"Mob?! What the hell?!"

Mob woke up with a start. She threw himself back into Minegishi as their entire room shook. She had been asleep, fast asleep, and now she was awake. Judging from where the sun was it was not at all time for her to be awake. No, it was too early…and she hadn't wanted to be awake in the first place. She had just now managed to get some sleep and that was after Minegishi gave her half of one of this rectangular sleeping pills. She could only have half because if she had the full bar then she might never wake up, Minegishi said, especially since she had been drinking. She hadn't wanted to go to sleep forever, just for the rest of the night, and she would have been fast asleep if not for the person right in front of her shaking her and shouting in her face.

Oh. Right. She had kind of ditched Shimazaki back there.

"Good morning, Shimazaki." Said Mob. She didn't know what else to say. Well she could say sorry….and she would say that later. When her thoughts got less foggy. She was sorry for leaving him…but to be fair he had left her on some stranger's couch in the middle of the night so he could go off and do kissing stuff…but she still should have said sorry. Two wrongs didn't make a right but two rights made a left and she had a lot of the day left for sleeping so that was what she was going to do.

She closed her eyes and put her head back down.

And then was shaken awake. Shimazaki was shaking her…and he did not smell good. She shrank back from him into Minegishi. They were still asleep. They had taken two full bars. They said never to do as they had done but their tolerance was higher, they were an adult, and they had trouble getting to sleep at the best of times. These had not been the best of times, they had said, because they were two people sleeping in a one person bed and that was not comfortable at all.

"No, no, no! You do not get to sleep right now! Seriously! Where WERE you last night!?" asked Shimazaki. No, she did not just get to go back to sleep like that. She had just up and left and vanished! He had spent the whole night looking all over for her! He had looked in every big house, little house, playhouse, treehouse, and dollhouse for her! Well maybe looking in dollhouses hadn't been the best use of his time…but in his defense he hadn't been doing much thinking towards the end.

"Here. With Minegishi. Now don't talk so loud or you'll wake them up." Said Mob. She could feel Minegishi stirring next to her. Minegishi was tired and she was tired and…and also she felt…not good. She felt more than tired. She felt kind of foggy…and she just needed to put her head back down for a little bit…

"Hey! No falling asleep! Do you have any clue how worried I was about you? Do you have any idea where you were? I thought that you'd been kidnapped and sold. I thought that you'd died. I thought that you'd run away to start your own esper cult. I thought that you'd fallen into the spirit world! I thought…well I thought a lot of things…and they were all about you. Well you and Toshi. I thought about Toshi a lot. You and Toshi and then I found this party and then this other party and then I was in a tree…but I mostly thought about you!" said Shimazaki. She was not going to put her head back down. How could she have just left him like that? He had only left her alone for a few minutes and then she just vanished! Gone into thin air! She should have known better than that.

"I'm here and I'm safe and I'm tired. Can we talk about this in the morning?" asked Mob. She didn't even bother to open her eyes. She just felt his aura. He was…he had been worried. Also his aura felt…tired? Not sleepy tired but like exhausted tired. He smelled like…pine trees? And drinking. That too. And the ocean for some reason…and wet dog…and also something that she couldn't place the smell of…but that didn't matter. She just needed rest….

"It is the morning! Suzuki, I'm mad at you! You just up and left me! I had no clue where you were!" said Shimazaki. He may have been too loud, then, because he could feel Toshi waking up. He could feel Toshi waking up and he could feel them reaching out to the plants around him…and he decided to teleport out of the way before they could catch him. He teleported to the other side of the room and knocked over Minegishi's dirty laundry pile…great. Now they had something else to be mad at him about…but to be fair Mob had been the one who started all of this. If she had been planning on heading home then she should have just told him and he would have taken her home. Well after he had gotten done with what he had been doing, of course, after all of that then he would have been happy to take her wherever she had wanted to go. Even home.

How could she have been so inconsiderate?!

"Ryou. Get. Out." Said Minegishi. They needed sleep to live. They could start hacking pieces off of him in the morning but right now they needed rest. They needed to rest and sleep and all of those things which were necessary for life. He would pay for his many, MANY mistakes later but right now they needed sleep….

"Toshi…God. There are so many things I want to tell you. Like…how much I missed you….and how it would have been so much fun if you'd be there….and how if you want to have a kid then I'll totally-" said Shimazaki. He saw the vines coming. He dodged the vines. The only problem was the other vine that hit him in the back of the head. He felt a stinging pain. He smelled blood.

