Suzuki Touichirou managed to throw his back out playing in the snow.
This was not the strangest way he had ever injured himself. No, he had come to Fukuda with much stranger injuries. Like the noodle incident. That was…how he had even managed to mangle his in a noodle maker was beyond Fukuda. Also there was the time when they'd mixed bleach and ammonia together because they had learned at school to never do that…and Suzuki in his infinite wisdom decided that he would be immune because of his powers…and actually it turned out that he was, in fact, not immune to chemical warfare. No, chlorine gas was, in fact, very dangerous. So, really, in the history of…whatever their relationship could be called this was not the worst or strangest injury that Suzuki had ever come to him with.
Well, aside from how he had managed to injure himself.
"There you go, good as new." Said Fukuda as he pulled his aura in closed. He felt drained. Partially because he had just used his powers and partially because Suzuki was a very draining man to be around. Especially when he did things like this. Things like take one of his children off to play in the snow but not the other. Not that he wanted Sho to spend time with his father, Suzuki seemed incapable of giving his Son even the most basic form of positive attention, but he did wish that Suzuki wouldn't rub it in Sho's face like that. Every single Sunday, from midnight to midnight, he spent the entire day with Shigeko and had never even offered Sho-
Calm. Down.
Sho was better off without his father and sister. There wasn't enough room in that pod for a third pea. No, Sho was better off on his own…he just didn't see it yet because he was ten. He only saw the unfairness of the situation. He only saw how unfair it was that his dad favored his older sister above him. Things were better when Masami had been around. She had at least been there for Sho. Well she was gone now and Fukuda was all that he had.
Well the only good influence that he had.
Sho had gone off into the city with Shimazaki. Fukuda…he needed to keep a better eye on Sho. Sunday had been his day of rest, Suzuki cleared his calendar for his favorite child every single week, and he needed that rest. He may not have been feeling his age as badly as Suzuki was starting to, spending most of your day hunched over a desk tense as all else would do that to a person, but he wasn't as young as he used to be. Chasing after Sho…it wasn't easy. Well it had never been easy but now they were both getting older. He couldn't just pick Sho up and carry him anymore. He was ten and Fukuda was going on forty four these days…but he would still have to try. For Sho's sake. He hadn't done enough for Shigeko and now look at where she was. He couldn't let that happen to Sho. He wouldn't let that happen to Sho. He had to look after Sho.
Somebody had to look after Sho and it looked like it would be Fukuda.
"Can't you do something to keep that from happening?" asked Suzuki
"I can't reverse the aging process. Believe me, I would if I could but I can't." said Fukuda. If he could do it all again, with both of the kids, he would. He wasn't Shigeko's biggest fan but maybe if he had done more for her when she had been a child then maybe she wouldn't have turned out the way she was. She was Suzuki's daughter but not by blood. She probably had, based on the similar power sets and mannerisms, the same disorder that Suzuki had…but maybe there was something that could have been done for her…maybe. He didn't know. There was no point in dwelling on the past. She was what she was and he just had to learn from all of his failures and move on.
"So this just going to get worse?" asked Suzuki
"Maybe. I don't know. I'm a healer, not a doctor, and all I can tell you is that you're forty three." Said Fukuda
"I know what age I am. I don't see what that has to do with anything. I'm not old." Said Suzuki
"I was just saying that we're getting up there. Maybe playing with the kids in the snow isn't the best thing to be doing these days." Said Fukuda. What he wanted to say was that he should either play with both of his kids or neither of his kids. Fukuda had played in the snow with Sho plenty. He loved the snow. He loved snowmen and snow forts and putting snow down people's back because that's what his thirty year old best friend/ first crush did for fun. Sho…he would have enjoyed himself…if his father had been a normal person that is. Or not even a normal person. Just a person who was capable of showing love to his children.
"Death is coming for me soon." Said Suzuki as he straightened out his back. Fukuda didn't roll his eyes even though he really wanted to. Suzuki was both the master of the non sequitur and of being unnecessarily over dramatic. They were almost forty four, not a hundred and four, so they didn't have to worry about death or dying for a while…yay. Just three or four more decades together. Wonderful. Three or four more decades of….this.
