually when he found himself in over his head he found some way to bullshit himself out of it. This wasn't one of those times. There was bullshitting this, there was no lying his way out of this, no combination of words that could make this better. He knew, he'd tried. He'd been trying since he brought Teru home, trying since that first morning when he had to practically drag the kid out of bed, trying since that day he came home and found Teru laying down on the couch staring at the TV in the middle of the day when he should have been at school. He'd been trying and trying but nothing ever changed.

Not that he planned on giving up.

He didn't have the option, not now, not when it came to Teru. He wasn't going to be like every other adult in that kid's life. His parents had shipped him off to the other side of the world when he got too much to deal with, his teachers never questioned why they had never so much as seen one of his parents, and the Kageyama's…well, they were good people but sometimes they could be a little too open minded…or maybe they just trusted him a little too much.

God only knew why.

He was, by all accounts, a mess. He'd left a perfectly good job, with stability, to move here and start up what was essentially a business doing odd jobs. He lived in a shitty apartment on an even shittier side of town. He'd, if his parents' ranting and raving was anything to go off of, had wasted a university education and hundreds of thousands of yen and years of his life. No sane parent would have wanted him as a role model for their child let alone a caretaker…but here he was. Taking care of two kids that weren't his…responsible for two kids that weren't his.

Doing a terrible job of being responsible for two kids that weren't his.

He could hear the TV through his bedroom door. It was a little early to be watching TV, or late depending on the time….which he would now check. He rolled over and pulled his phone off of the charger…early. He sat up and opened the blinds. The sky was just starting to turn light blue. If it weren't for the buildings surrounded him, closing in on him, he could have seen what was probably a very beautiful sunrise. But it was what it was. This was his life and he had no choice but to live it…to take it one day at a time.

So that was what he did, he started his day.

He groaned as he rolled out of bed. He was getting old and he wasn't even thirty yet. Raising kids would do that to you, it seemed, stress was a killer after all. He stretch as he got up, wincing as he heard his bones and joints pop and crack, though grateful that it was all they were doing. He had enough elderly clients to know what old age did to a person. By the time he got there, sooner rather than later, he knew that a fifteen minute massage and a warm cup of tea wouldn't cure what ailed him. No, at this rate by the time he was thirty he was going to be getting around all hunched over with a cane if these kids kept aging him the way they were.

Not that he was complaining…out loud. No, that was the last thing Teru needed to hear right now.

"Morning Teru, little early for TV isn't it?" asked Reigen as he opened his door, fake smile plastered onto his face. Teru, by contrast, didn't even look up.

"It's early?" asked Teru, his eyes still trained on the screen. Reigen frowned and sat next to him. It was going to be one of those mornings, huh?

"Five in the morning." Said Reigen as Teru pulled his feet up and made room for Reigen. His socks didn't match. That wasn't like him at all. Usually not only did his socks match each other but also whatever outfit he happened to be wearing at the time, even pajamas…and he usually wore pajamas too. Usually sets but lately he'd just been sleeping in a t-shirt and pajama pants. Not like him at all but at least he'd been changing every day.

He had slept in this last night, too, and the night before that…not good.

"Oh." Said Teru. He reached under the blanket and pulled out his phone. Reigen leaned back and, subtly, checked his screen. Just to make sure he wasn't doing anything that he should have been worried about, of course, and…and he wasn't doing anything. A problem in and of it's self. Notifications had piled up on his screen. Usually he was good at swiping those away. He'd just let them all pile up and…and missed calls, too…from Mutter.

Reigen knew what that word meant.

He felt the hair on the back of his arms stand up. Teru was looking at him, now. They made eye contact and Reigen immediately sat back. He waited for Teru to tell him something about minding his own business or…or something. He didn't say anything, he just put his phone back under the covers and turned his attention back to the TV.