God, that was so Toshi.

He reached behind his head and felt his blood. God, Toshi was the only person who could make him bleed. Well Toshi and the boss but that was different. Toshi was…Toshi. Toshi was Toshi was Toshi was Toshi and…and what? He had been thinking about….right! That damn kid! She had just up left him in the middle of the night without so much as a note! Well he couldn't have read it but…but it still would have been a nice sentiment at least!

"What are you on about?" asked Minegishi. They sat up and opened their eyes. The sun was too bright. They needed to go back to the darkness that existed behind their eyelids. Ryou was lucky like that. Also he was lucky that he didn't have any eyes for them to gouge out. That could come later, though, after they had gotten some much needed sleep…

"Toshi! Don't fall asleep! There are so many things I want to yell to you!" said Shimazaki. Toshi could not go back to sleep because if they did go back to sleep then he would forget all of the things that he had to say to them. All of the epiphanies. He'd had so many epiphanies and he had to share them with Toshi before they got replaced by new epiphanies! All of the epiphanies! He needed to tell them all to Toshi right now!

He teleported over to the bed and picked Mob up.

"What's happening?" asked Mob. She had been warm and comfortable and now she was cold and her feet weren't touching the ground….bed. She opened her eyes. She was face to face with Shimazaki again.

"Sorry but I need to tell Toshi things. You have to sleep somewhere else." Said Shimazaki. Was he mad at her? Right, right, right…about how she had just up and left him! She had just left him and he had thought that she had died or been kidnapped or sold or…or…or…or all of the other things that could happen to a little girl!

"Also I'm mad at you for ditching me so…go think about what you've done…or something." Said Shimazaki. He put her down on the floor. He felt her lay down on Toshi's floor. She smelled like Toshi, too. Probably because she had been sleeping next to Toshi…in his spot. She had taken his spot! Well now he was taking his spot back!

"Get out of my bed, Ryou." Said Minegishi. They did not have the energy for this. They needed sleep. They needed to sleep to live and they needed to live to make sure that he stopped living. Honestly. Did he honestly think that he could just go crawling into bed with them after the stunt he pulled? Did he think that any of what he had done had been ok? Well it wasn't.

"But Toshi! I had an epiphany! I had a bunch of them! Ok, first of all I think that you're a great person! Like, you're the whole package! You're smart and funny and you know me and you get me and you're good at breathing and your skin is soft and your hair isn't but I still love it and you…the whole time I was with her I was thinking about you and I decided that you're a very important person and stuff and I know you and I know you and I know you and-" said Shimazaki. He couldn't think of what to say next to he just repeated over and over and over again. He had never had this much to say to another human being before but…but he had to say this to Toshi and…and it was important!

And now he was being smothered.

"Ryou. Shut your mouth. I'm tired, I need sleep, and I need you go get out of my bed." Said Minegishi as they smothered him with all the strength they could muster…which was not very much of it at all.

"Can I come back in the bed? My legs are cold." Said Mob. She was laying down on Minegishi's floor. She was wearing one of their T-shirts as a nightshirt. It was too short and she wished she could get back under the blankets and back with Minegishi in the comfy bed and just…rest.

"Mob. In. Ryou. Out." Said Minegishi. They took the pillow off of Shimazaki's face and put it back under their head. They closed their eyes and went back to sleep. They needed sleep.

"But Toshi! My epiphanies!" said Shimazaki. Now he was having trouble remembering them. Now he would forget and he would forget all of the things that they had to know. All of the things that he had to say to them.

"You're high." Said Minegishi. They knew him and they knew about his 'epiphanies'. They were too tired to deal with this nonsense.

"No! Well…yes…ok, so I was coming down and then I thought, you know, I can't just come down because I had to see where the kid had gone off too and then I kept on looking for her and…and then ok, so I kept going and there was this party….and then I was in a tree…and then I felt her aura and I came here….and I'm mad at her still for ditching me…and also there are just so many things that I want to say to you but I don't know how so you just have to let me say them because….because I have to. I have so much to say…" said Shimazaki. He reached over and rested his hand on the space where their waist met their hip and stuff…God, he had missed them so much. Their shirt had ridden up. He knew this one. There was a thing on the front that was soft and shaped like a big circle. He stayed at their waist. They had such soft skin. He reached down and felt the hair they had on their stomach. They were so soft, like a kiwi, but warm. Like a kiwi that had been left in the sun for a while and the inside was all warm and juicy. He leaned in close to them.

