Sho did not like to take baths.

Mob didn't really mind.

"Sho, lift your arms." Said Mob. She didn't really mind bath time but she did miss bathing outside of Japan. Mom had never scrubbed them down before they got in the tub. When they had been little she and Sho hadn't thought that it was weird. Not until Mob got to grade school, anyway, and the other kids said that they scrubbed down before they got in the tub. Mom said that because one of her parents wasn't Japanese she had never gotten used to scrubbing down before a bath so she never scrubbed Mob and Sho down before a bath.

She tried, sometimes, but Sho would not stand for it.

Like now.

"No. This is so stupid. We just took a bath yesterday. We haven't even gone outside so we're not that dirty." Said Sho. He had never been a big fan of bath time. Even before all the stuff that had happened to him, the stuff with the water, he had never been a fan of bath time. It was just so boring. Even with bubbles and bath bombs it was so boring. Just sitting in a warm tub of water with his sister. He could think of fifty different things to do, fun things, that didn't involve getting in the tub.

Or standing in an empty tub while his sister scrubbed him down.

"We have to take baths every single day, you know that Sho, and I can't let you do this yourself because you don't do a good enough job." Said Mob as she dunked their scrubber in their beach bucket. This wasn't a Japanese bathroom, there was no separate place to scrub down, so she made due with a scrubber and a beach bucket full of soapy water. She had already scrubbed herself down, she was kind of cold actually, and now it was Sho's turn. She wished that he could have done it himself but he hated taking baths and always did a halfway job.

"I do too!" said Sho

"Do not." Said Mob

"Do too!" said Sho. He knew this game and he knew that would always be the winner. He could always outlast her. He was the most patient out of the two of them, the most patient when it came to this anyway, and he knew that she would give up very soon.

"Do not." Said Mob. She knew this game well and she knew that she should have just let Sho win. She always let Sho win…but they didn't need to fight about this. This was not something stupid like what to watch on TV or if he could wear shorts in with long socks in the winter. This was taking a bath and bathing was very important. Mom had said so and dad agreed. Dad said that bathing everyday was what civilized people did and also that there were no people in the world more civilized than the Suzuki family. Mob didn't think that they were better than anyone, and certainly not because of something that was as much up to chance as what their family name was, but she did want to make her dad proud of her. Proud of her and happy with her. Her and Sho…though he was so rarely happy with Sho…

"Do too. I do too do a good job. I use soap and water and everything. You just think that I don't do a good job because you go so slowly that it takes you days and days to take a bath. I have important things to do with my time and I can't just sit here all day taking baths. I'm not a girl." Said Sho

"No Sho, you don't. You don't get in between your fingers and toes or behind your eyes. You need to get everywhere or you could end up smelling bad or even getting sick. It's not about being a boy or a girl, Sho, it's about taking a bath the right way and I'm you big sister and it's my job to make sure that you take a bath the right way. Now come on and let me scrub you down before you end up smelling bad." Said Mob

"No Shigeko, it's just adults who smell bad when they don't take baths, not kids. That's why adults have to wear deodorant and perfume and cologne and after shave but not kids." Said Sho. He'd hung out with dad, before, when he got ready for the day. Sho was not allowed to touch any of his getting ready stuff because he was just a kid.

"People smell bad when they don't wash, adults just smell worse." Said Mob. People had to take baths every single day or they would end up smelling bad. Mom had been the one to tell them that. Not that she was planning on mentioning mom any time soon. Dad and Sho had mentioned her before but that was…that had been weird. She was not going to push it. She was not going to risk dad getting mad at either of them, but especially Sho. He still had bruises on his side from the last time dad had punished him.

She wanted to call Fukuda.

But Sho wouldn't let her. He said that he was fine. She didn't even know what it was that Sho had even done. He had just been hanging out with dad, they both had, and then Mob had gotten up to get more milk. She had been gone for no more than two minutes when she heard a loud crash and then dad telling Sho that it was all his fault.

A lot could happen in two minutes it seemed.

