Mob was the reason that Minegishi's Xanax supply was getting low.
"These are so fucking deep…" muttered Minegishi as they looked over the scratches on her arms. Not good. Not good at all. She'd had these since last night, she had said, but instead of getting them fixed she had instead decided to play in the snow instead of getting them fixed in true ten year old fashion.
"I'm sorry." said Mob. Minegishi shook their head and reached into their bag.
"Stop being sorry. These aren't your fault. You don't control your brother." Said Minegishi. They were so glad that they were an only child. Another kid would have been too much for them to deal with when they had been Mob's age. They'd have probably been in Mob's boat…or her brother's boat…a boat which they did not want to be in.
"I shouldn't have made him mad…but we're ok now. We're ok and stuff. We played in the snow today." Said Mob
"I know." Said Minegishi as they took a piece of Mob's wet hair between their fingers and squeezed some water out. They had never understood enjoying the snow. The wintertime was hell on Earth…but it would pass. It would pass and then they would move along. Hopefully somewhere warm and green and with plenty of places that Mob and her brother could play separately so they didn't get into each other's orbits and things like this couldn't happen.
"You can come out and play with us too. There's not a lot of snow on the ground but if you collect enough of it then you can build a snowman with us. Not enough of it to make a fort or an igloo but there's enough to build a snowman." Said Mob
"Pass." Said Minegishi
"But the snow is really fun." Said Mob. She was such a ten year old sometimes. That was a good thing. She should have been able to enjoy the snow. She seemed like she was in a much better mood than usual today, an organically better mood, and that was a relief. Even though for some reason she was fine after her brother did all of this to her. That kid was lucky he was only nine and Minegishi didn't fight children. If he carried this over into his adult life, well, they could not be held responsible for their actions.
"Not for me. I hate the wintertime. I hate the cold and I hate the snow and I hate what it does to the plants. I can't wait until we get out of here. Hopefully to somewhere warm or at least tolerable." Said Minegishi
"You didn't like to play in the snow at all when you were little?" asked Mob
"Nope. Not at all." said Minegishi
"Not even to build a snowman?" asked Mob
"Not even to build a snowman." Said Minegishi
"Oh…I'm sorry." said Mob
"About what?" asked Minegishi. Mob was forever apologizing. If this was wartime and the enemy was at the gates Mob would have apologized even then. She was just too passive for her own good. She needed to grow out of that…even though Minegishi didn't want her to grow out of it. The world sucked. The world sucked and she didn't need to know how bad the world could be…but also she was young enough that if she didn't know how bad the world could be she could get really hurt.
Even worse than this.
These scratches would leave scars. They were deep enough that her brother must have drawn blood. Minegishi had no clue how they were supposed to deal with this. How they were supposed to help Mob with this beyond cleaning these wounds. They had to do something…and it was just…they had never anticipated being this close to another person. Being this invested in another person. This was just…not something that they had planned on. It was scary in some ways. Feeling like this. Caring for someone like this. They had spent so long taking care of themselves and only themselves…but life had changed. That was what life was, change, and stagnation was death…and they had been spending too much time with Ryou lately.
"That you never wanted to build a snowman." Said Mob
"I'm fine. I'm not missing out on anything." Said Minegishi
"But if you ever change your mind we can build a snowman." Said Mob
"Pass." Said Minegishi
"It doesn't have to be a snowman." Said Mob. She sang that a little. She sang that just a little bit but that was enough for Minegishi to get that song back in their mind…and there it stayed. That movie…Mob had been watching that movie nonstop so therefore Minegishi had seen it and heard the songs more times than they could remember…and they had just gotten the songs out of their head…and now they were back….great. Wonderful.
"Mob, I don't want to build a snowman." Sang/spoke Minegishi. That damned song. Every song from that damned movie. They had managed to displace that gum commercial in their brain…and now the gum commercial was back. Gum in the morning, gum in the evening, gum after suppertime…great. Maybe they just needed to move to a soundless void to get away from all of these ear worm songs. A nice soundless voice with plenty of plants and a nice place to read…and also a little chair for Mob, too, because it wasn't like they could just move into a soundless void without Mob. That would just be irresponsible.
"Ok…" said Mob. Minegishi knew that aura and they knew that expression.
"I'll do literally anything else, anything that's inside where it's warm and there's plant life, but I am not going to go outside of this house unless it's absolutely necessary." Said Minegishi
"Can we watch-" said Mob
"And also if we don't end up watching Frozen. We've been watching that movie nonstop. I can't take it anymore. I need a brain break." Said Minegishi. They knew that it was Mob's favorite movie and all but she could watch it with Shibata if she really wanted to watch it. Shibata loved that movie for…some reason. They didn't get it. They knew that Mob loved that movie because she identified with the main character and also she liked wintertime for reasons that they could not understand but Shibata's enjoyment of that movie was a mystery to them. Well Shibata was a mystery to them. The whole of humanity was a mystery to them.
