Sho knew that he was not supposed to be in mom and dad's room.

Not while dad was there, anyway.

Mom sometimes let him and big sis hang out in there with her. She also sometimes even let them sleep with her if they were scared or lonely even though they had each other. Dad didn't want them in his room, though. They had their own room, dad said, and that meant that they did not need to be in his under any circumstances. Sho knew that playing hide and seek counted as being 'under any circumstances'.

But this was a really good hiding spot.

Big sis would never find him here! They had been playing in the yard so that was where she would spend most of her time looking. It wasn't against the rules because they had never agreed that they would only be hiding in the yard. He was so going to win. The winner was the person who hid for so long that the seeker gave up. Kind of like the time he had looked for big sis for an hour before he found her on the ceiling. The only rule was no powers, no disguises, and no running around switching hiding spots.

So she could hire a hide and seek lawyer and he'd still have an airtight case!

He had the best hiding spot in the world and it wasn't against any rules! He was hiding in mom and dad's closet. He had been in here a few times but not for a while. There were so many boxes and bags that he had plenty of places to hide. There was nothing interesting in the boxes and bags. The bags were the hanging kind and inside were only mom's dresses and dad's suits. Sho used to think that he just never changed but, apparently, he just owned a million of the same suit. That seemed kind of boring to Sho. kind of really boring. This whole closet was kind of really boring. The bags were boring and so were the boxes. The big ones had papers and the little ones had mom's shoes in them. So boring….but such a good hiding spot.

Big sis would never find him in there!

Or maybe she would. Sho heard the door open and flattened himself against the wall. How had she found him so fast?! What, did she have super hide and seek powers too?!

"Touichirou, I don't want any servants or maids or nannies or whoever else you're thinking of hiring, ok?" That was mom's voice. Well that made sense, it was mom and dad's room. Sho crawled to the door and peeked through the slats. She sounded kind of upset…and she looked kind of upset too. She was folding up some clothes from the laundry basket. Dad was with her too but he wasn't helping. Sho kind of wanted to help, mom liked when he was her good little helper, but he also didn't want to lose the game…and make dad mad, too, since he was most certainly not supposed to be in mom and dad's room…while dad was there at least.

Sho decided to stay put.

He did not feel like getting punished that day.

"But you said that you needed help." Said dad. Sho had no idea how dad felt. He never showed it. Ever. Kind of like big sis. She showed it sometimes, which was good, but dad never showed his feelings. He looked the same whether he was happy that he got breakfast for dinner or upset that he had to punish you.

"I…you know, Touichirou, you can help me while you're here. Nothing's stopping you." Said mom. Sho knew that tone. That was the 'get off your butt and be a good helper' tone. Dad was to clueless to know what mom meant, though, and he didn't start helping right when mom said that even though she so obviously wanted help.

"I have no idea what you want me to do." Said Dad

"Well, what am I doing?" asked mom

"Folding clothes." Said Dad. Mom rolled her eyes. Dad couldn't see her rolling her eyes, her back was to him, but Sho could. Mom should not have done that. She said that he and big sis weren't allowed to roll their eyes because it was rude and stuff. It wasn't fair that she made a rule for them but did not follow it herself. It was like how she jumped on the bed but told them that they weren't allowed to jump on the bed. Parents sucked sometimes.

No, not mom. Never mom.

But dad sucked sometimes.

Like now. Mom needed help. She said that she needed help and when someone said that they needed help then you had to help them. That was how it worked. Even if you didn't want to help the person you still had to. Like when your sister needed someone to play dolls with her or when she needed someone to brush the other side of her hair for her or when she needed someone to taste her milk for her to see if it had gone bad. That was what people did, they helped each other out when they needed it. People needed other people.

"Yes, I am. Can you maybe, you know, help me?" asked mom

"You've never asked me to help you before." Said dad

"You've never offered to help me." Said mom

"So you have needed help, then?" asked dad

"Touichirou…I want help from you. Not servants, ok? You. My husband. I know that when we were growing up this was how the labor was divided….but that was then and this is now. I want…I want you and I to be equal partners, ok?" asked mom. Sho nodded even though mom couldn't see him. That made sense. Moms and dads were teams just like brothers and sisters were teams. Moms and dads were kind of like brothers and sisters except they didn't have the same parents and also kissed….well he assumed his mom and dad kissed. He had never seen them kiss but he knew that it was something that moms and dads did.

