Dad really liked ketchup.

Mob didn't know if he really thought that it was a food group like Shimazaki and Minegishi and everyone kept on saying but she knew that he really liked ketchup. He liked it on his omelets and his fries, which was normal, but she had also seen him eat it on pizza and chicken breast and also sometimes just on it's own with a piece of bread.

Like now.

"Daughter, pass the ketchup." Said Suzuki. They didn't usually have such nice breakfasts together. Usually Son did something to ruin these quiet family males. He could be so unpleasant in the mornings. He refused to get dressed somedays or to brush his teeth or hair. He also fought with Daughter on what an appropriate breakfast even was.

Cereal was not breakfast.

Son would often quarrel with Daughter and then take his box of cereal and either eat it with his hands at the table or in front of the television. It was unpleasant. Sometimes he would also pour milk directly into the box and then drink the milk and cereal and….unpleasant. Just so unpleasant. Daughter, on the other hand, was a very pleasant person to share a meal with. She ate normal things, today they were both having omelets, and sometimes she even cooked…

Like now.

"Yes, dad." Said Mob. She used her hands, not her powers, because passing things with powers was rude at the table. It was bad manners. Mob thought that the other thing that dad was doing, filling a cup with ketchup and dipping his bread in there, was also a little…not rude but…sort of weird.

And kind of gross, too.

She had made them mom omelets. Those were omelets the way that mom had taught her to make, not ones made from a mom, because that would be cannibalism and that was wrong. She knew that you were supposed to eat ketchup with omelets but Mob thought that dipping slices of plain white bread into a cup of ketchup and then eating them was just sort of…weird.

The fact that dad was using a fork for this made it all the weirder.

"Thank you. This is a very good meal. I haven't had your cooking in ages." Said Suzuki. When a woman made you breakfast, well any meal, you complimented her on it. Daughter wasn't a woman yet, he wasn't sure when she would become a woman or even by which criteria to measure that but he could be reasonably sure that a ten year old girl was not a woman, but he would complement her on her skills. Thank God that Masami had taught her how to cook.

He knew that he could have just had food brought to him but he liked this.

Just the two of them. No Son there to throw tantrums. Just him and Daughter having a peaceful meal. Nothing to worry about. Well, actually, there were things to worry about. Son was still away on the Seasoning City job…he was more worried about Son making the mission take longer than anything….but also Fukuda was away and there were so many ways in which Daughter could be harmed…and also there was just the general work stuff. Moral was low since the rolling chairs had been taken away but he was not going to budge on this. Every time those morons got wheeled chairs they ended up racing them or chair jousting or bumper chairs or a myriad of other bits of stupidity.

He wasn't too worried though. He was near his Daughter after all.

"You usually eat breakfast at work." Said Mob. They ate together sometimes but Sho was usually very grumpy in the mornings. She didn't like having to wake him up and make him brush his teeth and try to brush his hair and then try to get him into day clothes and then try to get him to eat some food groups at breakfast. Well she liked taking care of him and making sure that he was ok but she didn't like how they fought.

This was nice and all but she did miss him…even if he was very grumpy in the mornings.

She wondered what Sho was up to. It was past breakfast time in Seasoning City, maybe, she wasn't sure about the time zones and it would have been rude to take her pone out of her pocket while she and dad were at the table. She hoped that he'd had more than cereal or poptarts or chips or candy for breakfast. She hoped that he'd gotten dressed in clean clothes that morning. She hoped that he'd remembered to brush all of his teeth, not just the front ones, even though he hated brushing his teeth because the toothpaste felt weird in his mouth and stuff. She also hoped that he had tried to brush his hair because it did get knots and the knots would only get worse the longer he went between brushes…

She wished that he could have been there so she wouldn't have had to worry so much.

Even though she knew that she should have been enjoying spending time with dad. She was still upset at him about how he beat up Shimazaki but he had been really nice to her lately. Even if he did keep her up really late watching TV. He had let her cuddle with him all night and even into the morning, too. She had woken up to dad looking at her. He had been staring at her for a while, he said, because he didn't want to wake her. Usually he slept with his back to her. It was nice to be able to cuddle with him like that. She loved him so much and he loved her too. It was so nice when he showed it.

Like mom used to.

When she and Sho had been really little they would crawl into bed with mom when dad wasn't there. Mom would hold them close and tell them stories until they went to sleep. Dad held her close but he didn't tell her any stories but that was ok. She was ten now, not a little kid anymore, and she was happy just to be near her dad. She was happy whenever she got to be near him…mostly. Even now she was happy to be near him.