"OK, you can pick the movie…and also can I paint your nails again? Your nail polish is coming off." Said Mob. Minegishi looked down at their nails. They had gotten pretty much ruined in the course of trying to salvage their garden. Winter gardening was hard but gardening in the snow, well, it was way too much work for them. They did not like any extra work.
Aside from the extra work they had to do for Mob, of course.
They felt their new bracelet pulling at their wrist. That bracelet came with certain responsibilities. Like this. Like cleaning up her scratches and then hanging out with her because she needed it. She needed a friend and Minegishi was going to be that friend. She was ten and she needed someone, someone better than Minegishi, but they only had Minegishi so she had to make do with what she had. Minegishi knew that they were not doing the best job in the world but, in their defense though they had no idea who they were defending themselves from, they had never in their life planned on being in charge of another human being. On meaning this much to another human being.
But here they were.
"Fine, but after I get these scratches cleaned up and bandaged." Said Minegishi as they looked over Mob's arms. Cuts. These had gone from scratches to cuts….and Mob didn't even seem to care.
"They really aren't that bad." Said Mob. She had been saying that since Minegishi had all but dragged her into the bathroom so these could be seen to. Mob was either losing her sight or had terrible judgment, Minegishi would believe either, but they were not going to get into it with Mob right now. They needed to do their best to get these cleaned up and bandaged. That was the best that they could do.
"Hold still. This is going to hurt. A lot." Said Minegishi as they poured some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and pressed it to the deep scratches on Mob's arms. She looked like she had gotten into a fight with a cat and lost. Terrible. These scratches ran up and down her arms as deep as they would have been if cats had clawed her skin off…but it hadn't been cats, no, it had been Suzuki's little demon child.
"I don't mind." Said Mob. Minegishi could tell that she did. She shrugged away from the pain and winced. Minegishi had caused a lot of pain to others in their lifetime. They had never enjoyed it, never relished in it, instead they just hadn't given a damn about it. They caused others pain. That was just what they did.
It was just their job however many days a week.
And even before they had joined Claw they had never had a problem with causing other pain. Not when they had to. They never went out of their way to hurt others but if someone had to get hurt then they had to get hurt. That was just how it was. Mob had to get hurt. Minegishi had to clean these scratches because otherwise they'd get infected and she'd get sick. They had a healer on call twenty four hours a day but fuck that guy. He was an asshole. He was a stuck up asshole in the weirdest place to be a stuck up asshole. This was a world domination cult. Who was really trying to act like they were the best member of a fucking world domination cult?
Fukuda whatever the hell his given name was, obviously.
Well Minegishi was not that sort of person. They were no better or worse than everyone else who had done comparably terrible things in their lifetime. They weren't a saint, far from it, but they tried not to be any more of an asshole than they had to be. Hence why they felt guilty about cleaning off Mob's wounds despite the fact that this was for her own good. She was in pain but this was for her own good. It was either let Minegishi clean her wounds or let them get infected and turn gangrenous and then her arms would fall off…or whatever. They didn't know how this worked. They weren't a healer.
They were just good at first aid.
"There. That part's over now." Said Minegishi as they threw the used cotton ball into the bathroom garbage can. They got it in on the first shot, too. They were mildly impressed with themselves. They had managed to get it in on the first shot despite the fact that the garbage can was very close to overflowing…and who the hell was drinking beer in here in the first place? Idiots, they lived with idiots. Thank God for the company of ten year olds.
"Thank you for cleaning up my scratches for me." Said Mob. She winced as she tried to pull her arms in close. Minegishi shook their head as they put the rubbing alcohol back in their bag. They rooted around for their box of bandages. They would need to resupply soon. Getting little cuts and scratches was par for the course for them, the plants could be assholes sometimes, but they were not equipped for something this bad….but they had to do their best. It wasn't like she could go to the healer and get this fixed up.
"Thanks but we're not done yet." Said Minegishi. These scratches were too deep. They would leave scars, most likely, and she would have these for the rest of her life…but it was rubbing alcohol that she was worried about. They would never understand Mob. Their bracelet banged against Mob's as they checked over the last of her scratches. They didn't like it. They didn't like the way it dangled and they didn't like having something pressing against their wrist but they still kept it on. This bracelet carried with it the promise that it would be worn until the friendship was dissolved…at least that was Minegishi's understanding of this particular little girl ritual. They had only seen this from the sidelines back in the distant past of their childhood. They were going to keep this on even though it was annoying the way it moved and pulled at their skin and-
They tucked their bracelet into their sleeve.
"You…you don't have to put more of that burning stuff on them again, do you?" asked Mob. Minegishi shook their head. That part was over now. They knew that they made things that didn't hurt these days but this was what they were used to. They hardly ever even felt the burning anymore…but that was them. They were used to certain forms of pain…and it looked like Mob had her own pain that she was getting used to.