They were so soft.

They were good at breathing, too. They were good at breathing and he let himself get lost on it. Their breathing, The ebb and flow of the energy of their aura. The softness of their skin. He scooted in closer. He could smell them. They still smelled like the party. Champagne and sugar…and they had been smoking, too, last night. They had been…oh. They had been doing a lot last night. He rested his head under their chin. They had been up to a lot last night but that was ok. That had been one of his epiphanies. Toshi was Toshi and Toshi would never leave him because they had never had Toshi in the first place. Toshi was like a wildflower and Toshi could grow anywhere but if he tried to bury Toshi alive in a pot of dirt then they would die.

He loved Toshi so much.

Even when they were pulling his hair.

"Get out of my bed. You're high. You've been going all night. You need to get out of my bed, go to your bed, and sleep off whatever the hell this is. You need to apologize to Mob, too. You gave her coke, dragged her all over the city, and then let her just walk right out into the snow at two in the morning." Said Minegishi. There. Those were their thoughts on the matter. Now they could rest.

"She had fun! Didn't you have fun, Mob?!" asked Shimazaki

"I had fun until you left me alone. Then I went home. Then Minegishi found me. Then we had a sleepover. Can I come back in the bed now? My legs are cold." Said Mob. She tried to sit up. She still felt sort of foggy…and also she wanted to get back in the bed. She tried to stand up. It took her a couple of tries. Why was she so foggy?

"See? She had fun." Said Shimazaki

"That's not the point. I'm upset with you and I'm exhausted. Go to your own bed, Ryou." Said Minegishi in a tone that left no room for argument. He had better not start arguing. He had better not have thought that he had a leg to stand on. If he started arguing with them about this then he wasn't going to have a leg to stand on. Literally.

"Why are you so mad at me? I didn't let anything happen to her. She had fun. I took good care of her. I kept her hydrated and carried her when the blisters on her feet broke and I brought her to a bathroom when she had to piss and everything. I was in total control of the situation until she decided to leave on her own, not cool by the way, but she was with you so she was safe. Come on, Toshi, don't be like this." said Shimazaki. Maybe they had said the wrong thing. Toshi tensed up, every muscle in their body got tense, and not in a good way. Their aura reached out to the plants that surrounded them. Also not good.

"She could have died. Ryou, she could have died. There is no reason for you to give her coke. There is no reason that you had to drag her all throughout the city in the middle of the night. There is no reason you had to take her to your dealer's house and there is no reason why…why any of that should have happened. Now. Get. Out. Right now I cannot stand the sight of you. Right now the sound of your voice is filling me with a terrible rage. You need to get out of this bed and you need to let me sleep. I was awake until three in the morning last night…more like four…and I need sleep. You coming in here high as a fucking kite is not helping. Now go to sleep and then we can talk about this whenever I feel like getting up. Go." Said Minegishi. They glared so hard they knew that he could feel it. They extended their powers into the plants the filled the room. Either he got out or they would throw him out…

And it looked like he was going to need to be thrown out.

Minegishi would have thrown him out if they hadn't felt their control being overrode. Mob's doing. They forgot, sometimes, how powerful of an esper she was. Even there, exhausted, she could still easily take control way from them. Minegishi stared at her. She was upset about something…and she had better not have started up about how much she loved doing coke now because Minegishi did not want to deal with a ten year old coke fiend. Nope. That would just been too much.

"Stop fighting. Friends shouldn't fight. I shouldn't have left on my own and I'm sorry. I did have a lot of fun and I want to do it again…but also I won't because I know that you were worried about me. You're my friend and you worry about me and….and he's my friend too and he was worried about me too. When you worry you try to keep me safe and when I worry I try to make you happy and when he worries he tries to get the person he's worried about to have fun. Please don't fight. Friends shouldn't fight. If you want to fight then you can fight me because I was the one who was upset and I was the one who went along with everything. So if you want to be mad please be mad at me…and that's all I have to say about that…and now I have to go to the bathroom." Said Mob. She meant everything that she had just said. Friends should have been friends and friends did not fight, she'd had a very nice time, and also she really did have to go to the bathroom. She'd been drinking water all night.