Or even longer.
Fukuda aged. He just aged more slowly than the people around him. He had started to notice sometime in his mid-twenties. He was in his early forties and looked about ten years younger than he should have. No grey hair yet, no back and joint pain yet, and he could still read and look at screens just fine. Suzuki on the other hand…well Fukuda had seen him squinting and had heard him pop his back on more than one occasion. Of course he was too proud to admit that he was getting older, probably would need reading glasses soon, needed to take up yoga for the good of his poor joints, and would probably start to go grey soon…or white. Did red heads grow white or grey? He had no clue but he knew that when this happened Suzuki would have one of his existential crises and demand that Fukuda try his best to restore him to the prime of life.
Lovely.
"I don't think that anyone ever died of a bad back, boss." Said Fukuda as he gave Suzuki a once over. He was fine. Well fine for now. There was only so much Fukuda could do for the aging process. For other people, anyway, he still looked about ten to fifteen years younger than his actual age. It was starting to get harder to keep up with Sho, though, but he would do his best. Someone needed to spend time with Sho…someone who wasn't Shimazaki Ryou. Someone who could take care of him and wouldn't get him into God only knew what kind of trouble. Well Fukuda knew what kind of trouble. The same kind that her sister had been getting herself into for a year or so now. Good help them all once these kids got to be teenagers…
"No, but people do die of old age. I am not looking forward to it." Said Suzuki. Fukuda physically bit his tongue. He could taste copper. He had been very tempter to tell Suzuki that a lot of people were waiting for him to bite the dust. His enemies, his allies, his employees, his trusted upper echelon, probably even his own precious Daughter. But no, he didn't, because there was no need to get Suzuki paranoid. Paranoid Suzuki was worse than obsessive Suzuki. Nobody needed to deal with that least of all Fukuda.
He had enough on his plate as it was.
"Well nobody looks forward to it-" said Fukuda
"Daughter will be devastated when I die." Said Suzuki. Fukuda bit his tongue again. Well at least he knew that Sho, when the time came, would be relieved. He would probably be happy, even, to be free of his father. Not because he would rule the world one day, either, but because the world would finally be free of Suzuki Touichirou. Because he would finally be free of Suzuki Touichirou.
"She would be." Said Fukuda in a tone that gave nothing away. He kept his aura as calm and as still as possible. Of course Shigeko would be devastated. She was daddy's little girl after all. She was more Suzuki's child than his actual child…children. He had two blood children. The baby would have been about one now…and he would have to check on it soon. When it came time for that away mission he would take Sho and check on that baby. She was a baby prodigy after all, born with an aura, and he had no idea what it was that Suzuki had made.
He really didn't.
Well he knew what Suzuki had made. A person. He had been stupid and made a person and then he had abandoned the person that he made…which was for the best. Sho had been devastated to lose his little sister but it was in the best interest of the baby to give her as stable a home as a member of Claw could provide. Fukuda had no idea what would become of that baby. She was half of Suzuki and half of Pang Sujin, Fukuda didn't know that woman at all but he got the feeling that she couldn't have been all there if she had found Suzuki of all people attractive. At least Masami, when they had met, hadn't had any idea of what Suzuki really was and when she figured it out she had tried to leave…but the baby's mother had actually been attracted to him…
He hoped to God that this baby wouldn't grow up to be the second…third….coming of Suzuki.
They already had Shigeko, she was the second coming, and the world did not need a third. Suzuki…Fukuda hoped to God that he wasn't planning on having anymore unprotected sex. The world did not need any more of his children. No, he had enough to worry about when the kids that he had came to that age. He had been talking about wanting grandkids for so long, even though he already had three kids that were nowhere near adulthood, and he knew that Shigeko would probably end up being just as stupid as her father had been. Neither of his biological children had been planned and Shigeko already kept company with grown men….
Fukuda wondered if anyone would notice if he filled his pockets with rocks and walked out into the river.