"Well I know how to scrub down and I can do it myself. I'm nine! We're the same age again and if you can scrub yourself down then I can scrub myself down, too." Said Sho. They weren't exactly the same age. They were almost twins, their birthdays were really close, and since sometimes they were the same age it made no sense for her to be in charge. She could be in charge when she was ten and he was nine…even though that wasn't very fair either.

"Don't be so loud. Dad could hear." Said Mob

"Then give me the scrubber and I'll be quiet." Said Sho

"Here, but please do a good job." Said Mob as she handed him the scrubber. She liked the scrubber better than the loofa that they had used when they were kids. This one felt cleaner because it was made from plastic, not sponge, and also it traveled a lot easier. Mob liked bringing as much of their stuff with them as she could when they moved. They couldn't bring everything so some things had to be left behind until they lived in the same place again.

Which did not always happen.

This was the first time they had ever been in this house. They moved every few weeks, sometimes even every few days, but also as long as every few months. She hoped that once dad's dream came true, once he ruled the world, they could stay in one place. She also hoped that it had a Japanese style bathroom, their final place to live, because it was hard getting scrubbed down in just the empty tub. It was cold and it felt weird, too, standing so close to her brother while she was naked. Even though that made no sense. It was ok to be naked together because they were brother and sister. Dad said, back when he had been little, he and his parents used to all take a bath together at a bath house. She had never bathed with dad or mom so that would have felt weird, and it would have made sense to feel weird if dad took a bath with them, but it was not weird to take a bath with her little brother.

Even if they didn't really fit in the tub together that well these days.

"See? I know how to do a good job." Said Sho. He made sure to get in all of the nooks and crannies like she did. He didn't need his big sister to scrub him down. She was always trying to be mom. He wondered if he would ever be old enough to bathe on his own…though the thought of bathing on his own feels weird. He likes and dislikes having her there. He has trouble with that, figuring out his feelings sometimes, and he wasn't even supposed to have them in the first place. Dad had said so. He said that big feelings were dangerous because that was how he lost control of his powers.

Sho lost control sometimes but now always of his powers.

He just got upset and then did things. That was just what happened. He got ideas in his brain and then they happened and sometimes he was a jerk, too, and he didn't like it. He was a little brother and he was supposed to be good to his big sister. Sweet and gentle like mom had always wanted for him. Why did he wanted to make mom happy? She was gone. She was…she was gone but she was still their mom…his mom…

It was complicated.

"Ok. I'm sorry that I doubted you. Do you want me to do your hair for you, too?" asked Mob. She picked up his shampoo, the same Zootopia kind he always got when they were in a country which had it, and she offered it to him. She didn't think that he could do a good job on his hair, he always rushed it, but he had a point. This was the part of the year when they were the same age. Maybe he had gotten better at it and she hadn't even realized.

"I can do it. I'm not a baby." Said Sho. He dumped out their soapy water and then refilled the bucket. She bumped into him when she got her shampoo. Some girly thing that smelled like flowers. He didn't care. She had conditioner, too, which made no sense to him. Why put extra steps into something like this? He wished that he could have just ran a bar of soap in his hair like dad did.

But dad had shorter hair than he did.

Short hair had something to do with whether or not you needed shampoo. Mom had said so. Mom used to put conditioner in his hair, too, when she had been around. He skipped that step now. He didn't want to have anything at all wet in his hair. This was always the hardest part. Getting his head all wet. The water on his face…all of it…

He took a deep breath.

He did this as fast as possible. Picking up a glob of water with his powers made it easier. So did tipping his head all the way back so that none of it touched his face helped too. The part with the shampoo was hard, he hated the way it felt in his hair, and he hated how much he had to touch his hair to get it all sudsy like it was supposed to be. The fingers in his hair…rubbing against his head…the droplets of water hitting his face…it was the worst. He had to keep going, though, because he had to prove her wrong. He had to prove that he was not a baby and he did not need her to give him a bath. He did not need to be scrubbed down and he did not need her to wash his hair. He was a big kid now, he was nine, and he could do it himself.

"Do you want me to help?" asked Mob. Sho had stopped. She was still lathering up her hair. If she had been the one doing that she would have been done by now. His hair was shorter than hers, much shorter, and it would have been a lot faster if she had done it…but she had to let him do it himself because she did not want to fight with him.