"Fair enough. Take a piss and come back to bed. Friends shouldn't fight but sometimes they do. Just go to the bathroom and then when you come back you'll have somewhere to sleep. Ryou and I need to talk." Said Minegishi. They did not want to have the conversation, or any conversation, with him but they had to. Mob hated it when things stewed and, really, so did they. There was not any point at all in letting things stew. They lived with Ryou. Maybe the best they could do was sit there, listen to Ryou epiphanies, and then wait for him to be more sober before they told him why it was such a bad idea, a terrible one really, to give a ten year old child coke.

This was what their life had come to. They had to explain to a grown man why it was wrong to put a child in danger like that.

"Ok…but please don't fight." Said Mob. She didn't know what they had ended up talking about. They could have been fighting or making up for all she knew. All she knew was that she needed the bathroom. She was so glad that their bathroom was clean…well it wasn't. No, the towels were always wet and the bathmat was always squishy and there were spit speckles all over the mirror and stuff…after that bathroom that she had been in last night she was grateful for any bathroom at all with real hand soap. She would never complain about a bathroom again and she would not have complained about this bathroom if she could just get in…

But she couldn't.

There was a line. Shibata was standing in line ahead of her. She didn't mind too badly. She could hold it for two days if she had to. She could beat Sho…not that they were going to have that contest ever again. That was bad for their insides. Mob didn't want to hold it for two days or anything like that but she would have liked to get into the bathroom soon.

"Hatori…come on. You can't stay in there for the rest of your life. Other people need to use the bathroom….a line is forming." Said Shibata. He knew that he could have just broken down the door and dragged him out but that would have been wrong. It was the bathroom and in the bathroom there were rules that needed to be followed for the good of society.

Hatori needed to learn these social rules.

Because you were not supposed to lock yourself in the bathroom for ages. You weren't supposed to do a lot of things in bathrooms that Hatori had been doing. Especially the pissing in the sink part. That…that had been something. That was something that he should not have been getting up to. That was…that was getting to the limits of this friendship. He hoped that the next work party they had was dry, bone dry, and also that Shimazaki was not invited. Either that or he was keeping Hatori home.

Because this was getting to be just a little too much.

"They can go in the yard! I'm not coming out. I can't come out! I'm too ashamed!" said Hatori. He could not come out. He was going to spend the rest of the night in his bathroom. He was going to spend the rest of eternity in this bathroom. Who could ever show their face in public after doing what he had done? After saying what he had said? And in front of everyone. Including Little Sister-sama. He had said all of that in front of a kid! A little kid! Also he had no idea what he had done in that bathroom but it must have been bad if Shibata wouldn't tell him.

He was never going to any parties again for as long as he lived…which may not have been long if any of this had gotten to the boss yet.

"Can't you be ashamed somewhere else? Come on…it's been all night with you. You don't have to be that ashamed. I mean, ok, you said some really embarrassing things to Minegishi…where everyone could hear…and also all of that stuff that happened in the bathroom…but that was my fault for not holding it for you….not that I wanted to…just come out! Come on, I'll make you waffles…" said Shibata

"The waffle iron is still broken. You're just going to make square pancakes." Said Hatori

"….you still like them." Said Shibata. What was wrong with his square pancakes? He cut the waffle pattern into them. If they wanted actual waffles then one of them, he suspected Shimazaki, needed to stop melting caramels together into a caramel waffle. He knew how to make caramel waffles! Shimazaki didn't need to melt a bag of caramels together in the waffle iron to make a caramel waffle!

"….yeah….I do…but I can't come out. You don't understand. You heard what I said. You heard what I said to them and now I have to face them…and the rest of the world, too. Everyone knows what I said and what I did…and also I pissed in a sink…and I'm not proud of that or anything else that I did." Said Hatori.

"Why did he do that?" asked Mob. She wrinkled her nose at that. She liked him…less…now. She liked him less but she still liked him as a friend…but she couldn't see herself being the girlfriend of someone who not only liked her best friend but also peed in a sink. That was….that was not ok and it was too early for this.

"Sometimes when you've got to go you've got to go….and I think that he's going to be in there for a while so maybe you should head back to your house. This…this is going to take a while." Said Shibata

"I am never coming out!" said Hatori. He wanted to stay in there forever. If he lived in his room for the rest the his life then he might end up running into Minegishi on the way to the bathroom and then, therefore, the bathroom was where he would live…and he was thinking. He was not acting in a way that was in any way irrational. He could never show his face in this house, let alone society, again. Therefore he would live in the bathroom. There. Simple.

"I don't really want to go home…but I can try and talk to him." said Mob. She wasn't good at talking but she knew how to get Sho out of the bathroom when he needed to hide from the world. She hoped that the next place they lived had locks on the doors. Then people would be able to hide in their own rooms and not in bathrooms.