Even if, in her opinion, nobody needed that much ketchup.

"I do. I felt like eating something you cooked, though, today. You so rarely get the chance to cook. We so rarely have this sort of time to spend together." Said Suzuki. He glanced at the clock on the wall. He would be late if he called a car around, he did so enjoy riding in cars sometimes, but he had a teleporter on staff so it seemed that he had two options. Either cut his meal short and call a car around or spend more time with his Daughter and then teleport to work…as unpleasant as both teleporting and Shimazaki were he did enjoy spending time with his Daughter.

She put him at ease.

At ease enough that he could indulge in an old favorite of his. He knew that this was not something that a man his age should have been doing, dipping bread in ketchup like this, but he was Suzuki Touichirou and he could do whatever he wanted to. He could eat whatever he wanted to eat whenever he wanted to eat and with whatever utensil he chose to eat it with. Still, though, he knew that socially this was odd and he was still not totally immune to the social mores around him…

But this was just Daughter.

Out of all the bad examples he had been setting for her this was nothing. She was there with him and she was seeing this but she had also seen him at his worst. He wondered what sort of far reaching consequences that day, the one in which he miscalculated, would have on her. He had left her with a baby and then took it away after she bonded with it…she's forgiven him. She's no longer upset with him about that so he needs to come off it, stop thinking about how her aura looked when he realized his mistake, and just…be present in the moment with her.

She was his Daughter and he cared for her in this moment and in all moments.

"I like spending time with you too, dad." Said Mob. She also wished that Sho was there but she said nothing. She knew that dad was happier without him there. She knew that dad was happier without Sho to bother him…and it didn't matter if she missed Sho because dad didn't care. He wouldn't just call off Sho's mission because she missed him.

"Good. Will you be joining me at work today?" asked Suzuki. He would think of something for her to do when they got there. Answering his work emails…she was good at that. Running messages. Checking on the Awakened in the break room to make sure that nobody was shirking their duties. Making copies of things which didn't really need to be copied but she liked to use the copy machine so he indulged her. Sitting there on the floor of his office playing her games and watching her shows…

Well maybe not sitting in his office.

With Fukuda gone an attempt on his life could be devastating. So he needed to keep his two best men at his side at all times…and one of those men had managed to capture his Daughter's heart. Well he had, anyway, before Suzuki put a stop to that. He wondered if Daughter still had those sorts of feelings for Shimazaki or if she had come to her senses and realized that he was in no way worthy of her. He didn't ask, though, because he had this irrational mental aversion to talking about her romantic life.

Well it was very personal.

And he was her parent of the opposite sex. This was the world of the mother, not the father, though he never would have told his father when he'd had these sorts of feelings towards the opposite sex…but then again he and his father had never been close. He and Daughter were close. She had seen him at his worst and he had seen her at her worst. She understood him as well as she could and he understood her as well as he could.

But there were still some things that he did not like to talk about.

"Um….ok." said Mob. She really wanted to hang out with Minegishi…but also she had to apologize to Minegishi for not knocking…and also she didn't want to apologize. Not because she didn't feel bad about what she did, of course she did she felt bad about most of the things she did even if they weren't bad, but if she said sorry then they would have to talk about what happened….and Mob did not want to talk about it. She had walked in on Minegishi and Shimazaki doing the things that adults did together on beds with their clothes off. She didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to kowtow and get Minegishi and apology gift but she did not want to have to talk about what she saw.

So she would go to work with dad.

"Good. We'll go after breakfast. Is that what you're wearing?" asked Suzuki as he dipped the last of his bread in the ketchup cup. He knew that he should have used a truncheon but they didn't have any and also he was Suzuki Touichirou and he could store his ketchup for dipping in whatever container he felt like.

"Yes. What's wrong with my dress?" asked Mob. When someone asked you 'is that what you're wearing' it was a polite way of telling you that they didn't like your clothes. Like when Shimazaki's clothes got mixed up and he wore something that didn't match and then Minegishi asked him if that was what he was wearing and then helped him find something that looked better. He chose his clothes by how they felt against his skin, mostly, but he also wanted to look nice because he knew that he was a good looking guy. Mob agreed with him even though, ok he was tall, but there was more to it than being tall…which he had because he was also strong and his hair looked nice and some of his tattoos were cool. Especially the new one of Minegishi…though Minegishi didn't think that it was cool.

Which was very strange since if a boy got a tattoo of her on his skin, not a temporary one but a real one, she would have been flattered.