And it was gross.

The most gross.

"But we aren't. You know about these things, the home and the family, and here I defer to your judgement." Said dad

"Oh? You defer to my judgement?" asked mom. Sho didn't know what 'defer to my judgement' meant but he did know that tone of voice. She was being sarcastic. She sometimes talked like that with Fukuda but less….mean…if that was the word for how she sounded. Mom and Fukuda never talked to each other the way mom and dad did.

"Yes. When it comes to the house and the children I defer to your judgement. I have never once questioned the choices you have made for our children." Said dad

"What have I done that you find so very questionable?" asked mom in a low, mean, dangerous sort of tone. One that Sho found to be very out of place on his mother. That was not…she should not have sounded like that even if she was talked to dad and even if dad was being a major jerk to her.

"Having Sho at a hospital, putting the children in school, taking them out into the world, letting them share a room-" said dad

"If you had it your way we'd be isolated in this-this-this cage!" said mom

"This is not a cage. It's a house. You're free to leave at any time." Said dad. Mom made a weird choking sort of sound and her eyes got wide and watery. She looked like she was about to cry. Sho wanted to rush out of the closet and yell at dad for making mom feel bad but he also didn't want to be punished. He was kind of a scaredy cat like that…and he didn't like it at all…but he was so much smaller than dad was…and there was nothing that he could do.

"You want me to leave you, Touichirou?" asked mom. Sho watched her. She seemed sad and mad at the same time, there. He didn't want mom to go, and he almost told her to stay, but he stopped himself. He did not need to end up in trouble for being in mom and dad's closet…and being in trouble with dad was the worst thing ever. He knew that sometimes moms and dads left, that was called having divorced parents, and he also knew that some kids were orphans. He didn't want to be an orphan and he didn't want mom and dad to be divorced either. When you were from a divorced family you had to leave one parent behind forever…and he didn't want to leave either of his parents behind forever. Even if dad could be a mean jerk sometimes.

"What? No, of course not. I don't want that, I could never want that…and I don't know why you would want that. I provide for you. I give you everything that you could ever want. You and the children…I have made sure that you want for nothing in this world." Said dad. Sho frowned. There were a lot of things that he wanted that dad couldn't give him. He wanted powers but that wasn't something that dad could give. He wanted to never have to go to a school with uniforms but that was something that was unavoidable, mom had said. He also wanted a hamster but that was something that dad could, but did not want, to give him. For reasons that Sho could not understand dad did not like animals. He wondered if dad liked anything at all.

"….are you sure about that?" asked mom

"Yes. I would gladly give you the world and you are right to ask it, Masami. There is nothing that I wouldn't give you. Nothing in this world." Said dad. There he went again. He talked about that a lot, what was going to happen when he ruled the world. He was going to make it a better place for people like him and big sis, people with powers, and he was going to make the whole family the new rulers of the world. Then when he died Sho would be the boss of the world because sons inherited from their fathers. Sho didn't much want the world, it sounded like more trouble than it was worth really, and neither did big sis. Dad didn't care. He said that they were only children and that they would understand when they got older. He hated it when adults said things like that. What was so hard about explaining things so that he could understand them now?

"I want my husband by my side, ok? That's what I want more than anything else in the world." Said mom

"I'm right here." Said dad

"But for how long, Touichirou? How long this time? How long until you're gone for weeks and weeks and I'm here, all alone, with them? How long?" asked mom

"I have no idea when another matter that requires my immediate attention will come up but when it does I will attend to it. Building a new world, running my organization, it takes time. It takes up a lot of my time now but when I'm done then…then I can spend more time with you." Said dad. Sho didn't know how to feel about that. One the one hand he loved dad…but on the other hand he could be mean a lot of the time. He could be super mean and he liked big sis best…but he only liked big sis best because she had powers and he didn't. Because she was a better listener than him. Because she was more like dad than he was. Because Sho just wasn't enough of anything for dad. Because Sho was…because Sho could only be himself and the person that he was just was not good enough for dad.

"And when will that be?" asked mom. Sho kind of wanted to know that too. Dad had been talking about how he was going to fix the world and stuff for as long as Sho could remember. That had been five whole years, even longer, actually, since dad had been working on that from even before Sho and big sis had been born.

"In a decade or so, perhaps. I'm not sure. When the children come of age" said dad. Sho didn't know what 'come of age' meant. He'd ask Fukuda later or just look it up himself.