"I don't know what she'll do when that day comes. Hopefully she has enough independent skills to take care of herself. I've been trying to give her space to build those skills….so hopefully she'll be alright." Said Suzuki
"I don't think that you have to worry about that. Shigeko's going to be just fine. She took over in your absence, remember? Yeah, she'll be just fine." Said Fukuda. He had to reassure Suzuki now before he got paranoid. He was already deep into an obsession with Shigeko. He didn't need to get paranoid over her too.
"She did…but I still worry. She's very small. She's very small and very soft and our time together is limited. I worry." Said Suzuki. This was…not a good sign. Fukuda…time for some damage control. Thank God that they were in his house and not Suzuki's. He didn't know if he would have been able to do this kind of damage control is Sho had been around. If Sho had been around then he would have been reminded of the sheer hell Suzuki had put that child through….
But they were alone in his house.
So he could be there for Suzuki. Well for everyone else, really, because it was in the best interests of everyone Suzuki came into contact with that his mental state be…well not sane, the man who had spent the better part of his life planning how he was going to conquer the world was not sane, but not as…insane…as he could have been….
He was worried. That wasn't good for anyone.
"What's there to worry about? She's a good kid." Said Fukuda. She drank and smoked and got high off of God only knew what. She kept company with grown men and stayed out all night with them. She was a very fast little girl…but Fukuda was not going to bring that up. Suzuki was…not well. Not if he was openly saying that he was worried about another human being. Fukuda had always been the go to guy for these sorts of things but Suzuki…he was not an emotionally opened man. Hell, all he'd had to say when Sho was born was 'I looked over the curtain. My wife had been fileted like a fish. I saw her organs. I feel ill. I also have a son now. He is called Sho.'
"I know that she's a good person. She's the best person to ever live. She has an infinite capacity for kindness and patience. Her control is better than even mine was at her age. She is a fascinating conversationalist even when she talks about things which I have no interest in. She is very good company. She's a good cook. At her size she fits perfectly in my arms…though I shouldn't try and lift her. She's the best person currently alive in this world." Said Suzuki. Fukuda forced his face and aura to remain still. That was…not a good sign.
At all.
If Shigeko had been some woman that he had been talking about then he would have told Suzuki to go and tell her all of this…but Shigeko was not some woman. She wasn't even a woman at all. She was ten. She was Suzuki's ten year old…well she was closer to eleven now…but that was not the point. The point was that Suzuki was…Fukuda had no idea what to make of this. He needed a minute. This was not…it was not romantic but Suzuki had always just gone straight to obsession…but normally his obsessions fizzled out…
When the person he was obsessed wanted nothing to do with him.
Suzuki had always needed to be told, when it came to people, when to leave them alone. To his credit at least he had respected it, back when they had been kids, when a girl told him to leave her the hell alone. That was how his obsessions with people went. His obsessions with books and games and shows and objects always passed when he got bored. Shigeko…she was his Daughter. She was his Daughter and she was never going to tell him to leave her alone….
Fukuda should have taken that into account.
"So…have you told Shigeko any of this?" asked Fukuda. He needed to do some damage control. He needed to put this fire out before it got any bigger. Suzuki…Suzuki was a strange person. Fukuda suspected that he had some sort of disorder. He wasn't such a strange person that he would do anything to his own Daughter…but he was getting obsessed with her…and that could not have been good for her. That could not have been good for anyone.
It wasn't going to be good for Sho at all.
Suzuki had always been a very bad father. He had always looked at Sho and seen the person that he wanted his Son to be, not the person that his Son was, and while he had always been neglectful he had at least shown some small modicum of caring for his son….well he had before. Fukuda couldn't even remember the last time that Suzuki had told him off for overstepping. He couldn't remember the last time Suzuki had told him that he had been spending too much time with Sho or showing him too much affection or….or anything.
This was not going to be good for Sho.
Also Shigeko would probably end up messed up from being the object of her father's affections. He wasn't' keeping her chained to his side twenty four hours a day anymore but that level of…not romantic love but something that definitely was uncomfortably close to it…not that Suzuki would ever but…but still it was just…not going to be good for anyone.