"Well you can give it your best shot. If you need me I'll be making waffles…square pancakes…for everyone." Said Shibata. Maybe she would have more luck than him. Who could say no to a kid? You couldn't. It was physically impossible. Like passing by a dog and not petting it. Or passing by a baby and not wanting to pick it up…well you had to resist the urge to pick up other people's babies. They…did not react well to that at all. The parent or the baby.

"Ok. I'm not hungry but I'll eat later. Did you hear that Hatori? There's going to be square pancakes." Said Mob. The promise of food could sometimes get Sho out of the bathroom when he was hiding…but not now.

"You eat them. More for you." Said Hatori

"But you need food, too." Said Mob

"Little Sister-sama, I don't deserve to eat. When you're older you'll understand." Said Hatori

"I don't know what there is to understand but I do know that Shibata makes good pancakes and that you like them…so please come out." Said Mob. She wondered why he didn't just hide in his own room…but then again his room didn't have a bathroom…but still. Other people needed the bathroom. Like her. She could go home but…dad was there.

"I can't come out. When you're older you'll understand." Said Hatori

"Um…we can play games together if you come out." Said Mob. That worked too. That worked a lot with Sho….but Hatori was not Sho…because he was older than Sho and also not her brother….but she was still going to try. She wanted to go to the bathroom but she did not want to go home because dad was there and was too tired to be answering any questions.

"Little Sister-sama….I can't come out. I said and did a lot of things that I'm not proud of so I'm going to stay in the bathroom for the rest of my life. I hope you can understand. It's been an honor crafting and mining with you." Said Hatori solemnly.

"Have you been drinking? I mean still. I know that you were drunk last night and I was wondering if you were still drunk today. Not to be mean but you sound drunk right now…or high. Or both." Said Mob. Sometimes when you went too hard you broke your brain. Shimazaki had said that. He had said that sometimes your brain just stopped working but that was ok. Your brain not working was letting the rest of you have fun…even if you did end up talking a lot of nonsense while you waited for your brain to start working again.

"I'm fine…just…ashamed. Very ashamed. I'm sorry that I said all of that in front of you, by the way, I shouldn't have said that in front of you." Said Hatori. He was never going to forgive himself not only for confessing in the worst way imaginable but also for adding some new terms to a little kid's vocabulary. No, that had been wrong of him. Every part of that had been so wrong…and Suzuki was going to kill him once he realized the colorful new words he had added to his little girl's vocabulary. Yeah…he was a dead man…he knew that he wasn't right for this! His life was over!

"Um…it's ok. You're in love with Minegishi but that's alright. I knew that you didn't like me like that…and that's ok. We can still be friends. So if you're embarrassed about that then you can come out." Said Mob with a yawn. He should have just said something to her if he thought that it was going to be awkward. He knew that she liked him…right? Minegishi had told her, before, that her crush had been obvious…and also of course Hatori wouldn't have liked her like that. She was just a kid after all.

"I'm not in love with them I just…like them a lot…and I should not have talked to her, them! I should not have talked to them like that. That had been wrong of me and…and don't ever let a guy talk to you the way I talked to them! And also don't ever repeat a work I said…or ask me what those words meant…ok?" asked Hatori. He could hear her yawning through the door. It was early and she should have been in bed. He should have been in bed. Maybe…he should have come out of the bathroom….because a ten year old thought that he was being ridiculous.

Maybe he was being just a little bit overdramatic.

After all a kid thought that he was acting like he was either drunk or high or both. Maybe he hadn't thought this through. Maybe he had just been a little….not right. Well then he had to…to face what he had done…by hiding in his room instead of the bathroom and then just avoiding Minegishi for the rest of his life. There. Simple.

He could do that.

"Ok…and thank you so much for coming out of the bathroom." Said Mob. She hadn't gotten most of that but she was grateful to have use of the bathroom. She didn't know why she wasn't supposed to ever let anyone confess to her…but she would ask Minegishi later. Right now she just wanted to go to the bathroom and then go to sleep and then wake up and go home and stuff like that. Normal stuff. Hopefully everything would be back to normal and everyone would be back to normal and then the whole party thing would be a distant memory. Even though aside from the part where her heart had gotten ripped out like in Mortal Kombat it had been a very nice night.

Well it had been for her, at least, the rest of her friends….well they might have more fun at the next party.