Mob wasn't good at being mean.

She didn't like meanness. She didn't want to be something that she did not like. She was a lot like mom like that. Mom had never been mean once in her entire life. Dad was mean all the time. Sho could be kind of mean sometimes, he took after dad, but she took after mom and she was not mean. She didn't even know how to be mean.

But Minegishi had said that sometimes you have to be mean.

Well they had said F-word being nice….which was a mean way of saying that sometimes you had to be mean. She didn't know why they said such mean things they were a really nice person. She didn't know if she could be like Minegishi and just got from being mean and then back again. She didn't know if she had it in her. Well she did, because she was half of dad, but she was half of mom, too, so she had to say something….

Because she really didn't like this dress.

"Ok. Here I am." Said Mob. Dad had sent her to her room to try on the dress that he had gotten her. He said that he didn't mind that she had opened it up the day before Valentine's Day. He had said that he just wanted her to be happy….but the only problem was that she was not happy at all in that dress. It itched. It was too yellow. The tulle made her legs all scratchy. She had to wear tights with it. She looked just like mom….

Which should have been a good thing.

Mob loved her mom so much. She loved mom and she missed her every single day…but also mom had just left without telling anyone and…and she had just gone and…and Mob did not have good feelings about that. She did not have good feelings about her mom when she thought about how mom had just left her and Sho and dad like…like she didn't even want them anymore. Like she was done with them. Like she was done having a family and…and stuff. Mob loved her so much but was also mad and…and also…

Also really did not like this dress.

"Wonderful." Said Suzuki. That was all he could say. He'd had A HELL of a night, had spent most of the day sleeping, and…and seeing her there, like that, made him feel like all of his troubles had just melted away. He had his Daughter and he would be ok. She looked so wonderful…he knew that he had made a smart move getting her a new dress instead of the customary box of chocolates. She loved dresses and took great pride in her appearance. Of course she would.

She was Masami's Daughter.

She was half of…well she wasn't half of Masami but he sometimes thought of her as being half of Masami and half of himself. Sort of like Son but….well he had no idea how Son had turned out the way that he had turned out. If he had been a stupider man he would have sworn that Masami had slept with someone else, that someone else had fathered Son, but that was insanity. Son was his Son but he was also himself. Daughter was Masami….some of her.

"Um…it is….I guess." Said Mob. She wanted to take this dress off and get back into her normal clothes. She wanted to put this dress in the bottom of her dresser drawers and forget that she'd ever gotten it. She wished that dad had just gotten her a box of candy like he did every time they were in a country where girls got Valentine's Day presents. She wished that dad had just asked her what kind of dress she would have wanted…..

She just had to tell him. Even if it was mean.

"Does it fit?" asked Suzuki

"It fits….but…." said Mob

"Do you like it?" asked Suzuki

"I do but…" said Mob

"You look beautiful. Just the way your mother was…is….was." said Suzuki. Masami was gone. She was gone and as the years went by he lost more and more hope that she could be found. She was somewhere, everyone was somewhere, but he had no idea where in the world that somewhere was. She was gone and…and she haunted him. He had allowed her to haunt him for years now, welcomed her, but now….now he was getting tired of ghosts. What was the point of allowing a ghost to haunt him when he had someone real, someone who he could reach out and feel?

He kissed the top of her head.

There was a gift to it, being able to kiss her, to show her affection without judgement. Not that anyone had the right to judge him. Not even the Gods had the right to judge him…but people still did and he would rather not be judged. He would rather not have people see him and think of him as weak. He was not a weak man…in most cases. The exception, the sole exception, was his Daughter. He hadn't even shown his own wife this level of weakness…

But it was ok to show his Daughter this level of weakness.

"Dad….you don't have to kiss me for so long." Said Mob. That felt weird, when he did that, and that was because it was weird. She had done this to Minegishi and they had said that this was weird…even though it was normal for dad's to show you affection and stuff. It was normal for dads to kiss you and hold you and give you presents…but dad wasn't always the most normal person in the world. Neither was Mob. She liked it when people warned her that she was doing something weird. When she did weird things she never realized it so she was glad that she had been corrected when she was…so it was ok to tell dad when he was being weird. Not mean at all.

She didn't know if she could ever stand to be mean to her own dad.

"I know that I don't have to. I want to. You enjoy receiving affection and I…I enjoy giving it to you. It's a gift to be able to show you affection, one which I have gone too long without realizing, and one which I will cherish while I still have it." Said Suzuki still buried in her hair. She smelled….citrusy and skunky…and he had no idea how to tell her that she smelled bad without offending her. People did not like being told when they smelled terrible. Well he did. Well he hadn't enjoyed it but he had been grateful when Fukuda told him that he had been awake for three days and he needed a bath because he could be smelled from across the room. Daughter couldn't be smelled from across the room but…but she did need a bath…

Or maybe he should get her a bottle of perfume, too.