"Yes. She knows that I care for her above all others. She knows that I value her. I tell her whenever we are together. She likes affection. I'm getting more used to showing it to her. That's good, right? You know more about these things than I do. Is it healthy to show her affection? She wants affection and I want to give her the things that she wants but I also don't want to harm her independent development." said Suzuki. Fukuda…one of the things that Masami had complained about was how cold and distant Suzuki was to everyone. Especially her. How he had always been uncomfortable initiating holding her or kissing her or…or a lot of other things that Fukuda did not want to think about the woman he loved doing with someone else let alone Suzuki Touichirou. He'd even had trouble telling his own wife that he loved her…
But here he was telling his Daughter that she was the best person in the whole world.
"It's…good to show your children affection. So that they know you love them. Both of your children could always use some more affection." Said Fukuda. Sho…Sho was getting used to…to this. Fukuda had been trying to compensate but he wasn't Sho's father. He wished that he could have been, he wished that he'd started whatever he had started with Masami back when she and Suzuki had first been dating, that way there could have been a chance that Sho could have been his.
But he wasn't.
He was Suzuki's. He was Suzuki's and Suzuki…he was too…himself….to see what a good thing he had there. How amazing his Son was. How, even after everything, he was still so…so Sho. He cared so much for others, he was always thinking about others, and he just…he was just a good kid. Even though sometimes he could throw tantrums but that was normal for a ten year old. He was just a kid and kids got upset and broke things or kicked holes in the walls or fought with their siblings. Sho was such a good kid…
And Suzuki did not deserve a son like him.
"Daughter enjoys affection but I worry that I'm showing her too much of it. I don't want to harm her in any way…but I do enjoy being with her. You know more about these things than I do. What quantity of affection should I show her?" asked Suzuki. Fukuda wanted to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose and just…just show Suzuki how exhausting he was to deal with. Thirty. Years. That was how long they had known each other. For thirty years Fukuda had been trying to teach Suzuki how to be a person. Thirty. Years.
He still came to Fukuda with ridiculous questions like this.
After thirty years he was still coming to Fukuda with questions like this. He felt…he felt almost like they were kids again. Like they were kids sitting up in his bedroom planning world domination. Like they were kids and Suzuki was taking a break from playing Claw to present Fukuda with an entire notebook page, front and back, of social interactions which had confused him. But they weren't kids. They were middle aged men. Suzuki and he was almost forty four and…and he was seriously asking for explicit directions on how to show love to his favorite child.
This was life.
"More than you show Sho." said Fukuda. He couldn't keep the bitterness inside. He was seriously asking about Shigeko when he had his own son….he forced himself to calm down. He needed to keep calm. He needed to just…deal with this. Sho was….Sho was better off without him anyway. He had to deal with this and…and put out this fire…and the nest one and the next one and the next one…just like he would have to do until he and Suzuki were either really old or really dead.
"I don't show Son any affection. He doesn't need it. Daughter does. She's Daughter." Said Suzuki. Fukuda forced himself to stay calm. He had been about to tell Suzuki had his children had names. They had names and they were people and they both needed love and affection from their parent. They needed…they needed Suzuki to be a father for once in his life…and they needed their mother too….but they didn't have one of those because Suzuki had driven her away. Where had these questions been when Masami had been around? When she had been too depressed to move because her husband had told her that he, essentially, didn't care about her. That making love to her was pointless…
Not something that he wants to think about.
He does not want to think about the woman he loves in that state of affairs. He knows that she and Suzuki'd had sex together, they had made Sho after all, but he also knew that he didn't need to think about it…because he loved her…and they'd…well not the thing to be thinking about right when he was sitting there with Suzuki trying to help him through his latest crisis. He had no idea why he wished that Suzuki would have had this crisis about Masami. That he had come to Fukuda before she had left. Fukuda…he had no idea what he would have done. He…he would have…he would have done the right thing and tell Suzuki to be a better husband to his wife…maybe. If had had done that, if he'd had the chance to do that, then Masami would have stayed and…and things would have been better for Sho. Masami may not have carried on with him as she had but at least she would have been there for her Son. Sho's life could have gone a lot better. He could have gone to school and made friends his own age. He would have had a mother to be there for him. Even if Suzuki had wound up getting obsessed with his Daughter it would have been ok because Sho would have still had Masami. She would have been around….
