On Valentine's Day you were supposed to give a boy you liked candy.

Mob didn't give the boy she liked any candy.

His name was Taro. He sat in front of her and he was tall and he ran fast during recess and he helped her when they were doing math in class and one time her apple fell on the ground after she took a bite out of it so he gave her his…and that was so nice of him. He was always really nice to her. Like the one time when they were in art class and they had to draw each other's portraits and he didn't make fun of her because her drawing wasn't that good and he drew her in a blue dress like Elsa's because he knew that she liked that movie…and also they held hands that one time…well the teacher paired them up for a fire drill and made them hold hands…but usually people didn't want to hold hands with her even though if they didn't hold hands and it was an actual fire then they'd end up all burning to death…but Taro had held her hand like it was nothing.

Which was nice.

People were mean to her sometimes. She didn't like that. Mean people. Well she liked everyone in the world, it would have been mean otherwise, but she didn't like the company of mean people. You had to choose your company carefully, dad had said, so that was what Mob did. She didn't hang around mean people…even though the mean people were friends with the nice people and therefore a lot of the nice people didn't want to hang out with her…

School was hard like that sometimes.

Being around people was hard like that. She didn't like to be made fun of. That was why she was Mob, nobody noticed Mob, because Mob blended into the background. Nobody ever…well they shouldn't have….made fun of Mob. Because she was unnoticeable. Even if she said the wrong thing and had trouble with math and also one time she accidentally tucked her school skirt into her underwear and nobody told her because it was so funny….even though in Mob's opinion it was not funny at all. Taro had been the one to tell her that her underwear was showing…which was bad because he was a boy and not her brother but also good because he stood behind her so she could fix her skirt. He was nice like that.

Mob liked boys who were nice.

When she got married, she decided, she would marry a boy who was nice. She would have married Sho if she could but Sho was her brother and that was outside of nature's laws. Her teacher had said so. Brothers and sisters were never supposed to get married because then their babies would come out with six arms and two heads. That would have been bad for the baby, it would have gotten made fun of if it was born with six arms and two heads. She wanted to have babies that would never get made fun of. That was why she wanted to marry someone nice. She wanted to be married to someone nice who would never make fun of her or be mean to the kids even if they were like Sho.

She didn't want to be married to dad.

Well she couldn't have been because he was her dad and also he was married to mom. She didn't want to marry a boy like dad. Dad was mean without even knowing it. Mob got enough of mean people at school. She didn't want to have to come home from school and then have her husband be all mean to her. No, she wanted to be married to someone nice.

Not that anyone wanted to marry her.

She wasn't even seven yet, she couldn't get married. It took a long time to get married. You had to get to know someone really well. That was why the marriage between Anna and Hans in Frozen wouldn't have worked out, because they hardly knew each other and she never realized that he was a villain and that he was going to let her heart freeze and stuff. That would have been the worst, if Mob met a boy and fell in love with him and it turned out that he was a villain. That would have been the super worst. That was why she wanted to marry someone nice.

Well if she had it her way she would have married Kristoff….but he was not real and you couldn't marry a fictional person. That was also outside of nature's laws. Her teacher said so.

But she wasn't ever going to get a boyfriend let alone get married. She couldn't even give the boy she liked the most in her whole class a chocolate lollipop even though it was Valentine's Day and she had asked mom, specifically, to get her a chocolate lollipop….though Mom didn't know the reason. No, Mob was not going to tell her mom that she liked a boy. If she told mom then dad would know because mom and dad were not allowed to keep secrets from each other and then dad would be made at her because she liked a boy who wasn't an esper like she was.

The only boy esper she knew who was a kid like her was Sho.

And she couldn't marry Sho. Actually being married to Sho wouldn't have been that great because then they would have to sleep in the same bed and Sho kicked in his sleep. Also they would have to agree on what was on the TV instead of having separate TV times. Yes, being married to Sho would have been hard. Even though, then, he'd go away forever because that was what you did when you were an adult. You never talked to your own family because when you became an adult you started a new family and one day Sho would meet some girl and she'd marry him and then he'd move far away and never see her again and then she'd be all alone in the castle.

She didn't want to be alone.

So maybe then it was good that she didn't give Taro the chocolate lollipop. Maybe it was better that she didn't get a boyfriend. If she got a boyfriend then maybe she would get a husband and then maybe she'd have to leave her family forever because she'd have her own family and then she'd have to be someone's mom and then she'd sleep all the time like her mom did.

So maybe she should just stay single.

Yeah, maybe that was the thing. To stay single. She was only in the first grade after all, she had years and years to find a boyfriend…even though she did like holding hands. She wondered what it would be like to hold hands with someone for no reason. Well not for no reason, for love, but not because it was a fire drill. She wondered what it felt like. Was it warm? Sweaty? Sticky? Boys had sticky hands sometimes…well Sho did…a lot of the time. Taro's hands weren't sticky that one time they held hands. He wasn't like Sho, though, because he didn't touch everything or keep candy and stuff in his pockets. It had been nice…actually…

She really wanted to hold hands with someone.