Another horror movie. Reigen didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"So, what are we watching?" asked Reigen as he turned to face the screen. He had seen this one before….right? He needed to watch more horror movies. Teru loved this stuff, well more specifically he loved expressionism in horror as he had said, and Reigen…well, as much as he hated horror movies he was going to try and make an effort. Teru was still doing one thing he loved and…and that was a good sign…even if he had been watching nothing but horror movies since they'd gotten back from the Asagiri job.

He wondered how many movies Teru had managed to watch in all of these weeks.

"Nosferatu I think, but the one from the 70s…it's not as good as the one from the twenties. They stripped it down to it's base elements and it just doesn't work…the color doesn't help, either." said Teru. His voice actually had a little life there. Reigen was going to take this as a good sign. He'd mustered the energy to complain so…progress?

"Is this the one with the bald vampire?" asked Reigen, latching onto anything he could to keep this conversation going.

"Yes." Said Teru

"Never liked that one, it's the teeth I think. Like a cross between a mouse and a leech." Said Reigen with a shudder, the one thing he didn't have to fake. He felt Teru stir. He turned to see Teru rolling his eyes at him….ok, this was maybe going to be a good day. Possibly. He just couldn't lose this momentum…God, why did this have to be a Friday? If it had been a Saturday then he could have opened the office late and taken Teru with him. If it had been a Sunday then he could have just spent the whole day inside with him…but it was a Friday and Friday meant school. Any progress that they made this morning was going to be erased by the last bell.

But he had no choice but to send Teru to school.

"That's the point. Vampires were parasites and…and kind of like zombies before the Lugosi ruined Dracula." Said Teru

"You know something? I never new that Dracula and Nosferatu were the same guy." Said Reigen. That earned him not only an eyeroll but also a scoff.

"They are and they aren't. Dracula's smarter than Nosferatu and he knows that there are other vampires in the world, Nosferatu doesn't, and also his plan his stupid. Even if he takes his ancestral soil with him he's still really vulnerable being that far from his castle." Said Teru

"Why don't we watch a movie you actually like?" Asked Reigen. Teru sat up and handed him the remote. It was unpleasantly warm. Teru had slept on it again. If he'd even slept at all that night.

"You can change it, I don't care. It just rolled over to this." Said Teru

"Fell asleep in front of the TV again? Happens to the best of us-" said Reigen

"No, I don't think that I slept." Said Teru. Reigen bit his tongue and nodded. He had to keep on smiling. He couldn't let Teru see how worried he was. Last time…last time hadn't gone so well. Teru had gotten this idea in his head that he was a burden and nobody wanted anything to do with him, which as fucked up as it was Reigen could have seen how he came up with that, but then he came up with something crazy about not having anything to offer the world. Now that was truly crazy.

"You don't have to be at school until nine-" said Reigen

"8:45." Said Teru

"Right, I was just rounding. You don't have to be there for nearly another four hours. You can get some sleep and I'll wake you at eight-" said Reigen

"It takes nearly an hour to get to school, longer if we have to try and catch the train during the morning rush." Said Teru

"We won't take the train, then." Said Reigen

"The bus takes even longer." Said Teru

"Then I'll call a cab." Said Reigen, wincing inwardly at the price of a cab during the morning rush hour all the way to Black Vinegar…but he could deal with it. They'd just make their own ramen at home, the store brand, and just…just not put anything in it. There. He could live like that for a while.

"That costs money." Said Teru as he laid back down. Reigen resisted the urge to sigh. If he sighed then Teru was going to know something was wrong and then he'd, of course, incorrectly blame himself. This wasn't about Teru even if he was kind of driving Reigen to an early grave with this. This was about Reigen. This was all his fault.

"Let me worry about the money, ok?" asked Reigen. Money. That was what had started this whole thing. An open call to any psychic not affiliated with Claw, a fabulous cash prize, and what should have been a simple exorcism. Something that either of the kids could have done in their sleep. Sure it had seemed kind of shady but the money from that job could have kept them going for the rest of the year and maybe longer if Reigen stuck to a strict budget. It should have been easy…but nothing was ever easy and instead of getting a big payout it was he who wound up paying.

