Mob had never seen Minegishi wearing a dress before.

They had never even seen them wearing so much as a skirt let alone a whole dress. They had always worn pants for as long as she had known them. She had known them for two years, two whole years, and that seemed like long enough to know if someone wore dresses. Minegishi wore girl's clothes sometimes. They had a lot of things with flowers on them. They had flowery pajama pants and T-shirts and towels and their messenger bag had flowers on it too. Those were for girls…well Mob thought so, anyway. Minegishi said that there was no such rule that said that something was for girls and something was for boys but she knew that if a boy had gone around wearing girls clothes or playing with girls toys then he would have gotten made fun of.

Because people were mean and stuff like that.

Mob had always though that it was unfair that people couldn't just do whatever they wanted. Minegishi thought that it was unfair, too, which is why they did whatever they wanted and also why they kept it a secret if they were a boy or a girl. Well if they were born a boy or a girl. They were a 'they' now but they must have been born as something….not that Mob was going to be nosy and ask. No, people's privates were private which was why they were called privates and if you asked about people's privates then you were some kind of weird and nosy person so Mob was not going to ask because she did not want to be some kind of weird and nosy person.

But it still was very strange to see Minegishi flipping through a rack of dresses like that.

"I hate work functions." Muttered Minegishi as they flipped through a rack of overpriced and completely impractical clothes. This was why they mostly just picked from the men's side. Better quality and less of this superfluous…whatever. Lace and rhinestones and glitter and either a long length and no sleeves or long sleeves and then half of their ass was hanging out….

They REALLY hated work functions.

They killed people. They tortured information out of people. They disposed of dead bodies. That was their job. They did not want to go to this thing, this was outside of their job description, but Mob was going…and also they had to babysit Ryou…and also free food and champagne….so they were going. They were going and they were going to dress nicely…

Which meant in a gender conforming way because their boss was a sexist asshole and they knew that they couldn't get into it with him for Mob's sake.

"I'm sorry…for saying that we could have a party." Said Mob as they helped Minegishi look through a rack of clothes. They had woken her up and said 'call a car around, we're going shopping' and then Mob had done that and now they were shopping. Well Minegishi was shopping. There was nothing here that could fit her. This was the women's section, not the girl's sections, and Mob had no idea why they were there since Minegishi hated dresses just as much as Mob hated pants.

And she knew that if she had a choice between wearing pants or walking around naked she would just stay in her room or the bathroom or something and be naked until someone got her a dress to put on.

Pants were not comfortable. They were too hot and too itchy and you couldn't bend your legs or cross your legs or anything while you wore them. She felt really bad for boys. Boys had to wear pants or else they would get teased. Girls at least had the option of switching back and forth. If she had been a boy then she would have just done like Minegishi and worn whatever she wanted to. They said that 'boy' and 'girl' shouldn't matter at all unless you were having a specific 'boy' or 'girl' medical procedure done. They said that they were who they were and if people didn't like it then that was their problem and they could go and suck a bag of…um…things that Mob was not going to think about. Minegishi had said that and also they hated pants and also they might not have even been born a girl in the first place so why were they looking at dresses in the first place.

Not that Mob minded. These were some very pretty dresses.

"Mob…you're ten and you never should have had that kind of power in the first place. It's not your fault that you approved so many fucking parties and it's not your fault that you want to go to the biggest one this branch is having because, once again, you're ten, and it's not your fault that your dad is a micromanaging sexist asshole. Ok? I'm not mad at you." Said Minegishi. They were getting nowhere with this. What even WAS this color? Baby puke green? They flipped through the shelves with more force than was necessary. They saw the same offending, baby puke green dress, in Mob's arms…along with a few more that Minegishi would not have worn for all the money in the world.

Mob was having fun with this.

They calmed down for a minute. Mob liked dressing up and she liked pretty dresses, she was in some yellow and blue, sparkly, Snow White inspired mess…no, that was mean. She looked cute. She looked cute and she liked dressing up and she liked dolls so, of course, she was planning on dressing Minegishi up like a living doll…

The things they did for this kid.

"But…you seem mad." Said Mob

"Hey, what did I tell you?" asked Minegishi

"Never let myself into your bedroom because you might be doing adult stuff?" asked Mob

"No…well, yes…but what else?" asked Minegishi

"Never mix substances?" asked Mob

"Not so loud…but what else?" asked Minegishi

"Sugar is poison?" asked Mob

"No, not that either." Said Minegishi

"I'm sorry…but you do tell me a lot of stuff." Said Mob. Minegishi cared a lot about her. That was why they were always telling her the important things that she had to know. Things that would keep her safe and also things that she just needed to know. Like the rule about knocking. She never wanted to walk in on anything like that again. Ever. Minegishi said that she shouldn't ever see that again either or she would never be able to get rid of the mental scars. Neither of them would.

