There was nothing wrong with teaching a ten year old how to roll a joint.

It was his birthday and on his birthday he could do whatever he wanted to do and what he wanted to do was teach a ten year old how to roll a joint. Mostly because she'd had a bad day and she needed it. See? He could care about someone other than himself once in a while. She'd had a really shitty day and she needed a pick me up and, honestly, better she smoke a joint with him that she had rolled with care with the weed that Toshi had grown with care than smoke crack or shoot up heroin or something. There. He was actually being a responsible adult and teaching her how to ease the pain of living in a way that would not end in her dead or whatever.

Yeah. He was doing a good thing.

"Make sure you break those up really well. Get the stems out but save the seeds. Toshi can make more with those." Said Shimazaki as he bestowed Mob with a very good life skill. This way she could do it herself when she had shitty days like the one that she'd had today. Suzuki could be a real prick sometimes but he was a dad and all dads were pricks. He had actually left her home all alone just like that after he'd spent so much time doing his best to smother her for the past couple of weeks. It would have made sense for her to have been happy but instead he came home after a long day of playing with a nine year old and making sure that nobody put Suzuki out of everyone else's misery to find Toshi and Mob just hanging out watching the let it go movie and Mob's aura looking so sad…

Sadness was boring and it was his birthday and on his birthday he would not be bored.

So he picked her up and carried her to his room and decided to show her how to roll a joint which they would then smoke, because Toshi had a point about the drinking being bad for her, and then she'd feel better and she'd be less boring and then they could do…something. He didn't know what yet. It would come to him later once he'd smoked some. He was smoking more than drinking these days which set a very good example for her.

Toshi worried too much.

"Ok, Shimazaki." Said Mob. Minegishi had been trying to cheer her up all day. It hadn't worked. Not even Frozen could make her feel better. She and dad…she and dad had been hanging out and now they weren't and…and she was happy that she could see her friends again but…but now he was just…gone. He had just kicked her out and…and she didn't feel good. She would feel better soon, though. She had that to look forward to.

"I don't condone this." said Minegishi from their spot on Shimazaki's bed. They were not ashamed to say that they had totally lost control of this situation. She'd had a bad day. The good news was that Minegishi wouldn't have to assassinate Suzuki Touichirou any time soon. The bad news was that instead of doing some self-reflection and then deciding to be a normal human being with normal boundaries with his daughter he instead decided to just up and emotionally abandon her.

"Well you're not stopping it either so….come over here and help?" asked Shimazaki. He spun on his chair so that he was facing Toshi even though he didn't need to be to see them. They were still sitting up there on his bed cross legged with a glass of something that he knew for a fact was not water in their hands. He didn't get what they were so upset about. They were going to smoke together. He was teaching her how to roll a joint, not how to do lines of coke. No, that would come later when she was a couple years older. When had he started? He couldn't remembered. A little older than her. Like twelve or thirteen. Something like that. Some parts of his life could be kind of hazy sometimes.

"Pass." Said Minegishi. There was no way to turn back time to when Mob had been eight and had never even heard of any of this…and Minegishi felt like a hypocrite for even wanting to. They were not going to condemn someone for doing something that they themselves had done. There was no point to it. They had been up to the same thing at ten, well not exactly the same thing but that had not been a good time in their life, and they could not get up on their soap box and tell Mob that she was doing something wrong. Her life was terrible. Her father had just emotionally abandoned her after having spent weeks emotionally enmeshing himself to her. At least Minegishi wouldn't have to kill him now. They didn't want to know what suddenly being orphaned would have done to Mob's fragile emotional state…

And also there was no reason to kill him.

They had asked Mob, well they had come as close to outright asking as they could, if her father had ever been weird with her. Making his daughter share a bed with him and not letting her spend time with other people was very suspicious. Minegishi may have just been seeing certain things everywhere based on their own life experiences but better safe than sorry. They didn't come out and ask Mob straight up because she did not need that in her head, the truth of how terrible some fathers could be to their daughters, along with all of the other shit that was in there. She was weirdly naïve about some things…and a bit too worldly about others…but Minegishi didn't want to shatter her innocence just yet.

Also nothing had happened to it was a moot point anyway.

"It's not done yet. When it is then I can pass it." Said Mob as she frowned down at the pile of sticky green stuff down in front of her. She used her powers to do this. She didn't like the way it stuck to her fingers. The smell stuck to her enough as it was. She brought her fingers up to her face. Yuck. Too strong.