A boy. A boy who she liked and who liked her. They'd hold hands and watch the sunset and go for walks in the park and other romantic stuff like that. Then when they had been going out for long enough, ten or twenty years, they'd kiss…the thought makes her red in the face. Ten or twenty years seemed like long enough to get to know someone…to get to know someone well enough to…to kiss them…

She needs to stop staring at the boy in question while she thinks about this stuff.

Because her face is super red, now, she can feel it. She must have been as red as a tomato…and everyone must have known what she was thinking of…and they could all tell and she was so embarrassed and now he was coming towards her and she wanted to run away but her feet wouldn't work and her legs would work and her lungs wouldn't work and she was all hot and cold at the same time and-

"Mob, do you want to play with us?" he asked. Mob couldn't talk. She couldn't remember Japanese. Not a single word of it. Gone. It had all just poured out of her head like when she got water in her ears at the pool.

"We found an empty soda can and we're going to kick it around. Do you want to? We need equal teams for a game. We've already got Ito and Hiroshi and Ono and Seito. We used to have Nakamura but he's holding hands with his girlfriend. So gross." He said

"Um…" said Mob. She wanted to play, she really wanted to play. She wanted to play and…and she also didn't want to because she knew that she would say something dumb or do something dumb and she's so nervous that she feels like her stomach is trying to crawl up her throat…and she can feel her braids trying to float away….

She reaches behind herself and holds them down.

"Come on, we need equal teams. Man, I hate Valentine's Day. All the best kickers have girlfriends now…so gross. Let the second graders be gross I say, we in the first grade have better things to do with our time! Right, Mob? Suzuki?" he said. Mob tried to say something. Anything. But she couldn't. She could feel the chocolate lollipop in her pocket and it's suddenly super heavy in her pocket and she wonders if her pocket will break or maybe the chocolate will melt and then she'd be all sticky and gross and then she'd feel even worse.

"Come on, you're good at kicking things. Remember when we were playing soccer in gym and you scored that goal. I mean you scored in your own team's goal but that was still a really good kick. I thought that it was really good, anyway." He said.

"T-Thank you…" said Mob. She held her braids close because they were going to float away…she felt like she was going to float away. The only thing holding her down was her heavy school satchel. Thank goodness for homework.

"So, are you going to come and play?" he asked. Mob tried to say yes. Saying 'thank you' had taken a lot out of her. She didn't know if she had ever been this nervous in her life. She wanted…she really wanted to go and play…but what she wanted more was to give him the gosh darned chiclate lollipop in her pocket and then hold hands with him like the other kids, the bigger kids, were doing over on the play structure and by the trees….it looked nice. It looked really nice…..

"Well, is Suzuki coming or not?"

"Why are you even asking her? Mob never plays with anyone!"

"Yes, Princess Suzuki thinks she's too good for us commoners!"

Mob hated that last one, that last nickname. She liked Mob, didn't mind being called Suzuki, but hated being called Princess Suzuki. They had an assignment where they had to talk about their favorite stories and she talked about the one dad told her and Sho a lot. The one where he was going to be the king of the world and she and Sho were going to be the prince and princess of the world…which maybe she shouldn't have talked about. Maybe she should have just talked about their Hello Kitty book…even though dad said that Hello Kitty books were drivel.

"Come on, Mob, you can be on my team." He said. Mob…she wanted to say yes. She felt one of her feet start to step forward, she felt the word yes forming in her mouth….and she felt her face getting even redder somehow…

"Big sis! Time to go!"

Oh! Mom and Sho!

"I-I have to home now…Happy…Happy Christmas! I mean Valentine's Day! Just….bye!" said Mob. She turned really fast and ran to the school gates. Her shoes were slapping against the ground and she was slipping a little but she didn't care. She just wanted to go home and then never come to school again. She couldn't. She'd have to quite school forever. That was the only way.

Happy Christmas?

Happy Christmas?!

What was the matter with her?! How could she forget what day it was? It was Valentine's Day! That was the whole point of today! She was so dumb….and now he probably thought that she was dumb too and he'd never ask her to play again and they'd never be gym buddies or fire drill buddies again….and it was all because she had been so dumb….

"Shigeko." Said Mom. She said it in that low tone that she used when they were doing something wrong…oh. Her hair was floating. She had forgotten to hold her braids down…so she did that now. She held her braids down with her hands. She wasn't supposed to use her powers where people could see.

"What's wrong?" asked Sho. Mob shook her head.

"Nothing." Said Mob quickly. She did not want to talk about this with her little brother.

"Your colors are really bright. Are you mad at that kid? Was he bothering you for candy? Want me to beat him up?" asked Sho. He waved he box of candy in his hands around like he was beating up an imaginary person with it. Mob didn't want him to beat anyone up, real or imaginary, because that was not nice. Also a girl gave Sho candy, which was and was not nice at the same time. She was glad that a girl liked him….but he was way too little for all of that!