Dad hated it when they were quarrelsome.

And Sho did not need any new bruises. She wished that he'd never had any bruises at all but she wished for a lot of things. Even if she spent all day, every single day, folding paper cranes her wish would never come true. Dad would never stop hitting Sho and that was just the way that it was. She hoped that when Sho grew up he never hit his kids. She knew that she would never hit hers. If the boy she married tried to hit their kids then she would just take her kids and leave.

Moms could leave sometimes.

She wondered if she would have to give her kids their baths when they were nine. She didn't need help anymore but Sho did even if he acted like he didn't. If mom had still been there would she have been scrubbing them down and washing their hair and then playing with them? Or would she have left Mob to give Sho his bath? Or would they have been taking baths on their own, even? She couldn't imagine taking a bath without Sho but it would have been nice. The leg room would have been the nice part…but also maybe being naked on her own…not that it was weird or anything being naked around her little brother…

Well it hadn't ever been weird before but they had been little kids, before, and now they were bigger kids and she knew that bigger kids eventually took baths on their own…

"No, can't you see that I'm almost done?" asked Sho. He had stopped. He had stopped because he could feel his face getting wet. Now he had to keep going. He had to finish this. He was a big kid now and he could wash himself off. So that was what he did. She had always done this for him but he could do it for himself. She was done with her shampoo, now, and had used all of the water in their bucket to rinse her hair. That meant that he had to refill the bucket.

So that was what he did.

He glared at the water. He wished that it would have come out faster. He was cold and having all of this stuff in his hair felt weird. He hated taking a full bath. Showers were better. He could just get in and out and be very careful about getting water on his face. Simple. It was all so simple. This whole thing was long and complicated and the water came out so slowly…but maybe that was what he wanted. Maybe he wanted to draw out the time before he had to have water on his face, and it always got on his face when he rinsed with a bucket, for as long as possible. Even though it made no sense to delay it. He was going to have to rinse either way so he had might as well rinse like this.

The bucket was full enough.

He tilted his head back and tried his best not to get water on his face. Using his powers helped. By the time he was done his head was shampoo free and he was shaking. The cold was the thing that made him shake, he told himself, just the cold. He wasn't afraid. If he could jump over and over again into a swimming pool he could wash his hair. The swimming pool was bigger, though, and didn't give him a trapped in feeling. He could always put a barrier around himself as he jumped in. Here he needed to get his head wet. The water was dripping down his face and the back of his neck…and he wanted to get out…but they hadn't even done the bath part yet.

"Do you want some of my conditioner?" asked Mob as she combed her conditioner through her hair like mom had done for her a thousand times before. When she had been little. Conditioner was good for your hair, mom had said so, though she hardly ever made Sho use it. That was because his hair was short, mom had said, so he only needed conditioner sometimes. Of course mom had forgotten to tell her just how often sometimes was. Mom had forgotten to tell her a lot of things.

Like what to do when Sho started shaking.

She knew that he was afraid of the water even if he didn't say so. Even though it made no sense to be afraid of the bathroom. She would never let him drown and she would never do the things to him that they had done to make him awaken. She would never have done anything like that to her little brother. She loved him more than anything else in the whole world.

"No, of course I don't. I want to fill up the tub now." Said Sho as he shook. He was cold, that was all, he was cold and naked. He wasn't trapped, though, because he could have stepped out of the tub at any time and run away. Even if he was naked. What did it even matter? His sister had seen him naked a million and one times before and Dad was a boy too. Yes, it would have been easy to get out and run away.

He felt better now that he knew that he could run away.

"Wait, I have to rinse my hair first." Said Mob. She didn't mind sitting down in a tub of her own bath water. That was because she was used to it. Dad said that it was weird, the fact that she and Sho didn't mind doing all of their washing in the same tub that they played in, so she was going to try and be as normal as possible. She was weird enough as it was. She was mad, maybe, a little because mom hadn't taught them to take baths the normal Japanese way…

But there was no point in being mad at mom.