No, worse, it was the kids.

"I have money, my parents sent my allowance and some birthday money too." Said Teru

"It's almost June." Said Reigen. He hadn't been able to keep the disgust out of his voice. May. Nearly June. They were just now sending the kid something for his birthday…and money. That was the kind of gift your distant great uncle sent. Cash in a birthday card…not even that, just a transfer to his bank account.

It wasn't like Teru was even a difficult person to shop for!

Really. Once you knew Teru you'd know what to get him. He lived for that soap place, Lush, and also that Korean one but he said that after the import fees it wasn't worth it. He loved shampoo bars but liquid soap. He loved conditioner but only the pressed kind and even then only the pink one that smelled like strawberries, sometimes the yellow one, but never the green one because avocado oil added too much moisture and weighed his hair down too much. He loved lavender, hated anything with glitter, unless it was subtle but not too subtle. If he was good on skin and hair products he wanted jeans from that one place he liked, the one with all the patches, but never a pair with rips because rips looked cheap. Shirts he was very particular about but anything in wisteria, periwinkle, and mauve was good…and only one hundred percent cotton or silk. Never a poly blend, they were horrible for your skin, and never that stretchy cotton because the quality was bad. If by some miracle you couldn't find anything new for him to wear he loved Starbucks but if you were going to get him a Starbucks gift card then you needed to get him some of those whitening strips he liked, too, because coffee stained teeth badly. If none of that was an option then there was always a new soccer jersey, but only for the teams he liked, or whoever he was supporting in either the coming world cup or whoever he supported in the previous one. It depended on how close to the world cup you were.

Seriously. What was so complicated about that?

"Better late than never, I guess, and it's nice that they remembered my birthday…or I guess their people remembered. The same ones who make sure I get my allowance…but I don't need it. You can have it." Said Teru

"You keep it." Said Reigen with a wave of his hand. He wasn't so hard up that he had to take money from a kid. Teru could spend his money on whatever he wanted. He wished that Teru would have spent his money. He hadn't bought anything or done anything in so long. Not even one of those dates he was always bragging about going on. Reigen wasn't entirely sure how Teru and Ritsu's relationship worked, if Reigen had been in middle school and gay and in his first relationship he wouldn't have wanted his boyfriend running around with anyone else, but he was old and this was just how the young people did things. He didn't have to agree with it so long as the kids were happy.

Though they hadn't been happy in weeks.

"You shouldn't have to worry about money but you have me…don't know why you keep me around if you won't take money from me." said Teru

"Well there's always the fact that you're the best roommate I've ever had. Don't forget about that." Said Reigen. Teru sighed and rolled over.

"No I'm not, I'm just some kid you got stuck with." Said Teru, his voice muffled by the couch. Reigen wanted to turn him around and shake him until some sense got knocked into him. He wasn't…well he was, but not in a bad way!

"Or maybe it's you who's stuck with me." laughed Reigen. It had been kind of a hollow sort of laugh, really, but he had been trying. Teru just sighed.

"No, not really. I can go back home whenever, my parents are still paying rent. They don't even know I'm here…don't even think that they'd care." Said Teru

"Well maybe let's not test that theory. I like having you around." said Reigen. He also liked not being in prison or jail or whatever they did to guys his age who moved in with kids who weren't theirs.

"I don't know why." Said Teru

"Because you're good company, you've got good taste, you help carry things on grocery runs, you're very tidy…is that good or should I keep going?" asked Reigen. Teru just sighed again.

"Whatever…it doesn't matter anyway. Nothing matters." Said Teru. Now it was Reigen's turn to sigh. He sighed and got up. Well, there was no way he was going back to bed now. Teru…was awake. He could see his eyes. He was just staring at the cracked leather, if it even was leather, of the couch…this felt like a bad sign. Reigen didn't know if he was supposed to tuck him in or pick him up…he seemed tired…but he wasn't sleeping…

Breakfast. Kids needed food.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm getting hungry. Any requests for breakfast? How about some of that health food you like? Steamed vegetables and an egg white omelet? With some of that fake milk to drink?" asked Reigen

"I don't care." Said Teru. Reigen's face almost fell there. Almost.