Dad had no reason to say that to her, though, because her clothes matched. She was wearing her pink Aurora dress since her Elsa one was dirty and also it was getting hard to move her arms in that one, too. This one had no sleeves which made it much easier to move around in. Her socks were pink, too, which matched her dress and her hair ties, the ones keeping her braids together, were also pink. She matched and there was no reason to say that she didn't.

Dad didn't know a lot about clothes since he wore the same thing every day.

Mob cared about clothes. Not like the people she watched on YouTube sometimes who did big shopping hauls but she cared how she looked. She wasn't Sho. He would have walked around in his pajamas all day every day if she had let him. She knew that she always wore costumes, that other people wore regular clothes, but she liked the costumes.

They looked nice.

"Nothing. I wasn't criticizing your clothing. You just wore that one the other day, that's all, usually you change your clothes more often than that. Unless this is a duplicate." said Suzuki. Criticizing a woman's clothing was dangerous ground. Also he knew nothing about fashion and he didn't care to know about it. He had found the most perfect suit in existence and that was all he would wear. Everything from his suit to his underclothes to even his shoes were the most comfortable and best looking at him so that was what he wore.

Daughter changed her clothes often, though.

At least he thought that she did. She was fond of blue. She either had one blue dress she wore all the time or several blue dresses in her rotation. That pink dress, though, he was sure she had worn yesterday. He had no idea how many duplicates she owned but he did not want her wearing the same thing two days in a row. He was a better provider than that. She could have had entire wardrobes of those dresses for all he cared. He just needed her to be changing her clothes daily.

"No, yesterday I wore my Ariel dress. The pink one with the sleeves. This is my Aurora dress, the one without sleeves. It's too hot outside to wear something with sleeves and also I think my clothes are starting to get too small since I'm having trouble bending my arms in some of my dresses." Said Mob. Maybe she should have changed. She had been dressing like this for her entire life. Most of her clothes came from the Disney Store. This was just how she had been dressing for most of her life.

But she was ten, now.

She was ten and maybe she should have been dressing more like an adult…or the other ten year olds. The only problem was that she didn't know any other ten year olds. She never saw any other kids, not up close anyway, and she had no way to know what was and was not normal. She looked nice like this, she thought, but now also she thought…and she had never given this much thought to what she wore before. She wondered what was with her lately.

She had been thinking a lot about herself lately.

About how she looked. About if people were looking at her. She sometimes felt like everyone was looking at her all the time and waiting for her to mess up. Minegishi had told her that everyone in the world felt like they were under a microscope and people were just observing them waiting for them to mess up. They said that people were so wrapped up in themselves that they didn't have the space in their minds to care about anyone else.

Which made sense…but did not put Mob at ease.

"If your clothes don't fit then get new ones." Said Suzuki. She seemed…her aura was pulled in close. That was…he felt like he had said the wrong thing…but he didn't know what. He had not been criticizing her…but maybe even talking about a woman's clothing was dangerous ground. He didn't know. Women, even little girls, were so…complicated.

Not that he would have her any other way.

"I will." Said Mob. She felt better, now, and she had no idea why she had been feeling bad in the first place. The solution was so simple. If she didn't like her clothes then she was free to get new ones…but she did like her clothes. She liked her clothes a lot. But she had been liking these same clothes since she had been little. She had been dressing the same way since she had been little.

And she was not little anymore.

She was ten, now, and ten was not little. Maybe she should have dressed more like the adults around her. She thought that maybe she should have went and put on her President of Claw costume. The sweater and the shirt with the annoying buttons and the skirt that wasn't even good for twirling and the tights that itched and tugged and with the waistband that dug into her skin…but it was too hot out for that. The building had air conditioning but she liked to…to go outside and vape sometimes…since she wasn't allowed to smoke anymore…and she really could use a cigarette…so when she went outside she didn't want to get all sweaty and gross. So she decided to stay dressed the way she was. Because it was so hot out.

Also those clothes felt more like a costume than her actual costumes.

"Daughter…" said Suzuki. He had a piece of bread dipped in ketchup at the end of his fork. He knew that he should have eaten it, food was for eating, and he was forever admonishing Son for playing with his food…but he was not playing. He was thinking. Daughter…had he made her feel…bad? Normally he wouldn't care how he made someone feel but…but this was Daughter. She was not one of the legions of morons that he commanded. She was his Daughter and…and he had a history of miscalculating when it came to her.

"Yes, dad?" asked Mob. She wondered if he was going to eat that ketchup bread. It was starting to look like it was about to drip. If it dripped then he would have had to dip it again…and also there would be ketchup everywhere. Though that might have been nice. It would have been like Sho was with them instead of off on his mission.

She missed him so much.