"Sho, no beating people up. Gentle, you're a gentle boy." Said mom. She reached down and gave him head pats. That was good. He deserved all the head pats. He deserved all the head pats in the world…and also all the chocolate in the world…but not too much chocolate because it had sugar in it and that was bad for you.

Besides, Sho was already the sweetest little brother in the whole, wide, world.

"But I have to defend my big sister's honor!" said Sho waving the chocolate box around again.

"You don't have to defend my honor, Sho, I'm fine. He was just asking me to play, that's all." Said Mob

"But your colors are being all weird." Said Sho

"That's just because of…of reasons." Said Mob. She did not want to go into what those reasons were with her little brother. Just…no. This felt private. There weren't a lot of things that were private between them, they still took baths together after all, and she didn't like to keep secrets….but she did not want to talk to her little brother about this. Maybe if he had been her little sister instead of her little brother it would have been different…but he was a boy and she was not going to talk to a boy about this.

"Bad reasons?" asked Sho

"No just…reasons….do you want a chocolate lollipop!?" said Mob. She said that last part really fast, too fast, but she wanted this thing out of her pocket now. Right now. Right now because it was getting heavier and heavier and heavier…

"Huh?" asked Sho

"A chocolate lollipop. I have one. Do you want it? I mean I understand if you don't. You already have that box of chocolates right there. That might be too much chocolate." Said Mob

"No, I'll take it. I'm not going to keep this anyway." Said Sho

"You're not? Honey, those are your first Valentine's Day chocolates. How do you think the girl who gave them to you would feel if she knew that-" said mom

"Why should she care? She gave them to me and now they're mine. I don't want them anyway. They have…I think they might have fruit inside. They're assorted and assorted always means that at least one of them has fruit inside…and it might be like, orange paste or something, to I don't want them." Said Sho

"If you don't want them then I'll eat them." Said Mob

"No! I mean….I think….I think that my friend would…would want them. Mom, can we go back to the park? Please? It'll only take a second." Said Sho

"Well normally I'd say no, we have homework to do and all, but since it's a holiday….yes. But not for too long, Sho, I left the oven preheating at home." Said Mom. She gave Sho another head pat. Mob was glad. She was glad that she had something for Sho, too, for Valentine 's Day. She had just been planning on giving him her desert, mom was making a cake since it was a holiday and she was feeling better. She had been feeling a lot better, lately, it seemed, because she was wearing her nice dresses and putting on her makeup and also playing with them. With Sho. Mostly with Sho…but that was ok. She deserved it. He deserved everything. He was the best, nicest, sweetest little brother ever.

And the most generous, too, it seemed.

When they got to the park the first thing he did was start running. That was normal for him, he liked to run around and stuff, especially at the park. Mob didn't run, no, she walked over to the swings. She swung on her own, she wanted to swing with Sho, but Sho was busy. He had ran right over to his friend and they were talking about….something.

Sho was very red.

His colors and his aura. She saw him, there by the sliding poles, when she went up. Again when she went down, too. She didn't know what he was turning so red for. He was just talking to his friend, Akira. The one he always played with when they went to the park. It was a 'no girls allowed thing' Sho had said. That had been kind of mean but mom said that sometimes boys were like that. Then mom let her have no boys allowed movie time when they got home and she watched a compilation of all the Disney kisses ever.

And it had been nice even if Sho spent the whole time making throwing up noises from the other room.

He looks like he's going to throw up now…and Mob is about to jump off the swing and make sure that his friend wasn't being mean to him or anything. Nobody was allowed to be mean to her little brother. They could be as mean as they wanted to her, that was fine, but nobody was going to be mean to her little brother. If they were mean to her little brother then she'd tell them to knock it off or else. Else being telling on them to their moms, of course, even though nobody liked a tattle tale.

But Mob didn't have to tattle on anyone.

Because Sho gave his friend that box of chocolate that he didn't want…and then he ran back to mom. He ran so fast that he slipped a couple times but he just got up and kept running until he got to the bench where mom was sitting and then he started tugging on her coat to get her to go. Mob stopped swinging and went back to her family. It looked like it was time to go. She didn't say anything, she just went back to mom and Sho and walked home with them.

In silence. Sho only talked when he told her that he was fine and that she needed to stop asking if he had a fight with his friend or something. She still asked again, though, and then something pushed her so hard she fell down. She pretended that she tripped even though it had been Sho who had glowed bright red and it had been Sho's energy that pushed into her.

She knew that it was an accident.

And even if it wasn't, well, he had told her to leave him alone. It was her fault for not listening. People got mad when you didn't listen to them. That was just how things worked. Sho would never have hurt her for no reason anyway. He was her little brother and he loved her and she loved him to.

And that was what Valentine's Day was about. Love.

And also candy but mostly the love.