"You're adorable." Said Minegishi as they took another sip of their drink. They needed this. They had enough to deal with in their life…but they also had Mob's shit to deal with too…and that was ok. This was ok and…and also not ok. They were looking at Mob but maybe…maybe they were just seeing themselves. They hadn't liked themselves for so long…they had taken so long to accept themselves…and was that even the same as liking themselves? They didn't know. They were drinking too much again and thinking too much. They were thinking too much but also…also maybe not at all. They didn't know. This whole thing was complicated.

"And a pretty fucking good timesaver, too. Damn." Said Shimazaki. He went into his drawer and felt around for his grinder. The one that Toshi had gotten him for his last birthday when they had seen the state of his. Toshi was thoughtful like that. He was not a difficult man to shop for. Toshi could be difficult too…and they had a birthday coming up next year….yeah. Toshi was the best gift giver ever. A whole jar not only of their perfect blend but also another jar of those flowers that made you see heaven and hell…Toshi was awesome.

And he had no idea what their problem was with this.

Their aura was focused on the kid's. He had no clue what Toshi was so worried about. They were not ruining Mob's life. If anything they were saving it. He knew how terrible life could be when you were little and at the mercy of an asshole. Toshi knew what it was like, too. Why stop Mob from being able to just get away from that for a little bit? Why not let her make her life just a little bit more pleasant? Especially since she was Suzuki's kid. Suzuki seemed hell bent on ruining that kid's life…both of his kid's lives…

Well that was ok. Shimazaki was there.

Those kids would end up inherit this thing and he could not wait. Hopefully it was Mob. She was fun now at ten and she would be even more fun when her dad either stepped down or died, whichever came first. They were going to go partying around the world first thing when she came into power. He knew that best spots. They were going to have so much fun when she grew up!

And now, too.

"Can we smoke this now?" asked Mob. She felt better being with her friends. She still felt all empty and achy and just…confused because she spent so long wanting to be with her friends but now that she was with her friends she wanted…she sort of wanted to be with her dad. She sort of wanted to be there next to him and just…and she just did not know. She also sort of wanted to hang out with Sho, too, but she also didn't because he was hanging out with Fukuda and she knew that she wasn't invited because Fukuda didn't like her that much anymore.

Dad didn't like her that much anymore either.

She wished that he would have just told her what she had done wrong so she could fix it…but she also wanted to spend time with her friends. She loved her friends and she had wanted this for so long…and also it was Shimazaki's birthday and she should have been happy for him. He was another year older and he was her friend and…and she should have been happy for him but she just had this sad feeling inside…

And she didn't want to have this sad feeling inside of herself anymore.

"Not yet, we have to grind it up now. Here, see? Put it in here and just….grind." said Shimazaki. He could feel her eyes on him. Good. She was learning. He'd had to figure a lot of this stuff out on his own when he had been her age. She was so lucky to have him. She was lucky to be away from her dad, too, even though she felt like crap for some reason. She couldn't have fun, proper fun, if she was right there under his thumb.

Really she was much better off now.

"Oh. This is really pretty. I didn't know that you liked Sailor Moon." Said Mob as she watched him grind up the sticky green stuff that she had been pulling apart. The room smelled really skunky now. It smelled a lot better when it was on fire.

"This is a Sailor Moon grinder?" asked Shimazaki. He could feel Toshi shrug behind him. They were smiling now just a little bit. Their aura hiccupped a bit when they smiled. Kind of like a high pitched hiccupping sound. It was kind of cute. Not that Toshi would ever know that he had applied that word to them. Even though they could be cute sometimes. They could be a lot of things sometimes. They had it going on and 'it' was everything that was…everything. They had it all going on.

And if they wanted to sleep with some Cheeto dusted Lynx smelling teenage kid then that was their business.

He didn't care what they did and who they did it with. They could go out and bring half of Tokyo home. He wouldn't care. He might actually jump in if they let him. That wasn't what had bothered him. What had bothered him was the fact that he had actual feelings for Toshi…maybe. That damn kid. He had the nerve to want to be 'friends' with Toshi like…like nobody knew what he meant…and like Toshi would ever have agreed to….

He ground faster.

This was his birthday and he was not going to think about this. He had no reason to think about this. He and Toshi had a good thing going on and he was not going to ruin this. Not that he even knew what he was even going to do. Neither of them did the relationship thing. Toshi didn't believe in it and he was incapable of it. So there was no reason for him to get himself all twisted up over some kid. So he wouldn't. God, he hated it when he got like this.

