Sho liked parks.

He didn't like how he had to have on long sleeved shirts and long pants and gym shoes with socks, it was very hot out, but he did like going to the park. There was space to run around in and lots of people had their dogs with them. There were other animals too, like birds, there were a lot of birds at the park. Momma birds and baby birds.

Sho loved the baby birds.

"Are there any here?" asked Sho. They were in the part of the park with trees now, not the part with the playground. He would have liked to have gone to the playground but he also liked spending time with Shimazaki. He didn't like playground because they had too many screaming kids and also when he was a kid he wasn't allowed to go to the playground because his parents were mean to him and stuff when he was little.

They had that in common.

It was important to have things in common when you were making a friend. Big sis had reading boring books and drinking coffee in common with Minegishi. Sho had liking baby birds and having a dad who was mean to you in common with Shimazaki. Shibata was a friend too but he was staying behind to make sure nobody killed dad. Dad usually sent Sho to the park with Shibata, Shibata REALLLY liked taking him to the park, but then today dad was all like 'you're both being very annoying. Go somewhere else' and then he and Shimazaki decided to go to the park.

They both liked the park.

Did this mean that they were on their way to becoming best friends? Shimazaki had said, before, that they were friends but Sho wanted to be bets friends with him. That was what this was, the feeling that it wasn't enough, and stuff like that. He got the feeling that being friends was just….not what he wanted. So of course the next step would be becoming best friends. He didn't know what the differences between being friends and best friends were but he knew that he wanted to be Shimazaki's best friend more than anything else in the world.

He was just so cool!

"Shh, I'm listening." Said Shimazaki. Sho instantly shut up. Right. He was too loud all the time, like dad had said, and he had to be quiet. Sho hoped that they found baby birds. Shimazaki would pull him close and teleport them both into a tree if they ended up finding baby birds. Also there would be baby birds! They were so little and cute but the important thing was to never touch them because if the mom smelled human on them then she would stop loving them and leave and then they would die. Moms did that sometimes.

Sho always made sure never to touch the baby birds.

You weren't supposed to touch baby anything without the mom's permission. That was why he and Shibata couldn't go to the park with the rocket slide anymore. Sho had told him in plain Japanese to leave that baby alone. He'd been in charge of a baby before and he knew that if someone had just tried to pick up baby sis like that he would have freaked out too. That was why he had to ask her new mom if it was ok to pick her up too…even though Sho had taken very good care of baby sis. If he had to take care of baby birds, too, he would also be careful of who he let touch them. They were so small and they couldn't even fly yet. He didn't blame them, though, flying was hard to do.

"Did you find any yet?" asked Sho. He wanted to see some baby birds and he wanted to be teleported into a tree and he wanted to be near Shimazaki and he couldn't be near Shimazaki until he teleported him into a tree…and he didn't know why he wanted to be so near to him. It just sort of happened one day when they were hanging out that his brain told him that he could be near Shimakai…and then his brain decided to never shut up about it. Sometimes it could be quieter than usual but then it would just start telling him randomly 'hey Sho, we can be close to Shimazaki'.

His brain was a weird place sometimes.

"There, in that tree. The one that smells good." Said Shimazaki. Sho didn't know which trees he was talking about. They all just smelled like tress to him.

"Which one?" asked Sho. He felt so dumb that he didn't know which one he was talking about. Shimazaki probably thought that he was so dumb and stuff. He probably thought that he was dumb and he wanted to be friends with someone else and Sho wouldn't have blamed him one bit.

He always felt a weird combination of good and bad when he hung out with Shimazaki.

Being near him felt good. Kind of like being on the teacups at Disneyland. It's was like spinning really fast and you felt like you were out of control but you knew you were in control but also you weren't and you went faster and faster and faster….and it felt good. But also it could feel bad. Like how the last time that he had been on the teacups at Tokyo Disneyland with big sis and they had tried all the popcorns one or twice or even three times and then they had gone on the teacups and it had been so fun but he just went too fast but it had been fun but then, also, he ended up throwing up the second the ride stopped…but it had been worth it.

Being near Shimazaki was kind of like that.

"Here, come on." Said Shimazaki. He reached over and picked Sho up and then before he knew it they were in a tree. Sho was standing up on his own, his feet had braches and his arms had branches, and that was good. It was good that he had his own branches even though he also sort of wanted Shimazaki to hold him up like he had to sometimes when the tree didn't have enough branches…but this tree had enough branches and he should not have felt disappointed about that fact…

He could be so weird sometimes.