"Well, somebody has to." Said Minegishi. They were the only person parenting this child. Her father couldn't be bothered, her mother was gone and possibly dead, and everyone else just let her do whatever she wanted with zero guidance, Shibata, or gave her the worst kind of guidance imaginable, Shimazaki. Or they just plain didn't like her for some reason, Fukuda, the living scented tampon that he was…and Minegishi almost felt like taking that back. It was an insult to scented tampons everywhere. At least they did their job. Fukuda…the man had the NERVE to exclude Mob from her own little brother's birthday…thing. Also he was rude as fuck, which Minegishi normally wouldn't care about, but he was rude to Mob…and also he had the nerve to touch her…they had been about to kill him that day but then they remembered that they were the only one parenting Mob so they held off on that.

They did not feel like dealing with Suzuki's wrath if they managed to kill the only healer in all of Claw.

"And I listen, too, I just don't know what specific thing it is that you want me to remember." Said Mob

"That I'm never mad at you, Mob, never at you. Ok? I'm mad…well mildly pissed off….that your dad is a sexist asshole and that a lot of important people are going to be there and since I'm a part of the Suzuki family entourage I have to look a certain way…because I want to keep my job…and also I just hate dresses. I have nothing against feminine clothing. I just hate dresses. They're impractical." Said Minegishi

"But…what about this one? It's pretty." Said Mob as she held up a sparkly pink dress with no sleeves and the back cut out. This was pretty and she would have worn this if she could wear a shirt under this because if she wore this now people would definitely see her undershirt. Also it might fall down since it had no straps…how did strapless things stay on anyway…so she would have to wear tights under it too…which were almost as bad as pants…but at least when you wore tights then nobody could see your underwear on accident.

"It's impractical…and also not in my size…and also how in the hell is this even supposed to stay up?" asked Minegishi as they put the pink monstrosity that Mob picked out back on the rack. No freaking way. Not unless they felt like freezing their ass off and flashing everyone within a ten meter radius.

"I don't know…maybe with tape?" asked Mob

"Mob, if you're going to help then find me something practical, ok? Find me something practical and then we can find something for you and then you can find something for your brother and I can find something for Ryou because he asked me to do him a favor and also he can't be trusted to pick out his own clothes." Said Minegishi. They used to kill people for a living. They used to fly to exotic locations and kill people on the orders of a madman. Now they shopped for clothes during the Christmas rush in the most overpriced department store in Tokyo with a madman's daughter. This was their life. Eh. It could have been worse. At least they had food in their stomach, a roof over their head, and good company to suffer through this with.

"What do you mean by 'practical'?" asked Mob. She got the idea that she and Minegishi had very different ideas about what was and was not practical. Minegishi thought that all dresses were impractical, for one thing, which made the job of finding a dress that was practical even more difficult. Mob thought that dresses were the most practical clothes because they left your legs free to move and they were breezy and cool when it got hot out and also you didn't have to wear a belt or spend all day pulling them up.

"Something long enough in the legs and with enough coverage in the top that I won't flash everyone when I walk. Also no sequins, sparkles, rhinestones, fake gems, real gems, or lace….and nothing poufy either. Got it?" asked Minegishi

"I've got it." Said Mob. She bowed and then took off through the racks of dresses. Mob didn't get why Minegishi had to wear a dress for this party. She knew that people were supposed to dress up but boys got to wear pants. It wasn't like a summer festival where everyone had to wear a yukata or like going to the beach where everyone had to wear a swimsuit….and even then boys and girls had different swimsuits…well they had to because of breasts and stuff…but dresses weren't a breasts thing…and also Minegishi didn't even have…well sometimes it looked like they did, like when they wore shirts that were sort of tight…but Mob had never asked about that. That just didn't seem like the sort of thing that you asked your friend.

Also if Minegishi was a girl and then Mob asked them if they had breasts then they would have been very sad if they didn't.

Mom had said, back when Mob had been really little and she used to put balled up socks down her undershirt to be like mom, that she shouldn't be in a hurry and that her time would come…but also that sometimes your time didn't come and then that would be the time to be stuffing socks down her shirt and stuff. So that meant that no everyone's time came…and it also meant that her time might not come either. Not that she gave this much though, she tried not to because if she thought about it too much she might feel bad, even though she knew that there was more to someone than what they looked like. Even then, though, Mob didn't want to look like a little kid forever.

She'd never get a boyfriend if she looked like a little kid.