Her little brother was lucky as hell that he wasn't Minegishi's kid.
Suzuki was lucky, too, that he was so much more powerful than Minegishi. Otherwise they would have had a very violent word with him a while ago. Maybe hitting his kids wasn't the best thing to be doing, especially since it had turned his son into a violent little demon child, and it had made Mob so passive that she didn't even care that her brother had done all of this to her.
"No, I just have to cover them so they can heal." Said Minegishi
"Ok…" said Mob
"What is it?" asked Minegishi. They knew what tone. Mob wanted something but she didn't want to say anything because she was polite like that. Minegishi needed to do something about that. Being polite wouldn't get Mob very far in life or in Claw at all. She was too nice, too sweet, too polite, and too passive. She was going to end up with a lot worse if she didn't stop being so…Mob like….even though part of Minegishi wanted Mob to never change. She was just a kid…and Minegishi wanted her to be a kid for as long as she could…but also Minegishi knew how the world could be. They knew how cruel the world could be and Mob…she didn't need this. She didn't need these scratches and she didn't need the little tastes of the world that she had been getting….but there was nothing that Minegishi could do.
They hated feeling powerless.
"Can you put some aloe on too? I like that stuff. It smells nice." Said Mob
"These are too deep for…fine. If it'll make you happy." Said Minegishi. The reached over to the plant they had balancing on the back of the toilet tank and grew a nice thick piece of aloe. She didn't need the salve, not really, but she deserved to be happy. Especially after whatever the hell had caused all of this. Well Minegishi knew that this had been her little brother's doing. The scratches were close together, a child had done that, and Suzuki never scratched anyway. He was mostly about hitting and shoving and hair pulling. That had been her little brother's doing. Minegishi had felt their auras last night and figured that Mob had finally snapped…but she hadn't.
Of course she hadn't.
Because they had gotten up that morning to a pounding headache as well as her and her brother making the world's smallest and saddest snowmen. So either they had made up VERY quickly or they hadn't been fighting to begin with…or they had and Mob had just been letting her brother hit her like normal. Something was wrong with that child, with both of them honestly, but there was nothing that Minegishi could do.
Nothing but try and clean up the aftermath.
"That feels nice." Said Mob as Minegishi covered her scratches in aloe. Minegishi bit back what they had been about to say. About how she should not have had those in the first place. About how it was about time, overdue actually, that she put her brother in his place. She was a powerful esper in her own right and she could easily have but the little monster in his place. She just refused to. She wouldn't even hear of it.
"You should have come to me sooner. Next time this happens, I don't care if it's in the middle of the night, you come to me and get fixed up." Said Minegishi as they finished up on Mob's arms. There. That was a decent job. An instant fix from a healer would have been better but Minegishi wasn't going to send Mob to that scented tampon of a human being. No, she'd have been better off just letting her wounds heal in the open air than dealing with that guy. Minegishi did not understand that guy, not one bit, he made no sense. Wouldn't it make sense, a hell of a lot more sense, to get in good with Suzuki's favorite kid? Her brother may have been the only male heir but Mob was still Suzuki's favorite kid…even if he had decided to start ignoring her after being creepily enmeshed with her…but Minegishi knew that there was no way for them to even begin to understand Suzuki. The machinations of that man's mind were an enigma.
"But I wouldn't want to wake you…and also I would have come and seen you last night but you said not to come over when your aura was all tangled up in Shimazaki's because I would be scarred for life." Said Mob. Minegishi grimaced. Right. THAT night. Thank God they had moved past that…and Minegishi did not EVER want a repeat of that night….but Mob knew to knock first now instead of just letting herself in whenever she wanted.
"Just knock first and I'll kick him out." Said Minegishi as they bandaged up Mo's arms as best as they could. They wished that they knew how to keep these from scarring. They didn't. They weren't a healer and they weren't a parent. They were a friend, a best friend with the bracelet to prove it, and they were doing their very best. Hopefully their best would be good enough.
"But I don't want you to have to kick him out. You like him a lot, I mean you like him enough to kiss him and stuff, and I don't want you to kick him out just because of me. Besides, me and Sho made up so we're ok now." Said Mob
"He'll live. You're more important." Said Minegishi as they finished up Mob's arms. She looked more like a burn victim than anything but, hey, Minegishi wasn't a healer. They were a friend, a best friend, and that was already more than they had ever seen themselves as being. They had no idea what they were doing, or if they were even doing what they were doing right, but they couldn't do any better than their best so here they were. They were a safe place when she got hurt and someone who would listen to her when something was bothering her and…and that was all that they could do. They could only be there for her even though she would just keep on going through this over and over again…but they would still be there. Always.
Though their Xanax supply would definitely run out soon.