"Hey baby birds. How you doing over there? How's life? Hope you don't get eaten by a cat. You probably will, though, you probably will." Said Shimazaki. He was talking to the birds like he would have to a baby…well not that he talked to baby sis like that…or at all. He hadn't really liked baby sis all that much…but that was ok, he just said that he didn't like babies all that much….which Sho didn't get but he wasn't going to say anything about that. People could like whatever they liked.

He liked him, that was what mattered.

They were friends. Shimazaki had said that they were friends. He had said so back when Sho had helped him after dad beat him up for liking big sis. They were friends and they liked each other and they were going to be best friends…maybe…but he would have liked that. Maybe when he grew up and they were the same age. Then they could be better friends. He was a kid and they could only be friends like a kid and adult could be friends. He sometimes wished that he was friends with other kids but he didn't know any other esper kids because there weren't any other esper kids who he could be friends with so, of course, he was just going to be friends with whoever he could be friends with.

He liked being friends with Shimazaki.

"Um…do you really think that they'll get eaten by a cat?" asked Sho as Shimazaki pulled a slice of bread from his pocket and dropped it in their nest even though they were way too little for people food. He knew babies and he knew birds and he knew that baby birds could only eat the food that their moms threw up in their mouths…so gross…but human babies drank formula and that was very gross too. Still, though, they weren't supposed to have bread and all of that people food….but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Probably. Cats eat birds after all. Circle of life and other such songs." Said Shimazaki as he broke up the bread. The baby birds didn't eat it. They were calling for their mom now. They wanted their mom. He knew what that was like. Their mom was coming to feed them soon, though, because bird moms always came back…unless they got eaten by cats or something.

"Do you think that the mom is coming back? I mean if cats eat birds then maybe she got eaten." Said Sho. He hoped that the momma bird came back. It was hard enough for people when moms didn't come back but it would be even worse for baby birds. They were little and helpless and also needed to be fed by having their food thrown up into their mouths. They were so little and they needed someone and that someone might not come back…and it was the worst when the person who took care of you never came back…

"Yeah. She might have gotten eaten. Don't worry then the cat will be eaten by a dog and then the dog will be caught and then ground up into hotdogs and then a person will eat the hotdog and then the circle of life will be complete. No, wait, the person will die and then their body will be picked apart by birds. Then the circle of life will be complete. Life and death, kid, it's deep." Said Shimazaki. Sho didn't really think that the food chain worked that way, he was pretty sure that there wasn't any dog meat in hotdogs but he avoided them just to be safe, and also that did not reassure him at all. Sure the mom fed a cat who fed a dog, and Sho wasn't even sure if cats ate dogs, but the baby birds were still there and they were still alive and stuff.

But he didn't want to say anything.

He didn't want to say the wrong thing. He wanted to tell Shimazaki that his phone chain was missing a few steps and also that the baby birds were doomed if their mom had been eaten and didn't come back. Dad was always saying that Sho shouldn't care about animals but he did care about animals and also he felt sort of bad, sometimes, about caring about animals because nobody else did and that bothered him sometimes, being different like that, and also he sometimes said the wrong thing and he didn't want to say the wrong thing because Shimazaki would think that he was dumb…

But he did want to say something. For the sake of the animals.

"We should do something, then, if the mom didn't come back." Said Sho. He knew that he wasn't supposed to have any pets, dad said that pets were stupid things to keep, and also dad said that he would get rid of any pets that Sho brought home…and he knew that dad would notice if he brought a nest full of baby birds home with him and hid them in the closet and fed them worms he chewed up himself…but also he couldn't leave the baby birds out there to get eaten or starve or…or anything.

He didn't know if their mom was ever coming back.

"I could leave you in this tree so you can take care of them and then they'll eventually recognize you as their mother." Said Shimazaki

"I can't live in a tree. I mean it's a good idea and I would if I could but I have to go home today and be there for my sister. I think she's going crazy. She keeps on hugging me and telling me she loves me…and also she ate all of my snacks when she knows that I don't like it when she eats my snacks." Said Sho

"Good. She deserves it." Said Shimzaki. Sho really had no idea what he meant by that. He wasn't going to say anything, though, because he didn't want to look dumb. He still didn't get what there was to be happy about. She must have been really sad or lonely if she was hugging him so often and she must have been starving if she kept on eating nonstop. Her stomach always hurt, she said, but then she just kept on eating. She even ate all of his poptarts and drank a whole two liter of his soda.

He got mad and kicked another hole in the wall.