"So I'll have to spend another decade with you spending more time away from me than you do with me? Another decade of not knowing when my own husband will be home and when I will end up waking up to an empty bed?" asked mom

"Masami, I feel like you're….angry….with me…" said dad really slowly like he was talking to someone who he thought didn't speak Japanese. Sho hated it when people talked to him and mom like that. It was almost as bad as when people talked to him and mom through big sis. Dad shouldn't have talked to mom like that. Dad shouldn't have been such a jerk.

"I am. I mean….God, it's so hard talking to you sometimes." Said mom

"What do you mean? I say what I mean and I mean what I say. If anything it's difficult for me to understand you. I don't understand why you would be upset with me. I take care of you and the children. You want for nothing here. I cannot begin to understand why you're upset with me." Said dad. Big sis was like him, Sho decided, because sometimes he would be upset with her and she would act like she was ignoring him but she just wouldn't get it. That was why she was dad's favorite, they both had powers and they were both clueless.

"That's just it…you don't understand. It's like I have to spell everything out for you. Touichirou….I miss you when you're gone. I…even though you hurt me, and don't tell me you'd never hit me you know that I mean emotionally, I miss you when you're gone. It's hard for me being alone with them…and servants are not the answer! You just….even when you're here it's like…things used to be different. Back when we first met, back before Sho…and Shigeko. Back before all of this. I just…I miss that man, the man I fell in love with. I miss him." said mom. She was sitting on the end of the bed and she was holding her head in her hands. Dad was just sort of staring at her, now, and Sho could not read his face. Though he did not see very much through the slats in the closet door. Mom looked sad, though, and he was sad because she was sad. Dad didn't look sad. He didn't look like anything. He didn't even do anything. He just watched mom be sad….

Sho hated it when mom was sad.

"I'm right here." Said dad. Then he made a blanket float up and over mom's shoulders. She wrapped it around herself and leaned back. Dad at behind her and just let her lean on him.

"I…Masami….I'm right here." Said dad again. He still didn't have any kind of look on his face. He didn't have any kind of tone in his voice. Sho didn't get it. Mom didn't mean she wanted him back like he had gone on a trip or something, she meant that she wanted him to be the way he was before. Like how when he and big sis argued sometimes, rare as it was, she would say how she wanted her little babies back.

"Masami….I'm right here." Said dad again. Still in that same way. Mom just had her eyes closed. She had her arms hugged around herself. Dad reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes really fast and turned around to face him.

"Are you?" asked mom. Her voice was kind of quiet, there, like she was whispering. Sho didn't know what she was whispering for, it wasn't like she knew that he was there. If she knew that he was there then she would have told him to get out. If dad knew that he was there then he would have punished him.

"Yes. Masami-" said dad

"You keep saying my name." said mom

"I know. I like to. I like…Masami, I care for you…and I have never stopped caring for you. I don't know why you think I would. I know…I'm not as adept at conversation like you are….and I cannot afford to be weak-" said dad

"I think that you're a lot of things, Touichirou, but I don't think that you're weak." Said mom. She leaned really far back into dad's chest and she closed her eyes. Dad closed his too…and he had a look on his face then. He looked…happy. Kind of happyish. Not super happy like Christmas morning happy but a little happy, like you saw a funny hamster video on YouTube happy. It was weird. So weird.

The weirdest.

"Because I have never been weak around you." Said dad. He hated being weak. Sho thought that when dad said weak he meant 'having actual feelings' and stuff. Sho wasn't allowed to be hurt or scared or mad or sad or anything when dad was around. That was another reason why he liked big sis best, she never let those feelings show.

"I wish…you don't have to be guarded. When you're with me…you don't have to be guarded. You're always so…you're always so guarded. I know that part of that is….is the fact that you can't help the way you are. I know that you…you're such a pod person and you can't help it…and I just…Touichirou, I love you. Remember that." Said mom

"I know you do. You tell me at least twice a day." Said dad

"I know I do…and I wish you would tell me." Said mom

"I love you too." Said dad

"No I mean…you never initiate…anything. You never…this is the first time you've held me without my asking in so long…"said mom

"Is this what you want?" asked dad. Mom nodded. Her eyes were still closed and she was smiling a lot. She was hugging dad, now, and he was hugging her and Sho felt like this was something that he wasn't supposed to see but mom and dad…he had never seen mom and dad hug before. He hadn't even known that dad even knew how.