He missed her more than anything.
He wondered if she missed him, if she ever thought about him, if she ever thought about…about what could have been. What could have been if he hadn't separated from Suzuki at the train station that day? He could have been the one to meet her. He could have….but then Sho would have never been born…or he would have been born but…different? Fukuda didn't know. He had never been big on the big questions like that. Souls and stuff. All he knew was that maybe things would have been better if they had met…and maybe she wished that too….
But it was a big difficult to know what she would have wanted since she had stopped responding to his messages years ago.
"Sho's a person too. He needs positive attention." Said Fukuda. He kept his voice level. He needed…he needed to come off of this…but Suzuki was so rarely this vulnerable. Maybe if he could just plant the seed in Suzuki's mind that his son was just as in need to of love as his daughter…
"Son is fine. He's Son. Daughter needs me. She said so. Son will be fine no matter what. Daughter…she's very fragile. She's female. She's fragile in ways that we can't even imagine. She needs me but also…also one day I won't be here. One day I will die and I need to know that she can be alright on her own." said Suzuki. Fukuda…well that was a lot of confidence to have in Sho…but at the same time Sho was just a child and…
And he had Fukuda.
"She'll be fine. She took over when you were unavailable. She's going to be just fine. You just…keep on showing her the affection that you've been showing her. It'll be good for her to know that you love her. Everybody needs to feel loved." Said Fukuda. There was some passive aggression in there but, as usual, it went right over Suzuki's head.
"So keeping doing what I've been doing. Alright. Thank you. I knew that I was right to come to you." Said Suzuki. Well that was rare praise…bitter praise. That praise used to assure Fukuda that, yes, Touichirou was his best friend. Touichirou may have been the biggest weirdo in Seasoning City, possibly even the world, but they were still best friends. Now it just felt bitter and hollow.
"You're welcome. Anytime." Said Fukuda. What else could he say? He could tell Touichirou that he was still a grade 'A' weirdo. He could tell him that he needed to crack open a parenting book because he was terrible at it. He could tell Touichirou that maybe if he had taken the same interest in his wife that he had taken in his Daughter that, maybe, they would have still had Masami in their lives.
He's not going to say any of that.
He's just going to sit there in his living and wait for Suzuki to leave. Then he's going to start making dinner. Then he's going to invite Sho over for dinner. He had seen Sho walking around with Shimazaki carrying very full bags of junk food. He needed to sit down to a real meal with someone. Someone who cared about him and had his best interests at heart.
Someone who could be there for him in all the ways that he needed it.
"I was wondering, also, at what point I could go back to spending time with her every single day. I miss our time together and I know that she does too. I know that when she's a grown woman we can be together always but I have no idea when that point will be." Said Suzuki. Fukuda wondered if he would hit weirdness bedrock at some point…and he knew that he wouldn't. There was no end to the weirdness of Suzuki Touichirou. If after thirty years he still hadn't hit bedrock then he knew that there just…wasn't any. It was infinite weirdness all the way down.
"I guess when she hits the age of majority?" said Fukuda
"No. That's arbitrary. The age of majority is different in every country. I need some other metric to measure her by." Said Suzuki
"Maybe just enjoy the time you have with her now and then…and then worry about her growing up. She'll probably tell you, anyway, when she wants to spend more time with you…or less." Said Fukuda. He could imagine a teenage Shigeko having enough of her father smothering her. She would probably be much deeper into the things that she was into. She would probably want to be actually independent. She would want to do that things that teenagers did and she wouldn't want her dad sticking his nose where it didn't belong…
Fukuda was going to have to have so many talks with Touichirou in the future….
"No. She will never want to spend less time with me. When she grows up we're going to spend all of our time together. Once I give Son the world that is. I'm already planning what sort of house I'll build for her. it's going to be a combination English Manor House and Japanese Castle. She's always wanted to live in a Castle, that's why she called her childhood home 'The Castle' and Masami had always wanted to live in an English Manor House for reasons that I have never understood. Daughter will enjoy the house that I'll build for us." Said Suzuki. Fukuda wanted to hit him. How dare he mention Masami! How dare he talk about her like he knew her! Ok, fine, she had always wanted to live in a big manor house but she also loved living in the city and hated the house that Suzuki had built for her and every single day she had imagined leaving and-
And he needed to calm down.