But then he had calmed down and decided that she wasn't being mean, she didn't know how to be mean, she was just really hungry and lonely and stuff. Sometimes people got weird sometimes. Dad even said that girls in general were weird people and men couldn't understand women and women couldn't understand men. Sho wondered how people came together and made babies, then, if nobody could understand anyone else.

So he asked Fukuda and he'd been no help.

Sho knew that when a mom and a dad loved each other very much they got married and did something gross to make a new person. He hadn't been asking about that. He had been asking about how people could be together if they couldn't understand each other. He had never once understood a girl in his life, even his own sister, and he had no idea how he was supposed to meet one and fall in love with her and spend his life with her and stuff. He didn't want to think about that, what his life would be like when he grew up, he was too busy worrying about big sis and worrying about that nest of baby birds and also worrying about staying in that tree. He could feel Shimazaki looking at him with his aura and he was having trouble keeping himself in that tree but he had to, he really had to, because if he fell out of that tree then he would look so stupid and Shimazaki would think that he was stupid and then he wouldn't want them to be friends anymore.

And that would suck worse than anything….well almost anything.

Letting these baby birds die because the momma bird had gone off some place would have been the worst thing ever. It wasn't their fault that their mom had gone away. It wasn't their fault that the mom had to go off to some other place and leave her babies alone. Maybe they had been bad birds and no momma could love them. Maybe the momma bird had just gone off some place and gotten lost. Maybe the momma bird missed them but she couldn't come back to them because she had gotten her wings and legs bitter off by a cat. Maybe she wanted to be back with her babies but she couldn't because of very good reasons….or something.

"We should take these birds home with us." Said Sho. He didn't know where he would put the baby birds or what he would do to keep dad from finding them or what he would feed them since big sis kept on eating all the food and Sho didn't want to have to chew up worms and throw them up into that baby birds' mouths…but he also couldn't just leave them alone to die. He loved these birds. He loved them and it didn't matter if their mom loved them or not because Sho loved them and that was what mattered.

"You want to take a nest full of baby birds home with us and raise them yourself? And then they'll recognize you as their mother and you can teach them to do your bidding?" asked Shimazaki. Sho looked down even though he knew that Shimazaki could see him no matter what direction he looked in. He felt warm…but that was because it was summer and he was in long pants and a long shirt and stuff. That was it. Because there was nothing else that could make sense.

"Um…yeah….I mean I wasn't going to teach them to do my bidding or anything….but if you think that it's a good idea then I'll do that." Said Sho

"Have I ever told you that you're a genius?" asked Shimazaki. Sho felt like he was going to fall out of that tree. He felt like he was going to fall out of the tree and break every bone in his body and he knew that if he fell he would look so stupid but he really felt like he was going to fall because he was having trouble keeping himself up and he had no idea why. Shimazaki just said something nice to him. That was all.

He still felt like he was going to fall.

But he didn't fall. He was grabbed and before he knew what was happening there were no more branches under his feet or in his hands and the world was black and gone…but then it wasn't. The world was green and blue and hard under his feet and he was on the ground now. He had thought, for a moment, that he had fallen but he knew that he had just been teleported. He had been teleported and he was alone on the ground, now, and he just…he didn't know how he felt. Warm and stuff. Kind of nervous.

He felt like he was being watched.

He felt like he was being watched by everyone in the whole world but he knew that there weren't people around him and also that even if there would have been people around him they would have been looking at Shimazaki, not him, because he was much cooler than Sho ever would be. Well they would have looked at him if he had been there…but he wasn't. He wasn't around and Sho felt…worried. He had never been left alone before, and he knew that he could find his way back to HQ on his own, but he was still worried.

Very worried.

"Here you go. Have fun." Said Shimazaki. He teleported back in front of Sho and he was more relieved than anything even though he knew that he should have been mad. He hadn't been asked if he had wanted to teleport and he hadn't been asked if he wanted to be left alone and…and he could take care of himself but….he didn't even know why he felt the way he felt.

And also what he was holding.

It took him a moment to realize that he was holding a bird's nest…the bird's nest with the baby birds inside of it. Sho stood very still. They were so small, so very small, and they needed him. They needed him just like baby sis had needed him and he had to give them what they needed but…but what could he do? He was a human and he knew how to take care of a human but he had no idea how to take care of a baby bird…let alone four of them…and they were very loud.

But he could do this.

"I can do this." said Sho as he held the bird's nest in his hands. He could do this and he would do this. He would take care of these birds until they were big enough to fly and then when they were big enough to fly then he would teach them to fly and he would fly away from him and he would be very sad….but that was ok because things were supposed to grow up and leave you.