"Yes….I want this. I want…I want you to touch me without my asking. I want you to be there when I wake up in the morning and also when I go to sleep. I want-"said mom

"The order of events is reversed." Said dad

"What?" asked mom

"The order of events. You would see me before you went to sleep and then when you woke up. Not the other way around." Said dad

"Oh, you know what I meant. I want you here, with me, all the time. When you were gone…I was so hurt and lonely…." Said mom. Sho frowned. Why was mom lonely? He and big sis had tried to play with her every single day that she had been sick. They were always with her. They all lived in the house, together, and it could be big and lonely but they were never separated. Ever.

"Because I misspoke?" asked dad

"Yes and because….because you're always so distant from me. You never hold me or kiss me or…or help me out around the house. I want us to be…to be together, Touichirou. I want us to build this life together. I want…I want you to be there for me. I want to…I want to sit with you and talk with you and kiss you-" said mom. She probably would have said more stuff, a lot more stuff, and Sho wished that she had said all of that stuff that she had probably been planning on saying. He really wished that she had kept on talking. Anything that she could have said would have been better than what he was seeing right then and there at that moment in time.

Dad kissed mom.

Mom kissed dad.

Mom and dad were kissing.

Sho had never seen such a horrifying sight in his life. Kissing was gross. Disgusting. The worst part of every movie. Who would want to kiss? Kissing was sharing spit…and not in a cool way. Wrong. It was wrong pure and simple. Sho knew that mom and dad must have kissed before. He knew, well he had patched together, where babies came from. A mom and a dad kissed on a bed and then the mom's stomach got really big and then you got another brother or sister. He kind of wanted a little brother. He used to really want a little brother but now….well now not so much. It was one thing for dad to like big sis better, she was a girl and they were not super alike. It would be even harder for him if he had a little brother…also their parents would not divide up so evenly anymore.

And then there would be no room for him at all.

"Touichi….Touichi I want…I love you. I love you so much. I just…I want to be with you. I was so…I was so alone and so…I couldn't even get out of bed and…and I just…I'm sorry." Said mom. Sho didn't care what she had said, he just cared that she and mom had stopped kissing. There was no sicker sight then seeing your parents kiss. No scary movie, no matter how much blood and guts there was, did not compare to the sick sight of seeing your own two parents kissing. No. Parents were not allowed to do that. When Sho inherited the world after dad died he was making a new law that parents were not allowed to kiss unless it was to have a boy child and a girl child and then there would be no more kissing for the rest of eternity. Also no hand holding or hugging either. Actually moms and dads weren't even allowed to look at each other just to be safe.

"For what?" asked dad

"Just…I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry." Said mom. Dad was still hugging her. He was back to having no look on his face at all, which was better than how he had looked before when he and mom had been kissing and stuff…and Sho would never be able to forget that. It was printed into his eyelids. This was…this was his life, now. He would never be able to escape the nightmare vision that had been his parents kissing. It would haunt him until the day he died. It would drive him crazy. He'd end up like the guy at the bus stop who always yelled at the birds to get out of his house even though it was a bus stop and nobody lived there.

He would either go crazy or die. Whichever came first.

"Masami, I have no idea what you're apologizing to me for." Said dad. Sho hoped that mom did a lot of explaining, complicated explaining, the kind that involved her never hugging or kissing dad again.

"I just…just know that I'm sorry, ok? Just know what…know what I mean when I say that I'm sorry." Said mom. Now dad looked kind of…confused? Sho was going to go with confused…and it was so weird seeing dad make faces like that…almost as weird as it was seeing him kiss mom like they were in a movie or something…

He needed to get out of this closet.

But he couldn't. The closet didn't have any windows or a back door. He was trapped. Well and truly trapped. There was no escape. Even if he closed his eyes and stuffed his ears shut mom and dad would still have been out there and they still would have been hugging and kissing and nothing would ever make that not sick. Nothing.

"Are you…are you sorry that you were angry with me? Or that you were so…unclear in your expectations of me? Or that you're still being very, very, very unclear in what you mean? What you want? Please, I need something more to go off of than 'I'm sorry'." Said dad. Sho was fully on team lots of explaining. All the explaining. With charts and pictures and big, complicated, words that you needed a whole, entire, library to look up.