"Are you sure? What if I make us sugary cereal with full fat milk? Or those frozen pancakes-" said Reigen

"Breakfast shouldn't have the word 'cake' in it. No meal should." Said Teru, some life coming to his voice.

"You sure? We could have pancakes with syrup and whipped cream and-" said Reigen

"Do you have any idea what that's going to do to your skin? You already smoke and you never moisturize, by the time you're twenty nine you're going to look forty nine." Said Teru. That was the Teru he knew and loved! That was…was his skin really that bad? It wasn't like he was broken out or anything, no, that hadn't happened since he'd been a kid. Was it really-whatever, Teru was back! For a little while, at least.

"My dad and I can be twins in that case." Said Reigen with a laugh that, for once, didn't feel forced.

"You're ridiculous." Said Teru as he rolled his eyes. Good! There was life in the boy yet! He even rolled back over and sat up! He looked…not like himself, but this was progress. Sure he had bags under his eyes, and his hair was a mess, and he was in no position right now to be giving anyone grief about the state of their skin but he was up! Reigen knew, now, that progress was going to have to be measured in baby steps and taken one day at a time.

It may have been slow but it was, at least, some progress being made.

"I'm going to go get dressed now. You can make whatever you want as long as it's real food." Said Teru

"I'll survive." Said Reigen. He got the feeling that he was going to be steaming a lot of things that morning. Whatever, for Teru it was worth it. Even if he didn't eat food, he ate what food ate. Bland, tasteless, sugar free, low fat….it got Teru out of bed, that was what mattered.

Now it was time to get through another day.

And the most important meal of the day was breakfast. The first thing Reigen did when he got to the kitchen, before putting the butter back in the fridge…butter that he couldn't even remember taking out…was get the rice cooker going. You couldn't have breakfast without rice or…or things that Teru liked. Right, white rice was starchy and starches were bad. Everything good was bad. Reigen put the white rice back and pulled out…he didn't even know how to pronounce this. But whatever. He wasn't going to pronounce it, he was going to eat it.

Somehow.

Two parts water, one part this stuff, take it out in fifteen minutes. There. He debated putting something in it for flavor but thought against it. Teru had gotten up without much of a fight, that was good, no need to mess with how he liked his favorite non starchy grain prepared. No sense in messing around with how he liked his favorite eggs and veggies prepared either. Not when he was in this precarious a place, anyway.

Where that place may have been.

"One or two….three, yeah, three." muttered Reigen as he got to work steaming an egg white omelet. Three because Teru was a growing boy and he hardly ate as it was. He'd always been a bizarrely healthy eater, when Reigen had been fourteen he'd mostly lived off of chips and soda, but lately he hadn't been eating at all. Reigen had no idea if he was eating at school but most mornings he tried to weasel out of breakfast and he barely even poked at his dinner most nights. Not even ramen. Reigen didn't know what else he could have done beyond offering him his favorite foods and hoping for the best.

He knew when to admit that he was out of his element.

He knew, too, when to admit that he was in over his head. This was not one of those times. If he could steam an omelet he could figure out what to do with Teru. He just had to figure out what was wrong, first. He'd been possessed, that was the biggest thing, but all the resources he'd found about possession said that any lingering affects would have faded by now. According to something called the Rising Sun whatever spiritual contamination never lasted this long and often came with some kind of physical change to the sufferer. Teru looked normal. A little unkempt, kind of skinny, but he hadn't turned green or grown horns or anything.

Though some days Reigen wished that he had.

"Breakfast is ready!" called Reigen as the rice cooker beeped. These omelets were…done? He had no idea. Nobody was going to get food poisoning, that was the point. He heard the bathroom door open and close. He quickly plated them both up some health food. Teru wasn't going to eat alone, he never did these days. He'd just sit and poke at his food until it was time to go to school and then…well and then he'd come home and do the same. Not normal, not for Teru and maybe not for what happened.