If she decided to be mad at mom then that would be the only thing that she would have time to do. She had enough to be mad at mom about that she could have easily just sat there and been mad all day. She could have been mad at mom for leaving, for not saying goodbye, for not teaching her all the things that she was supposed to know, all of it. She easily could have sat there day in and day out being mad at mom…but she wasn't going to do that.

It would have done her no good, anyway.

"Hurry up." Said Sho. He did not want to sit there shivering. That was what he was doing, shivering, and he was not afraid. He was not afraid of anything. He was Suzuki Sho and he was brave and he was not afraid of something as stupid as the bathroom. He could have left at any time and that meant that he was safe…not that he had any reason to be unsafe. He was with big sis and, like she told him every single day a million and one times a day, she loved him. So she would not hurt him. So she would be there for him no matter what. So he was ok.

She even rushed the conditioner part of her hair so he could fill the tub.

"Ok, bubbles or no bubbles?" asked Mob. She knew that she hadn't rinsed her hair properly but Sho's happiness was more important than washing her hair the right way. She could tell that he was unhappy by his aura. Mom would have been able to tell just by looking at them. Mom had been good at that, figuring out what Sho felt, and Mob…she was not mom…but she was doing her best. She couldn't do any better than her best…

But she had to try.

"Bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles." Said Sho. The bubbles made it better, more like something fun, and that distracted him from his stupid feelings. He wished that he could have been more like dad. He almost never felt anything. He didn't want to be a jerk like dad, well he already was a jerk, but he did wish that he didn't have so many big and scary and uncontrollable feelings…but he did. He did and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing but sitting there and trying to make them go away.

Nothing to do but exorcise them.

"Can you move over a little bit? I don't have enough room." Said Mob as she tried to sit down. Some places had bigger tubs than others. This tub was a little on the small side. She had seen in a movie that before, when dad had been a kid, the tubs were so deep that you could drown in them. She didn't want to drown in the tub or anything like that but she would have liked to have been able to sit down without her feet drawn up to her chest.

"I would if I could. This tub is tiny." Said Sho. He wanted a tub as big as a swimming pool. Then they could have had their own room to sit and swim and play. It would have been like back when they had been really little, back when mom had given them baths, way back to the beginning of his memories….but those times were over and done now. Now he was a big kid and so was big sis and maybe…maybe….

Maybe they were too big, these days, to take baths together.

"I know….I hope that the next tub is bigger." Said Mob

"Maybe we're just too big." Said Sho. He tried to sound like he didn't care. He took showers without her all the time. Whenever he wet the bed he had to take a quick shower or he would smell like pee all night and he did not like smelling like pee. He didn't drag her into the shower with him every time he wet the bed…but that was a much quicker process than this…the thought of being all alone in a bath….the room being so tiny and water being on all side of him….

He didn't know how he felt about that.

"We have to take baths, little brother, there's no way around it." Said Mob. She knew how he hated baths. She knew that if he had it his way he would have never even set foot in a bath tub for the rest of his life. She also knew that as a good big sister it was her job to make sure that he was clean and didn't smell bad. If she didn't take care of him then dad would have been so upset with her. She wasn't mom, she never said that she was, but she had inherited a lot of mom's jobs. Sho got to inherit the world. She just got to inherit responsibility.

"I meant that we could take baths on our own." Said Sho

"Um…if you want to, Sho. I don't know how I feel about that. I mean I like taking baths with you but there isn't a lot of room for the two of us since we're both nine…well you just turned nine and I'm almost ten…I don't know." Said Mob

"Me neither…." Said Sho

"But we could…we could try it I guess. I mean we are both nine year old now." Said Mob even though she really did not want to bathe on her own. Even if it was starting to feel weird, taking baths with her little brother, she didn't want to be totally on her own…but he had shown her that even if he wasn't the best it at he could bathe on his own…and they were getting older….so they could maybe try it.

"Sure. Whatever. Now give me the bucket of boats so we can play tsunami." Said Sho. Sure, he could try taking baths on his own. There was nothing wrong with that. He was not scared. He was Suzuki Sho and he was not afraid of anything. Especially not bath time.

He just minded it, that was all. Even if she didn't.