Women liked perfume. That was one of the gifts that Masami had enjoyed the most. Next year's Valentine 's Day gift…or maybe he could get her some for her birthday…or maybe just because. Yes, a just because gift. He had always enjoyed giving gifts to Masami. He had always enjoyed providing for her. He was a good provider.

Daughter thought so too.

"Dad….I like it when you show me that you love me but when you kiss me for so long…it's sort…weird." Said Mob. She should not have said that. She should not have been so mean to her own dad. She should have just let him kiss her for as long as he wanted to even though it made her feel all weird. That was part of being loved by someone. Sometimes when they showed their love you didn't always like it but you accepted it because they didn't have to love you. They could leave you at any time.

"Weird?" asked Suzuki. He kept control. He had to keep control. She had called him…she had said…well it wasn't as though he had never heard that before, that he was weird, but it had been years…and now he was hearing it again and again and again…..and the loudest voice of all had been that of his own Daughter…..

His own Daughter had called him weird.

He was…not angry with her. He could never be angry with her. He loved her. He loved her and…and she had still called him that. It hurts, the wound is aggravated, and he has no idea how to close it…he had never closed it…and he never would be able to close it. This was…this was his life now. His own Daughter had called him…had said that he was….he just….

He felt her hand in his.

"No, dad, I didn't mean it in a mean way. I really didn't. I just meant that….that you're not supposed to kiss someone for that long because…that's not how it works." Said Mob. She could see and feel his aura. She had hurt his feelings. She could see it in his eyebrows too, his caterpillars were coming together, and she knew that she had hurt his feelings. She hadn't ever wanted to do that. This was her dad and she loved him more than any other dad in the world…

She had been too mean.

Minegishi had said that nobody could touch her if she didn't want them to, not even her own dad, but….but Minegishi hadn't taken into account how easy it was to hurt dad's feelings sometimes. He had a lot of feelings like he had a lot of powers and…and he had trouble controlling his feelings and his powers and…and stuff and….and she had been too mean. She loved Minegishi, she really did, but Minegishi didn't know dad and the advice that they gave came from their own life. They didn't know how dad could be. How he could be scary and sad and…and how he loved her and he just had no idea how to show it.

"Oh….I broke a social rule?" said Suzuki. His aura calmed down instantly. Well that was different, better even, because she had not been calling him weird but had been describing his actions as being weird. He had broken a social rule, he had done that countless times before, and…and he was grateful to have been corrected. He was always grateful to have his less than stellar social skills corrected…especially by someone who knew what she was doing…

"Um….yes? When you kiss someone on the head you should do it quick or else it's weird….and stuff." Said Mob. Dad's aura had calmed down now. Dad seemed better, fine, happy maybe even. She was glad. She was glad that he was better because she did not want to be responsible for upsetting him. She didn't want to be mean.

"Oh. Alright then. Thank you for correcting me." Said Suzuki. She was so much better at these things than he was. Of course he would listen to her. He should have known that she had not actually been calling HIM weird. It had bene like when he and Masami had first moved in together. When they had just been married and still hadn't learned each other's idiosyncrasies. When she had seen him dipping his bread in his ketchup glass and said 'Touichi, you are so weird' and he had taken her literally…and then she had reassured him that she would never think anything like that about him…and then he had been so angry at himself for not trusting her…

He kissed Daughter again.

But he did not linger. She had said that he shouldn't linger so he did not. Even though he wanted to. Even though it was such a gift to be able to hold her and have her and kiss her and just…be with her. He cared for her and he knew that their time was limited. They did not have a lifetime together, not hers anyway, and maybe not even his. She would grow up and…and she would try to grow apart from him…and she would be able to leave him just as Masami had…

He kissed her again.

She would be able to leave him just as Masami had. She would be able to just get up and leave…he would wake up in the morning to find her side of the bed empty. Her side of the bed would be cold and empty and she would be gone from his life….and that was always a possibility…..he had no idea if it was a possibility or not. He had never imagined that Masami would have left him….but she had…and Daughter was his child, not his wife, and she was supposed to leave him. That was nature's way. He had so little time with her and….

And this was his Daughter. He had all the time in the world with her.

"That's….better….I guess." Said Mob. So now he was going to kiss her a million times instead of one long time. That was…better? She didn't know. All she knew was that she had hurt his feelings before when she had told him that he was being weird. Well to be fair he was being weird. He was a weird person. He ate ketchup out of a glass and he slept almost fully dressed and he hated sweets and also he was always kissing her and touching her and stuff. She had been mean when she had called him weird and….and she maybe have had to tell him, again, that he was being weird. She may have had to be mean again…

She didn't even know if she could be.

He stepped away from her and straightened the neck on her dress. Mob wished that he would have just given her space but he didn't. Instead he reached over and brushed one of her braids behind her back. She had tied them off with yellow ribbons because they matched her dress and dad…dad had asked her to put this dress on….so she did…but she also wanted to take it off and get back into her regular clothes.