Ritsu was fine, after all.

He hadn't gotten possessed but he'd been pretty much normal since what had happened. Reigen certainly hadn't noticed anything and the Kageyama's hadn't said anything either. Ritsu was Ritsu. Well, he was an unusually tough kid. Brave…pragmatic to a fault. Teru, on the other hand, had always been more sensitive even if he pretended not to be. He felt things deeply. That wouldn't have been a problem if he had just been able to tell Reigen what it was that he was feeling in the first place.

But no, aside from the occasional cryptic or self-depreciating remark he kept all of that bottled up inside.

"You want tap water, tea, or that fake milk you like?" asked Reigen as Teru sat down at the table. He looked…normal, if he had been anyone else, but terrible by his own standards. His uniform was wrinkled, his hair wasn't styled in any way, and his skin…Reigen wasn't in any position to be critiquing anyone's looks but still. That wasn't the Teru he knew.

He wanted that kid back. As high strung as that kid had been he'd been…himself.

"Whatever's fine." Said Teru as he sat down. Reigen decided to pour him a glass of that fake milk…how in the hell did you even milk an almond? Sugar free almond milk now fortified with something, he didn't know what, but whatever it was Teru seemed to like it. He took a sip as soon as Reigen put the glass down in front of him…and then he picked up his fork.

Progress!

"So, any big plans for today?" asked Reigen as he sat down and picked at his food, trying not to make that face he made whenever he saw something he didn't like. Huh, so his parents had been right, he really couldn't go around making that face as an adult.

"No, not really." Said Teru

"Soccer's after school today, right? Still planning on taking Black Vinegar to the world cup?" asked Reigen. Teru shrugged.

"It's the city wide championship, we're not eligible to be in the World Cup and, anyway, if we were it wouldn't be because of me. I'm not even that good. I don't even know if I like soccer." Said Teru

"You? Not like soccer? So then I imagine all those soccer jerseys in the laundry hamper then? And all of those soccer videogames?" asked Reigen. Teru just shrugged again.

"I started playing soccer when I was three because everyone liked soccer and I got good at it because people liked it when I was good at it. That's why I do everything I do, right? Because I want people to praise me?" asked Teru

"And what's so bad about that?" asked Reigen

"When you do something it's supposed to be because you want to, not because you want people to tell you that you're good at something." said Teru as he moved his food around on his plate. Reigen wondered if that was the malnutrition setting in, either that or Teru had gotten into his hidden liquor, and he didn't know which one would have worried him most…but he could deal with the hows later…and the whys. Right now he just needed to do something about this.

There was no way he was going to let Teru go around thinking like that.

"Intrinsic motivation is all well and good but it can't sustain a person." Said Reigen, slipping into 'wise mentor mode' as Ritsu had dubbed it. It hadn't ever worked on Ritsu, the kid came into the world headstrong, but Teru…well, he was looking up at Reigen at least and he'd stopped playing with his food.

"But it's supposed to." Said Teru

"Well, yes, but it's not practical. If everyone relied on intrinsic motivation do you think anything would get done? The tough jobs? People wouldn't scrub their floors or pay their taxes if their motivation had to come from within. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, that's all, because it's just what you have to do to get through another day." Said Reigen

"Yeah…get through another day." Said Teru before he ate a bite of food. Reigen had worried for a second that his message had gotten muddled but Teru seemed to get it…or at least feel good about it.

"But don't think that it's all drudgery! Like soccer, sure you play because you're good at it, but doesn't it feel good to play? To be out there getting some exercise…getting off the couch?" asked Reigen

"I guess…but I still shouldn't…I should be more than what people want me to be. If all I am is what people want me to be then…then it's like…" said Teru as he put his fork down. Nope, nope, they were getting into cryptic remarks now. Reigen should have known when to shut up, not that knowing when to shut his mouth had ever been his strong suit, but that just meant that he'd had years to develop the skill!