"So you plan on living with her and her husband after she grows up?" asked Fukuda. It took everything that he had inside of him to keep calm. He needed to…to see he depths of Suzuki's planning. He had said, before, that he was looking forward to the time when the children wouldn't be underfoot all the time…and now he was talking about keeping Shigeko with him for the rest of his life…it sounded like, anyway.
"No, just her and I…and her children when she has them." Said Suzuki. That was…worrying. Fukuda wondered if there was going to be an end to his worry. If one day he would wake up and he would have just burnt out his capacity for worry. This was….he wasn't Shigeko's biggest fan but he knew that she would not have been too on board with this plan if she could hear it. Nobody would have been. Suzuki's family had been more traditional than his but even he should have realized that nobody wanted to live their entire life with their father….
Or with him. Specifically.
But no. Suzuki had no clue that nobody liked him. He had no clue how overbearing he could be. He had no idea how insane he sounded right now. He didn't sound like a normal father who was anxious about his little girl growing up and leaving him. He sounded like…Fukuda didn't even want to say.
"So…where is her husband going to be in all of this?" asked Fukuda. He was afraid to know the answer. He hoped that Suzuki wasn't going to say something that was just plain wrong like they had no genetic relation so….no. He would never say anything like that. He was weird, he was the weirdest human being that Fukuda had ever had the misfortune of meeting…but he also would never say anything like that. Hell, Shigeko had originally been for Sho before Suzuki decided that setting up an incest precedent was a VERY bad idea.
At least he hadn't fully gone off the deep end. There was still time to pull him back before he drowned in his own insanity….and dragged the rest of them down with him.
"I don't know and I don't care. Away from her. She doesn't really need one, does she? I mean she has me. She just needs a man to have children with and she could have any man she wanted for that…not Shimazaki Ryou. Never him. Any other man in Japan would be hers if she wanted him. She only needs a man to have children with. I can be there for everything else. I'll help her raise her children and I'll be there to help her when she gives birth to them…but I won't look over the curtain. I will never make that mistake again." said Suzuki. Fukuda blinked. That was…not normal. At least he thought that it wasn't normal. He didn't have any daughters, or any children at all, but he knew that if he'd had a daughter he would not have wanted to be in the room while she was giving. He had seen the birthing video back in health class. That was a husband's job. He never wanted to see that…well if Masami had…if they'd had he lie he'd imagined he would have been there for her…
And he would have had enough sense not to look over the curtain.
But he and Masami would never have that life and he would not just let his mind go there while he was listening to Suzuki describe his plan for his and Shigeko's future…a future where he planned on being there while she gave birth and…and that was worrying. Suzuki was always worrying but that was especially worrying.
"Yeah…don't look over the curtain…and maybe just wait in the waiting room while…all of that's going on." Said Fukuda
"No. She needs to have someone there with her. You've never been there while a woman brings a child into the world. I have. It's terrifying. She's in pain and there's so much blood and so much that can go wrong…she needs me there for her when she has her children. She needs me by her side and…and I ne-I enjoy being by her side." Said Suzuki. Fukuda wanted to go out, by a book, and then beat Suzuki over the head with it until he was normal. That was just…Fukuda knew that he didn't mean it like it sounded, he had explicitly said that he never wanted to set an incest precedent, but that was…not right. That was just…Fukuda understood that Shigeko needed someone to be there for her but that was what he husband would be for…or if she didn't have one honestly Minegishi would have been the best bedside moral boosting candidate. Or even Fukuda himself since he was an actual healer…no. Suzuki wouldn't let him in the room. He hadn't let him in the room when Masami had been giving birth because Fukuda was not her husband. Hell, if the doctor who delivered Sho hadn't been a woman then Suzuki would have probably kicked him out of the room too….
He tended to be possessive of the women in his life.