She wanted to look older. Old enough that she could fit into clothes like this. She took a long and sparkly green dress off the rack…and then put it back. She didn't like green that much, that was Sho's color not hers, and also she knew that she could never fit into anything like that….and also that Minegishi would have hated that because it had no sleeves. She wondered why Minegishi didn't want to wear anything pretty. They were very pretty, in Mob's opinion anyway, and also even if they were a boy they could still wear a pretty dress since they were very pretty. They would have looked nice in her Elsa dress or her Belle dress or her fancy Aurora dress and also her Snow White dress, too, and Minegishi could actually have this one since Mob was only wearing it because she had to get dressed in a hurry this morning. Maybe they made dresses big enough for adults at the Disney Store.

Mob's dresses were both pretty and practical.

She looked for things that looked like her clothes. Minegishi might like something more like that. Also Mob mostly just knew about her own clothes. Some of these dresses….Mob wasn't sure how they worked. Like the one that looked like a towel. That would have been normal sized on her but she was ten. That would have been super short on Minegishi or any other adult. Mob had never understood short dresses. When you moved you ran the risk of showing everyone your underwear and stuff. Who would want to go around showing their underwear off to the world?

Well maybe the people who wore the pretty kind.

To get to here they had to walk past the place where they had the pretty underwear. The kind that was all lacy and sparkly…and also very itchy looking…and also Mob had no idea how you were even supposed to wear some of that…or why. She didn't get the point of nice underwear like that because it wasn't like a nice dress or shirt or even bathing suit. Nobody was going to see that but you…and also if you had to have nice underwear why not wear the kinds with characters on them? Adults could be so weird sometimes.

She would never understand them.

There must have been a Disney Store around here somewhere. Maybe instead of looking here at the adult clothes they could go to the Disney Store and see which princess dress looked best on Minegishi and then buy a bunch of the dress and then find someone to sew them together into one great big dress. Yes, that was a good plan…well it would have been. This was a fancy party and for a fancy party you had to dress fancy and to dress fancy you had to wear something other than your everyday clothes…which was nice but also a bother…so no Disney Store for them…but Mob wasn't going to stop looking. She was going to find something nice even if it took all day.

It hadn't ended up taking all day.

Because she found an Elsa dress! Well the shade of blue was wrong and there were no sparkly things and also there was no cape, some of her Elsa dresses had capes, but this was still a long blue dress with sleeves and also it looked like it would fit Minegishi! Mob took it carefully off the rack, she didn't want to hurt the most perfect dress that she had found so far, and she slowly carried it over to Minegishi. She was glad that she'd had good luck so far…because based on Minegishi's aura and how they were talking to themselves they were not having good luck at all.

"….not wearing a bra. Never wearing a bra again…can't wear boxers with this….damn it." Muttered Minegishi. They wondered if they should just deal with whatever it was that Suzuki did to people who embarrassed him. It couldn't have been any worse than what he did to people who talked during meetings or made too much eye contact with him. Yeah, they could do a few days or whatever in a traitor hole…

Because they were not wearing a fucking dress.

Nope. They were not dressing like this. They dressed for maximum comfort and mobility and this was not maximum comfort or mobility. They were not going to do this. They weren't going to stay home, they had to be there for Mob and stuff, but they were not going to wear a dress. Wearing a dress would involve wearing a bra, too, which they hated and also not wearing boxers, which meant that they would be uncomfortable the whole night, not just physically but in their own skin too and they were never going to feel like that again. They had promised themselves years ago that they would never feel uncomfortable in their own skin ever again.

"I found something practical and pretty at the same time." Said Mob. She wished that she could have done something about how their aura was. It was all….flaring up…like they were mad. Not at Mob, though, never at Mob. She had heard them loud and clear. Still, though, she worried about them. They were her friend and she never wanted her friend to be mad even if it wasn't at her.

"Great, we can be twins. I can look just like a ten year old girl…sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that to you. I'm just pissed and stressed. God…I need a drink so fucking bad…" said Minegishi with a groan. They could feel Mob's eyes and aura on them. Now her little hand was reaching over to theirs. Her nails were blue, theirs were lavender. Her skin was a lot paler than theirs. They were a lot smaller than them…

But she was the one comforting them.

They didn't need comfort. They were fine, they had dealt with worse, a lifetime of worse. Hell, this wasn't even the worst clothing related stressor that they had ever been under. They had worn a lifetime of uniforms after all. They'd had to wear that white blouse and hideous shit brown skirt back in elementary school and then the bright pink children's home jumpers….and that had been a hell of a fight to get them into that thing. Pants. Pants were clearly superior but because they had been born with a vagina it meant that they could pop out a baby at any time, apparently, which meant that the area had to be kept clear which meant no pants for them. Wonderful. Every single facet of their life had to be dictated by that second X chromosome that they had been born with.

Life really sucked sometimes.