"Any plans after soccer? It's the weekend after all, you can stay out late and-" said Reigen

"No, not really." Said Teru

"Oh…but, wait. You and Ritsu don't have anything planned? I figured you two would have been all over the weirdos hanging out in town." Said Reigen

"You told us to stay away from those people." Said Teru

"Yeah but how often do you two really do what I say?" asked Reigen. He laughed, there, because it was funny. The fact that those two never listened to him…funny in retrospect. In the moment it was always terrifying but it was Reigen's place to be terrified for them, not the other way around. He was the adult here after all.

"We should. I mean I should. You take care of me even though you don't have to, even though you don't want me around-" said Teru

"And who the hell told you that? Because I know I sure as hell didn't." said Reigen

"Nobody had to tell me. I know that you don't want me around…nobody does. People only want me around when I have something to offer them, something that outweighs how…how 'me' I am. That's why nobody wants me…my parents and…and that's why she doesn't want me-" said Teru

"Your parents are a couple of…people who I am finding it very difficult to understand." Said Reigen. What he wanted to do was tell him that his parents were a couple of sons of bitches and that he didn't need them in his life. But he knew better than to model language like that for Teru even if it was true. If he condoned it for Teru then Ritsu, impressionable Ritsu, would pick it up too and then he'd have some explaining to do next time he saw the Kageyama's…and also cursing was wrong and all of that.

"They're the two people in the entire world who should be able to see what I see in you." finished Reigen

"What's there even to see?" muttered Teru

"A good kid. Someone who's a little high strung, and fussy about things that I have never known a fourteen year old boy to be fussy about, and a little but of a perfectionist but also a very good and loyal friend, an ambitious person who knows what he wants in life and how to get it, and the best damn roommate a slob like me could ask for." Said Reigen. Teru smiled, a little, but that was more smiling than he'd done in weeks so Reigen was going to take it.

"You didn't even have a drying rack for your dishes before you met me." said Teru

"I know, I was just leaving them out on my counter like an animal. See? You taught me about things like that. Your parents…they have their own reasons for what they did but those reasons have nothing to do with you and everything to do with them and…and as for 'she' why is there even a 'she'? If you mean that girl you, uh, went too fast with…well, these things happen." Said Reigen

"I think…I think that I might have loved her…but she didn't want to be with me and…and I know I shouldn't care, because she doesn't care about me and she has no reason to, but I do and…and I think about her a lot. She was there when…when it happened and…and she didn't even say anything…" said Teru. Reigen wondered how parents dealt with this. He knew who Teru was talking about and he knew why Teru felt this way…and he knew that he was on dangerous ground here. Heartbreak sucked. Heartbreak after intimacy sucked. Heartbreak after intimacy when you were way too young to emotionally handle either was the sort of thing that could color the rest of your life…but he wasn't going to say 'I told you so'.

Part of being a parent, or in his case the only parental figure Teru had, was learning from the mistakes that your own parents made.

"Teru…it's alright if you loved her. it's alright if you still love her now. it's perfectly understandable that you still think about her…and it's understandable why you two broke up." said Reigen

"Because she cares more about world domination than me…because I have nothing to offer her, nothing real, because nothing about me is real. Everything is just artifice and-" said Teru

"Whoa, hang on there for one second. Did your parents get one of those 'word of the day' calendars for your birthday or something?" asked Reigen

"What do you mean?" asked Teru

"I have never once heard you use the word 'artifice'. Hell, I've never heard anyone use that word in real life aside from my pretentious college roommate, but I know that you're not a world literature major, so what gives?" asked Reigen. Teru hadn't been sounding like himself lately and this was the worst it had ever been. The rest he could write off as Teru trying to sound older than he was or being clinical because he wanted to detach from whatever it was that he had been feeling, but that…that was not Teru talking.