The little girls too, apparently. Fukuda reminded himself that he knew Suzuki best out of everyone else in the world and he knew that Suzuki would never…but this was still…it left a bad feeling. Not a bad, something unspeakably awful was going to happen feeling, but a bad 'Shigeko was either going to explode or grow up really messed up…more so than she already was…feeling' and he…he had another fire to put out.
Wonderful.
"I'm sure that she would be happy to have you near her but…I'd ask her before you just invite yourself into the room with her. She may want her husband or the man who's responsible for it all to be there…that doesn't mean that she doesn't love you or anything. She'll just be a grown woman and she'll have her own life and want her independence." Said Fukuda. He was not looking forward to the day Shigeko had children…and it may not have been too far away considering how she carried on….
So. Many. Fires.
"No, she'll want me there. She enjoys being near me. That's why I'm so greatly anticipating her growing up and I wish that there was some way for me to have a date or a timeline so I know when that time will be." Said Suzuki
"What's going to change when she grows up? Why not just enjoy her now?" asked Fukuda
"Because then I will be able to spend every day with her. She needs me and I enjoy spending time with her. Those times when I could spend every day with her were the best days of my life, recently anyway, and I want to live like that all the time. Sharing every meal with her. Being able to look up and see her no matter what time of day it was. Her being the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning. I am greatly looking forward to those times and I want to know when they'll come." Said Suzuki. Fukuda wished that he kept alcohol in the house. He had a hell of a tolerance but he would gladly clean out a liquor store if it meant that he could forget what he just heard. That was…essentially that was what his relationship with Masami should have been. His wife Masami. The wife that he had left alone for weeks if not months at a time. The wife that he had told to her face that making love to her was pointless unless they were trying for a baby. The wife that he had practically turned into a ghost…the wife that had might as well have been a ghost…the wife that he had driven away…
He wanted to kill Suzuki Touichirou.
It took everything he had to keep from standing up and strangling the man. NOW he decides to be a good husband? And to his fucking DAUGHTER?! That was…well it wasn't incestuous since he wasn't planning on marrying her….but it was something! It had to have been something because that had not been right at all! What the hell was WRONG with Touichirou? What even HAPPENED in his mind? He'd had a wife, he most amazing woman in the world, and now…now after driving her away he just decided to…to what, exactly? Try again this time with his own Daughter? Just…Fukuda needed to calm down and think. He had to think up a solution to this problem before it became even more of a problem than it already was. He just…he had no idea what he needed to do?
Introduce Suzuki to a woman?
He was not a good wingman. Well not for Suzuki….and who could be? No woman in her right mind…aside from Masami….would want to be with him…but this was….maybe he just needed a woman in his life. Maybe he just needed someone to fulfill that need. Maybe he just needed someone to take care of, provide for anyway, and to spend time with him…on his terms of course…and also someone to put up with his insanity and the constant moving that came with running Claw and the terrible things that Suzuki did to people and…
And there was no such woman in all of existence who could put up with that.
Also he would have been cheating on Masami…but that ship had sailed and circumnavigated the globe already. There was a person out in the world now because Suzuki had found a woman who would willingly take her clothes off for him. So it wouldn't be impossible but…but then he would have the problem of any and all future children to worry about. Sho did not need the competition. He was the only male heir which was why Suzuki had kept him around for all of these years. No, Sho did not need another little half sibling…and there would be more because Suzuki was a moron when it came to safe sex….
Fukuda was getting the mother of all stress headaches.
"That sounds like a lot of work…and work that nobody would expect you to do. That all sounded like something that you would do for a wife, not a Daughter." Said Fukuda slowly. He could appeal to Suzuki's sense of efficiency or the fact that he counted on Fukuda to teach him any and all social rules…and he just…he couldn't think clearly enough to come up with anything better than that.
"No, it's something that any father would do for his Daughter. Well if they had a Daughter like my Daughter. She's the most perfect person…Daughter. She is the most perfect Daughter that a father could ask for. Other fathers wish that they could have a Daughter like my Daughter." Said Suzuki. Fukuda almost wanted to tell him that his perfect little girl drank, smoked, got high, and stayed out all night with men three times her age….and all of this before puberty! But no, he didn't, because that would just cause him more problems. Either Suzuki believed him and he had Shigeko to deal with or Suzuki thought that he was a liar and then he'd get it….so he kept that information to himself….but he just needed….he needed to do something to get Suzuki out of the depths of his obsession…
They had never gone to these depths before.