"Um…I'll have a drink with you, I would like that too, but I don't see what's wrong with us being twins. I would love to be twins with you! I was actually thinking, before, that since you liked dresses that were long and had sleeves and stuff we could go to the Disney Store and then find a dress that you liked and then we could just get a bunch of those dresses, maybe five or six, and then dew them together to make one big enough for you." Said Mob. She had been serious, the most serious, but all Minegishi did was laugh and then squeeze her hand tighter…and Mob didn't get it. She didn't see why that was such a bad idea. They could ether figure out sewing or find someone who knew how…or something.

"Mob…we don't know anything about sewing…and either way I hate dresses. It doesn't matter what you or I pick out, that's nice by the way you did good, I'm still going to hate wearing dresses and that hatred will be something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life." Said Minegishi

"Oh. Well then why not wear pants?" asked Mob. If Minegishi hated wearing dresses that much then they just should have worn a nice pair of pants. Girls could wear pants…not that she was sure if Minegishi was a boy or a girl…but either way if they were then girls could wear pants. Nobody would tease a girl for wearing pants like they would tease a boy for wearing a dress…even though that was unfair and made no sense….so instead of being upset they should just wear pants.

"Honestly…I'm considering it. If I get screamed at or beaten up or thrown down some God forsaken hole to starve to death then….then so be it. I am not going to wear a stupid dress all evening just because someone else wants me to." Said Minegishi. They had to be there for Mob, and they would be, they would just be there in pants. Suzuki was a sexist asshole, and also batshit crazy, but they would deal with whatever they had coming to them. Come what may and all of that.

"Minegishi. No. I would never let anyone do that to you. You know that." Said Mob. Anyone who wanted to hurt her friend would have to deal with her first. She wasn't someone who liked to fight, Sho got all of the fighting genes in the family, but if someone tried to hurt someone who she loved well…well then there would be no choice. She didn't want to have to hurt anyone, she wasn't Sho she didn't like fighting, but…but she would do what she had to do.

You've got to do what you've got to do.

"Mob, I appreciate the sentiment and all, I really do, but you're ten. You're ten and you don't get…how things are. How the world can just put it's expectations on you and…and how sometimes you pay for not conforming to them." Said Minegishi. Mob was a doormat. They knew that it was a mean thing to think but she let people walk all over her. Her father. Her brother. Even Fukuda and she outranked him. She just let people walk all over her and…and anyway Minegishi did not need a ten year old defending them. They could take care of themselves. They had always taken care of themselves.

"The clothes you wear is a stupid thing for people to get upset about. It's none of their business and if someone gets upset about it then it's their problem…and also if someone tries to do any of that mean stuff to you that you just said then it's going to be my problem. I won't let people treat you like that. You're my best friend." Said Mob

"Mob…don't. I love you but don't. I can handle myself." said Minegishi. They weren't sure what to say. On the one hand Mob looked like a little badass there and even they were slightly afraid of her. She was ten, well ten and a half, but they were also a VERY powerful esper. They could never come close to being what she was at ten and a half and God help anyone who truly pissed her off. On the other hand even if Mob was the second most powerful esper that Minegishi had ever seen, nobody could top the President, they still didn't anyone to defend them. They could take care of themselves.

"I love too…and I will. I won't let anyone hurt you. I'm strong enough to keep you safe and…and even if I don't like fighting I'm going to keep you and everyone else who I care about safe. Dad says that he's going to take over the world because he has the power to do it…and I'm going to keep you safe because I have the power to do that." Said Mob. It made perfect sense. She was strong enough to keep her friends safe so she would keep her friends safe. Like dad said. She was strong enough to do something so then she should do it.

"Mob…you're not going to come off this, are you?" asked Minegishi. She had that look in her eyes, that Suzuki look, and for the first time she looked like her father…but not really. She was a nice kid and she was trying to be nice and…and Minegishi could not fault her for that. Better she use that Suzuki energy for good instead of trying to take over the world or something.

"No. If you want to wear pants then you should wear pants and if people try to make fun of you worse then I'll make them stop." Said Mob

"Mob…never change. Come on, let's go. I'm getting some pants for myself and something for Ryou to wear. Then we'll go to the kid's clothes and find something for you and your brother." Said Minegishi. It felt…nice. Having someone in their corner. Having someone who would defend them. Not that they would be letting Mob defend them, no, Minegishi could take care of themselves. Still…it was nice. Mob was nice.

"Ok, I bet you'll find some really nice pants over in the boy's section. Their pants have deeper pockets and also they'll probably have the baggy kind that you like." Said Mob. She felt better, now, because Minegishi could be comfortable and also nobody would pick on them. She wanted her friend to be happy and it shouldn't have mattered, anyway, if they wanted to wear pants or not. There were other things in the world to worry about. Also it was going to be a party and at a party you were supposed to be able to have fun. So if Minegishi wanted to wear pants they could.

It would have been weird seeing them in a dress, anyway.