It felt weird seeing dad so calm at a meal. His aura was calm…or at least it had been. Now it was moving a little…and she wondered if she had done something. It was hard to tell with dad. So many things could upset him, pretty much everything, and nothing good came from upsetting dad in any way for any reason. She couldn't think of anything that she had done to upset him lately…but this was dad and it was always hard to tell with dad.

"You look very nice today." Said Suzuki. There. That was something that you were supposed to say to women…and he also would not have minded the compliment even though he knew that he looked nice every day. Masami had always liked it when he told her that she looked nice. Even though she knew for a fact that she was the most beautiful woman in all of Japan if not the world. Daughter was…well not beautiful in the same way that Masami had been…because she was his Daughter and he did not think about his Daughter like that…and even if they didn't share any blood he had still raised her…and also she was ten and he did not look at ten year olds in that way and hadn't since he had been ten himself…she was pretty.

There, that was a word, the word, the best word for her.

"You think that I look nice?" asked Mob. She knew that she was clean, and that her clothes matched, so maybe nice was the word for it…though it had taken dad a while to say that to her…and she wondered what he had really been thinking in that case. He never lied but…but it had taken him a long time to say that.

"You look very pretty today. That dress is very nice on you." Said Suzuki. He had been watching her aura. She had still been upset. Why? What had he said? Women were so complicated…though Daughter was a bit easier since she was an esper and he could just watch her aura. Masami had been more complicated. She had no aura so he only had her face and body language to go off of…and he had always been bad at reading faces and body language. Yes, Daughter was much simpler to deal with.

"Um…..thanks dad. You look nice too." Said Mob. Dad had never called her pretty before. He had never just told her that she looked pretty….because it wasn't true. The only time anyone ever told her that she looked pretty was to tease her…why Shimazaki was always teasing her she did not know….and she knew that she was not pretty. She was Mob. She was plane and boring looking. She knew that to be true…so why was dad teasing her?

Unless he wasn't.

Because dad didn't tease people. He never told lies and he never teased anyone either. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. She had no idea why it had taken him so long to come up with what to say, though, but she also had trouble coming up with what to say, too, so maybe it was just a family thing. She felt…good. Happy. Happy that dad had said something so nice to her.

Even if it had taken him so long to come up with something nice to say that he had dripped ketchup on the front of his shirt.

"Dad, there's ketchup on you." Said Mob. She pointed, even though it was rude to point, to the spot on ketchup right there on dad's white shirt. It looked like blood…but Mob didn't want to think about that. About how sometimes dad had blood on him that was not his. About how dad had…had come home with blood on him from beating up Shimazaki…

She could feel Shimazaki's aura. He was fine.

He was fine and there was no more reason to think about that. He was fine and she was fine and everything was fine. She decided to stop thinking about this. She couldn't think about things like that because then her aura would show them and dad would get mad. He had been so happy since Sho had been away and she didn't want to make him unhappy. Then he would have been unhappy at Sho when he came back and then it would be her fault.

She passed dad a napkin.

"God damn it. Now I have to change." Said Suzuki. He would have to change. Daughter offered him a napkin but he would have to change. Well he had been just about done eating anyway….but he would have liked to have spent more time alone with Daughter. They would be together at work but it was not the same. He would have liked to have been able to just spend the entire time of Son's absence with her but…but he could not afford to just leave again. He had work to do and he was the only one who could do it.

But he would not be doing it with ketchup on his shirt like he was a child or something. Like he was Son or something.

"It's ok, dad, it'll come out." Said Mob. Dad wasn't listening to her, though, he got up and went to his room to change. Mob used her powers to scrape their plates and put them in the sink. She almost dropped one, though, because…she had a lot to take in. Dad had said a bad word. She had never heard dad said a bad word before. She hadn't even known that he knew any of them. He was dad. He didn't say things like that….right?

Right?

She had learned something new about dad…and she wasn't sure that she liked it. It went against what she had already known about him. He hated cursing and that was why she and Sho were not allowed to curse. Even though she and Sho knew all the curse words, well she probably knew more than Sho but it wasn't a competition that anyone wanted to win, they were not allowed to say them. Dad said that they were Suzuki's and that Suzuki's were better than that.

So it was confusing.

Dad was a confusing person. She had known dad for her whole life and she knew that he was just…confusing. Like how he would care about you and then hit you. Or like how he could love mom one day and then call her a traitor the next. Or like how he could ignore you, run away from home even, and then make you spend all night watching TV with him not matter how late it was or how tired you got.

Dad was confusing.

She learned something new about dad, though, even though he really liked ketchup that didn't mean that he wouldn't curse at it.