"Most perfect person? I thought….I thought that Masa-that Mrs. Suzuki was your most perfect person." Said Fukuda. He braced himself for the inevitable explosion. He knew that he hadn't just stepped over the line, he had thrown up on it, and that Suzuki would probably lose control and try to kill him…but that was better than him carrying on like he had before. He just…he needed a good shock, that was all, maybe a good shock would bring him out of the depths of his obsession.
And if Fukuda wound up in the middle of one of his explosions then so be it.
"Masami is my most perfect person…but so is Daughter. In a different way because she is my child, not my wife, and my feelings for her are completely different. She's so perfect, Daughter, and in some ways she's more perfect than Masami…because she has a different role. She understands me and I understand her better than I ever understood Masami…and never mention my wife again. Ever." Said Suzuki. His aura turned dark at that, dark like he wanted to kill someone, not dark like he was going to explode.
Fukuda would have welcomed the explosion.
"Sure thing, boss. You want a cup of tea? I was thinking of putting some tea on." Said Fukuda. He could kick Suzuki out but he could, at least, put some distance between them before he did something stupid.
"What sort?" asked Suzuki. Fukuda almost groaned. Suzuki didn't like to eat and drink socially but now….now he was in one of his rare social moods. Probably killing time before he could see Shigeko again. She was taking a warm bath, he had said, because they had been playing in the cold snow. So now he was just killing time until he could see his favorite child again…even though he had another child right there…who he never wanted to see. Fukuda had an idea as how to get Suzuki out.
"Green tea. Sho likes it and I plan on having him come around for dinner. You know, since it's your day with your daughter and all." said Fukuda. He had never been more grateful for whatever personality disorder that Suzuki had than he was in that moment. He was wearing his emotions out there on his face for the world to see. It was either he control his face or he control his aura…and he chose to control his aura. That was the part of him that Suzuki could read.
Good.
"I'll be leaving in that case. Thank you for your help." Said Suzuki. Fukuda watched him get up and leave. He waited until he felt him get far, far from the center of his range….and then he threw himself face first down onto his couch.
He needed a drink.
He wanted to break something. He wanted to yell and kick and break something….but that would have set a terrible example to Sho. He couldn't do that. He needed to set a good example and…and he needed to keep it together. Suzuki….he had said something so terrible…and before that he had been talking like he was crazy….crazier than normal. This whole thing was…too much. This whole thing was too much and he had no clue what to do. He had thought that he would be able to put up with Suzuki's craziness, he had been putting up with it for years, but this….this was just too much. The way he just…was….and what he had said about Masami. Fukuda knew that he should have been grateful that Suzuki wasn't looking for her as much as he had before, that he seemed to be letting her go, because now she would be able to live in peace wherever she was but…
But Masami was….
Masami was better off not having to deal with all of this. She was better off not having to deal with Suzuki's insanity. He didn't wish that on anyone. Not even Shigeko. He may not have agreed with the person she had become but he still did not wish her father's insanity on her or anyone else in the world…but there was nothing that he could do. Not now. He needed to think. He needed to calm down and think…but after he and Sho had dinner. Sho is, was, and always would be his first priority. Once he got Sho settled then he would figure out how to pull Suzuki out of the depths of…this. Yes, once he got Sho sorted out then he would think up a plan…a better one than introducing him to a woman so he would stop transferring all of this shit onto his Daughter…but that would bring with it it's own set of problems….problems that Fukuda would have to sort out….
So many fires everywhere.
But he would put them out. There was no problem in this world that did not have a solution and he would figure it out. Some problems were worse than others, some fires were bigger than others, but he was used to them. He had been doing this for thirty years after all. He was practically an expert. Yes, this had a solution, he just had to figure it out. That was his job, to fix Suzuki's problems for him…
Though he wished that every problem was as easy to fix as a bad back.