He shifted in his seat. He looked away. His fork bent…something was on his mind.

"Or hey, maybe you picked it up from school. It's just not something that comes up in conversation, that's all." said Reigen

"I didn't pick it up at school. It's just…just what I am. I try to change myself, to be better, by fixing my hair and putting on nice clothes and just…being someone I'm not…and I do that because I'm not…not anything. That's why she'd rather run an evil organization of…of evil people than be with me." said Teru

"Teru, no. You were twelve, she was twelve, and both of you got up to something that twelve year olds are in no way ready for. That's it. Most people don't wind up with the person they were…they were intimate with for the first time. I mean, you don't see my high school girlfriend hanging out around here, do you?" asked Reigen

"No, but I just figured that you were too busy and too broke to have a girlfriend. I mean it's not hard, getting girls to like you." said Teru. Reigen took a deep breath and kept going. His love life was not what they were there to address.

"Exactly. Finding someone to like you isn't hard. Finding someone to love you, to be in at least a long term relationship, is. You're going to be with a lot of people, Teru, and you're going to get your heart broken a few times and break a few along the way, too. Hopefully you get to that when you're old enough to process what you're feeling and hopefully when you do you have someone in your life who sees you for who you are and doesn't put you down like I'm assuming someone is." Said Reigen. Teru hadn't come up with this on his own, no, someone must have been picking on him…but why like that? Reigen had been a middle schooler once, guys didn't break you down like this. They just beat you up, took your money, and tore your homework up. Whoever had done this to Teru knew him and wanted him to suffer…and didn't know when they were going too far…

He had a suspect.

"And if that someone is who I think he is then he and I are going to have a nice, long, master to student talk." Said Reigen. Ritsu could be cold, and ruthless, and downright scary sometimes. He also had a serious problem when it came to fighting with other people. He'd been kicked out of early placement after all and sent back down to elementary school for 'not being emotionally mature enough' as Mrs. Kageyama had quietly informed him. Ritsu could get downright vicious when he felt threatened…and he had ever reason to feel threatened when it came to this…when it came to that other girl. When it came to any girl.

Reigen had wondered so many times how that worked, an open relationship when both people were that young, and it turned out that it didn't.

"Master to…oh, you mean Ritsu. No, Ritsu hasn't said anything like that…but I know that he's thinking it. If I hadn't had my powers then we never would have met…never would have been friends. Never even spoken. Without my powers…without my clothes…my looks…I'm not anything. Just this…this…not even a person. Everything I do is because someone else praises me and…and inside I'm-" said Teru

"Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus with a few other minerals and elements." Said Reigen with a wave of his hand. Teru was looking at him like he had two heads…what? Did the kids not read the one about the alchemists anymore?

"What?" asked Teru

"What I mean is that you're just as human as everyone else, alright? You're not nothing and if someone is telling you that you are then you just point them in my direction and I'll straighten them out." Said Reigen. Someone was saying these things…someone was going to pay, plain and simple. Teru didn't need this in his life. He had enough going on…the poor kid…but Reigen could help. That was what he did at the end of the day, he helped people, even when he didn't exactly know what he was doing.

Though, maybe, this would take a little more than a handful of salt and some words he borrowed from movies.

Nobody had ever said that this would be easy, in fact they always said the direct opposite, and Reigen…well, he knew that there were some things he couldn't talk his way out of. Like whatever was going on with Teru, so he tried his best. Teru was bound to bounce back eventually. Reigen would just have to figure something out because clearly this wasn't working…or maybe it was. Teru had been more animated than normal that morning and he'd even gone to school without any complaints. Normally he said that skipping wouldn't be so bad, that nobody cared if he went to school anyway, that people only noticed him when he wanted them to anyway…and then some troubling stuff about how there was nothing about him worth noticing. Troubling things that troubled Reigen in a very troublesome manner.

Reigen was the last…second to last person that all of this should have troubled.