But you could never leave them.

He would never leave the baby birds even if they were loud and sort of scary and smelled kind of bad, too. He was their momma bird now. He was the momma bird who was also a human boy and he would take the best care of them and they would love him and he would raise them and…and things would be good. Things would be perfect. He would love them no matter what. He would love them if they were good and he would love them if they were bad and he would love them if they fought with each other and he would love them, too, if they got along…

He would love them.

"That's the spirit! Yeah, you raise those screaming dependents….but also you really should duck." Said Shimazaki before he teleported away. Sho was about to ask him what was up when he felt a sharp pain on the top of his head…and then another…and another….and another.

Oh. The momma bird had been planning on coming back the whole time.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was going to be nice to them!" said Sho. He held the nest close to his chest as the momma bird pecked his head. He maybe should have waited a little longer before he decided that he was going to raise these birds himself. He was just like Shibata. Just because a baby was walking around without a baby leash that did not mean that you could just pick that baby up and decide that it was yours.

The same went for birds, apparently.

"Run, kid, run!" laughed Shimazaki. Sho didn't run even though he wanted to. He couldn't put the nest down because then the babies would be in danger. He loved these birds so much…but so did their mom…but she had left them all alone up in that tree…but she was a bird and as a bird she had to fly around to find food and stuff.

"Help me put the nest back!" said Sho. He couldn't keep these birds even though he would have taken good care of them. The momma bird was their mom, not Sho, and he had to do what was best for them. When you loved someone you did what was best for them. Even if that meant leaving them behind to have someone else take care of them you had to do that…and he hoped that these birds didn't end up hating him when they grew up and he wasn't there for them.

"I thought that you were going to raise them. Come on, don't let the birds down." Said Shimazaki. Sho, of course, did not want to let the birds down…but they had a mom. They had a mom and she loved them enough to peck Sho's head so hard that he was bleeding.

"Just help me!" said Sho. He knew that he should have been nicer. He knew that he should have been better, a better person, if he wanted to be Shimazaki's best friend…but baby birds mattered more than friendship.

"Fine, if I have to." Said Shimazaki. Before Sho knew it he was being picked up like a sack of potatoes and the world disappeared and then reappeared around him. He was in the tree, now, and he had to put the birds back. So he did. He didn't have time to even say goodbye because before he knew it he was back on the ground again.

And he was being laughed at.

Sho kicked the ground so hard that grass got torn up. He was mad. He could feel tears collecting in his eyes and he kicked the ground even harder. His head hurt and he was mad and he wanted to cry and Shimazaki was laughing at him and stuff and that was the worst out of all of it. He must have looked so stupid. The most stupid. Shimazaki probably thought that he was an idiot and now he would never want to be Sho's friend and….and it sucked so much…..

It really sucked.

"Hey. Are you crying? No, no, no, don't cry I don't know what to do with crying kids." Said Shimazaki. Sho wiped his eyes.

"I'm not crying." Said Sho as he finished wiping his eyes.

"No, it looks like you are." Said Shimazaki. He got very close and poked at one of the tears streaking down Sho's cheeks. Sho batted his hand away.

"Well I'm not and you can't even see anything anyway." Said Sho. He had been mean and he knew that he had been mean but he wanted to be mean. He had to be mean. At least if he was mean he could be alone.

"I can 'see' that you're upset." Said Shimazaki

"No you can't. You've got no idea how I look and how I feel." Said Sho

"No, I can tell. What's got you all upset Suzuki-chan? You pissed off about that bird pecking the hell out of you? You upset about bleeding? Because I can tell that you're bleeding, and badly too." Said Shimazaki. Sho didn't want to talk about it so he agreed. He was bleeding, he could feel it, and he was upset because he was bleeding and his head hurt and stuff. There was more to it, though, the way that he felt.

But he didn't know what it was.

There was a lot to it and he didn't feel about picking it all apart them. His head was bleeding and he felt sad and embarrassed and also sort of like he was going to throw up and stuff. He just…he wanted to feel better. He didn't want to feel like this. He wanted to feel better and he wanted to be with the person who always made him feel better.

"Yeah…yeah. I'm bleeding. I'm upset because….because the bird pecked my head. Can you take me to Fukuda? I just…I want to see Fukuda." Said Sho. He wiped the last of his tears and the blood from his head, too, which was dripping a lot. Birds had sharp beaks. He hadn't known that about them but he knew know. Birds had very sharp beaks and they didn't like it when you messed with their babies.

They pecked your head really bad.

He still liked parks, though, he still did.