So he decided not to be like this.

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?" asked Minegishi

"No, not at all. It's actually pretty good." Said Shimazaki

"It's for girls. That's what Minegishi meant, they meant that they thought that you might not have liked it because it's for girls and you're a boy….at least that's what I think that they meant." Said Mob. She might have been wrong. She was kind of bad at this whole talking thing.

"Mob, how many times do I have to tell you? There are no such things as boy things or girl things. They're all just things." Said Minegishi

"Oh. Sorry. I forgot. In my house there were always boy things and girl things. Your house is different." Said Mob

"It's not about houses it's about….I've been drinking too much to explain this to you in any coherent way. Shimazaki, that's ground up enough. Just show her how to roll the damn joint already." Said Minegishi

"So I take it that you've stopped disapproving." Said Shimazaki

"No, I can just acknowledge when I've lost control of a situation. Besides…she's had a bad day…she's hard it rough lately. So just show her how to roll the damn thing." Said Minegishi

"Are you upset with me? Because if you are then I can stop…" said Mob even though she didn't want to stop. She wanted to stop feeling how she felt. She also didn't want another person to be mad at her. She already had dad mad at her…so mad that he had just gotten rid of her…and she didn't want Minegishi to be mad at her too….because that would have just been…terrible. Just the worst and…and stuff.

"Don't get upset at her. Get upset at me. I can take it." Said Shimazaki. Toshi was at best mildly pissed off…but that was normal for Toshi. Still, though, Mob didn't need to end up being upset. Not on his birthday. It was his birthday and that meant that he could decide who was and was not upset and he decided that she was not allowed to be upset on his birthday.

"Mob…I'm not mad at you. Never at you." Said Minegishi. That was the last thing that Mob could have needed. Thinking that someone else was upset with her. She took it too deeply. She took everything too deeply. Even the way that her crazy shithead father treated her.

"Oh. Are you mad at Shimazaki? Because it's his birthday and…and maybe because it's his birthday you can be mad at him tomorrow…and stuff. Not that I can tell you when to be mad. I just…I don't like it when people are mad." Said Mob

"Mob, I'm not mad. Well, ok, I'll admit that I'm always slightly pissed off but I'm not actually mad and if I was I would never be mad at you." Said Minegishi

"No…no matter what?" asked Mob. She had done something wrong and she didn't know what. She wished that dad would have just told her so she could fix it. What was the 'what' that she had done to him? She had no idea. She wished that dad would just tell her already…but he wouldn't. He had just gone to work and told her to stay home and he hadn't even said anything to her or looked at her when she got home…and it was hard.

"Of course no matter what." Said Minegishi. Maybe they did see themselves when they looked at her. Maybe they saw a kid who needed someone to be there for them and other such sappy clichéd things. They didn't know. All they knew was that they had drank too much and they needed to smoke something because otherwise they were going to keep on drinking and if they didn't get to drinking or smoking they would start up with the introspection and nothing good ever came from introspection.

"You guys are giving me the best gift a guy can get on his birthday." Said Shimazaki

"Candles and Classic Coke?" asked Mob

"No, but great gift by the way. You guys have given me the gift of seeing what true love and acceptance looks like. I could cry." Said Shimazaki. He wasn't serious but Mob was still patting him on the back and shushing him like he was that baby that Suzuki had abandoned with them last summer.

"Ryou, either roll that joint or I will." Said Minegishi. They were tired. They were too tired to deal with him or with…with much of anything. They were just too damn tired. They needed a break…but they didn't get a break. This was why they did not want kids. Mob wasn't even their kid but it was still just a constant battle with stress and worry….and it would never get better. Maybe not even when she was an adult. Not when her dad was finding newer and newer ways to mess her up for reasons that nobody could possibly comprehend

"No, she will. Ok, we have enough for two here. First thing that you're going to want to do is to roll a piece of paper to make this filter thing for the end…except it's not a filter because that would be stupid, it's just there to help hold it's shape. Do you follow me?" asked Shimazaki

"Yes. I'm following you." Said Mob. There were a lot of steps but she followed them. She didn't care if there were a hundred steps or a thousand steps, she just wanted to feel better already. She felt bad and…she felt bad for feeling bad…and she just wanted this bad feeling to stop. So she decided to make it stop as best as she knew how…and she didn't know why Minegishi kept on acting like she was doing anything wrong.

What was so wrong with trying to get rid of her bad feelings?