He'd done his best when Teru had been around, before they'd parted ways with Teru off to school and him off to work, to keep cool. Keep calm. Keep the thoughts of Teru's parents from his mind. He was normally good at not breaking character but those people, if they could even have been called people, were the one thing that could put him over the edge. He didn't know how they could have abandoned a kid like Teru, or any kid for that matter. Even his own dad had managed to come around for birthdays and holidays after his parents had split. Teru's parents didn't even have the whole 'bitter divorce' excuse. They just didn't want to deal with him.

Some people shouldn't have been allowed to have kids.

But Reigen wasn't one of them. He was going to do a better job than Teru's parents, he had to, and he was going to clean up the mess that they'd made. He didn't know why all of this had come on so suddenly but he knew where Teru's fear of rejection came from. Reigen didn't even need to call upon his two and half semesters of psychology to know that rejection was rough on a kid. Whatever that spirit had done to him had exacerbated what had already been there…what Reigen should have done more to exorcise…but it wasn't easy.

Nothing worth doing was easy.

He'd read that on a fortune cookie once and filed it away to use later. There was nothing wrong with looking to the cookie, not when it contained important bits of wisdom that he could pull out on the fly to look wiser than he was. He wished that they made a cookie with wisdom, any at all, as to what to do when your fourteen year old roommate/kid you looked after possessed and then came out of it with no self esteem. But this wasn't the kind of thing that you could get from cookies, no, and the internet was only somewhat helpful. In the little free time he had during the day, he was beginning to believe his own nonsense about back pain spirits, he scoured the internet trying to get something that could help Teru, anything…

So far all he came up with was salt.

Salt, prayers, incense, some stuff with garlic…and now he'd wandered over to the vampire protection section. He'd tried everything, everything but the garlic, but Teru hadn't gotten bitten by a vampire….if they were even real…he hit the back button before he could get pulled into a vampire hunting rabbit hole. None of that, Teru was the one in middle school, not him…a middle school that would be out soon…where had the time gone? It had been such a busy day, which should have been a good thing, but this thing with Teru was more pressing than keeping the lights on!

The lights flickered.

"Or…not?" asked Reigen. Spirits walked among them though they didn't often come here. Ritsu and Teru scared them off. Reigen hoped to God that nothing had wandered in and was waiting to…what? Finish the job? Teru didn't need that again. He got up and eyed the lights…they flickered again. He jumped up and hit them. Percussive maintenance worked on everything else around here…though not in this case. He just made it worse. The office was filled with the sound of footsteps. He took a breath and reached into his pockets. The salt had never worked before but…but it wasn't like there was anything else that he could have done.

He glanced at the clock. School was out…and he should not have been so dependent on a couple of kids for protection.

"Hello?" asked Reigen. He was cold. He didn't know if that came from within, the terrible air conditioning, or a spirit waiting to devour him. It had been downright freezing back when…back in that room. He had even been able to see his breath at times. It had been cold and…and he was shivering again now…

The sound got closer.

He grabbed a handful of salt and held it tightly in his hand, ready to pelt whatever spirit it was that had wandered in. He could vaguely hear Teru's voice in his mind telling him that all of this salt was bad for his skin…and also that this was stupid…wait. He could actually hear Teru and Ritsu…he checked the clock again. School had just let out. Unless they had called a cab there was no way for them to have gotten here in time and….

And with a friend?

The door was thrown open and the next thing Reigen knew he was looking at Ritsu, Teru, and…and a very familiar looking redhead. He knew that redhead. That was the kid from Claw! The kid from the kidnapping and…and the salt slipped between his fingers and onto the floor. He couldn't breathe. He knew that he had been seeing a lot of those red pajama weirdos around town but they were pretty active in May. They hung blue balloons and streamers around town, harmless things like that, and sometimes they sang Disney songs…but as stupid as they acted Reigen knew fully well that they weren't harmless…not if that kid was here…all of the kids…

…and they were all shouting at once.

For once he was speechless, for once he was lost, and for once…for once he didn't want to admit that he was out of his depth.