"Just…just kiss me." Said mom. At that point Sho closed his eyes and scooted to the back of the closet. One of mom's dresses had fallen off a hanger. He pulled it over his head and tried to ignore the fact that his parents were kissing. They were kissing and mom was calling dad 'Touichi' which was even weirder than when she called him 'Touichirou' even though that was the name that dad's parents had given him when he was born, so it was what he was called, but dad was called dad and mom was called mom and he was called Sho or Suzuki or Suzuki Sho or little brother and big sis was called Shigeko or Suzuki or Suzuki Shigeko or Big Sis or sometimes Mob even though that was mean and she was out there looking for him and he was in the world's best hiding spot listening to his parents kiss and-

And fight?

That sounded a lot like fighting…but that wasn't…moms and dads didn't fight like that…but that sounded an awful lot like fighting…which meant that mom and dad were fighting and there was nothing that he could do about it…nothing but listen…and he had never felt so small and powerless in his life…and he just wanted more than anything else to disappear and never be seen again and-

"Someone's here." The fighting stopped. That was dad. Sho stopped breathing. Had dad…he had been breathing really heavy…

"That? That's Shigeko out there. I think that she and Sho are playing hide and seek or something out there. They're fine. Everything's fine. Come back to bed." Said mom. Sho covered his mouth and kept his eyes screwed shut. He wanted to disappear. He wanted to be invisible. He had to disappear. He had to be invisible. He didn't know what would happen if dad caught him in the closet listening to him and mom fighting but he knew that it would be bad.

"No, I mean I felt another aura…at least I thought that I did…" said dad. Sho could hear the bed move and then some walking. He focused on trying his hardest to disappear.

"Are you sure it wasn't Shigeko? Touichirou, why would there be another esper here. You didn't send for anyone…did you?" asked mom

"No…and that's why this is something of interest to me. There should not be another esper here besides Daughter and I…let alone one I do not know." Said dad

"Touichirou…maybe it was nothing. I mean…why would another esper be here? The only person from work you ever have over is…is Fukuda. I mean…you go to people, they don't come to you. Why would one be here?" asked mom

"These attempts on my life are becoming tiresome." Said dad quietly. He was so quiet that Sho almost hadn't heard him…but he had…and he…why were people trying to kill his dad?!

"Excuse me? Did you just say 'attempts on your life!? What the hell, Touichirou?!" asked mom. He heard the bed squeak again and he hoped that mom and dad weren't back to fighting…

"Sometimes people…my work is my business." Said dad. Mom made a kind of upset noise. She might have looked upset, too, but Sho was not going to open his eyes and go see. No. He needed to be invisible. He needed to be so invisible that nobody ever saw him again and then he never had to ever remember what he'd heard.

"Touichirou…no. None of that Yakuza shit…oh God…you're not involved with them, are you?" asked mom. Sho knew who the Yakuza were, they were in movies that he and big sis watched even though they weren't supposed to. They shot people and stuff like that. Dad…dad was working with those people? That was…that was not good….

"Them? No, they do as they're told." Said dad

"As they're…what?! Are you seriously telling me that-" said mom

"Masami, please, don't ask me about my work. Nothing good will come of you asking me about my work." Said dad

"You…Touichirou…what do you DO?!" asked mom. There were a lot of footsteps, then, and Sho didn't even want to know what that was about. He heard cloth rustling and metal jingling, too. He wished that he were deaf. He hated it, hearing mom and dad fight, and hearing them being all upset.

"Masami…stop it. Just…stay here, stay in the house, and keep the children close. This is nothing that I can't handle. Just stay in the house, please…and don't ask me about what I do. The specifics of it. You don't need to know. Just know that I will always take care of you…and keep you safe. But I can't keep you safe unless you do as I say and stay in the house with the children." Said dad. He sounded kind of mean, there, like when he was telling Sho how much of a weakling and a disappointment he was.

"I…fine. Just…just do whatever it is you need to do." Said mom. There was the sound of a door opening and closing and Sho, well, he was proud of how long he waited before he left his hiding spot. His plan was to go and hide under his bed and pretend that he had been hiding there the whole time.

Of course big sis didn't believe him.

She was mad at him for cheating at hide and seek. He didn't tell her the truth. He had no plans of ever telling her the truth. He had no plans of ever revealing or reliving the fact that he had seen mom and dad kiss…or that he had heard them fighting…

No, he was taking that to his grave.