"You look just like your mother, you know that?" asked Suzuki. How was there such a resemblance? She didn't share a drop of blood with Masami but she looked just like her. Well not physically, no, she didn't look a thing like Masami physically, but she just….looked like Masami. He didn't know. Maybe it was just his irrational feelings towards this holiday. Yes, he had spent this holiday with Masami and yes he they had conceived Son on this day, most likely, but he should not have had to have these irrational feelings….

He was so irrational sometimes.

Was the way he felt about Daughter irrational? He didn't know. He loved her and he should have loved her, she was his child after all, but maybe he had been…he didn't know. He loved her and he was doing the right thing by loving her. She was the best of all of his children…of BOTH of his children….and that was…that was….he loved her.

He loved her so much.

"I don't. Mom had brown hair and my hair is black. Mom wasn't as pale as me too. Also her hair was wavy and stuff. Mine hangs straight down. Also her eyes were shaped different from mine." Said Mob. She had spent so long staring at herself in the mirror trying to see some part of her mom and dad in her.

"You still look like her." said Suzuki. Daughter couldn't see it. How much of her mother was in her. She had no idea how much of herself Masami had poured into her. She may not have had to have been cut out of Masami but she was still Masami's Daughter just the same. Even if she had come from two nobodies from nothing.

"No, I don't. I don't look like either of you. You're both half Japanese. So am I but I just got all of the Japanese." Said Mob. She wished that dad had been telling the truth, that she looked like mom, that she looked like anyone in her family….but she didn't. Sho had said, before, that she had been born right because she looked like everyone else….but she didn't want to look like everyone else. She wanted to look like her mom and dad.

"….you look like your mother. Never forget." Said Suzuki. He was not going to correct her. She was not half Japanese, she was fully Japanese, and she was not going to come into this information now. She was not supposed to ever come into that information. It didn't matter that she had been adopted. She was his Daughter the same as if she had been the one that he had conceived in a manor house themed love hotel a decade ago.

"Because I'm wearing this dress?" asked Mob. She didn't get what dad meant. Maybe he was seeing what he wanted to see. Maybe he was seeing mom when he looked at her. She felt like that sometimes. She felt like dad only saw mom, or he only wanted to see mom, and that was why he had gotten her this dress and he was trying to get her into mom's favorite shows and stuff….but that made no sense because dad had said time and time again that mom was a traitor and that he didn't care about her anymore…and stuff….

"Yes. You look wonderful. Just like your mother." Said Suzuki

"Thanks…dad. I like it…I like this dress….sort of." Said Mob. She wished that dad would stop saying that she was like mom. She didn't get it. Was he sad that mom had left? But that had been years ago. She had been gone for years and if he wanted to be sad then he should have been sad years ago when she and Sho had been sad. Then they all could have been sad together. She didn't understand him at all sometimes.

"Good, I'll have another made for you. You could always use more clothes. Women and clothing…I will never understand it." Said Suzuki. Masami had filled their closet with clothing. He had never understood it. Daughter had a lot of clothing too. He had never understood it. He had one suit, one pair of shoes, and one tie that he liked. Well he changed his clothes but everything he owned was the same. He didn't understand her sometimes but he would still get her all the dresses that she wanted. That dress. An entire wardrobe of that dress.

"Dad….you don't have to." Said Mob

"I know that I don't HAVE to. I don't have to do anything. I want to. I like to make you happy." Said Suzuki. He wondered what else she would like. Masami had always been partial to perfume…but Daughter was too young for that….right? He'd see. Daughter deserved all of the best things that the world had to offer and he would give them all to her. Even if it wasn't a holiday he would still give her all of the nice things that she deserved.

"I don't want another yellow dress, though, so please don't get me one." said Mob. The words tasted bad as she said them. She wished that she could take them back, catch them from the air and shove them back down her throat, but she couldn't. She could only watch them hang there in the air in front of her….and dad….who was looking at her like…like she didn't even know.

"But….you just said that you did. I heard you." Said Suzuki. He must have just been mishearing or something. Or misunderstanding. Or…or something. Something other than miscalculating. He could not have miscalculated again. He…she had said that she liked it…and he had heard her….and he was not so old that he was going deaf….though it was easier to watch television with the subtitles on these days…

"I…I like it. I think that this is a very pretty dress. I think that this dress looks like moms and…and she had a dress like this that I always wanted to wear but…but this was MOM'S dress." Said Mob. She was trying not to be mean. She was trying her best to make herself heard and understood without being mean…and she was really bad at this talking sort of stuff. She was bad at talking and being understood and….and dad wasn't the best listener…or even a good listener…and…and…

And maybe she would have been heard, better, if she said the F-word….but she would not be saying that any time soon.

"No. This is not your mother's dress. It just looks like hers. I would never get you a secondhand dress." Said Suzuki. Well that would have been enough to upset even him. She did not deserve anything less than firsthand. Expensive things. The things that costed millions of yen and had labels which he did not understand the significance of but Masami had. Things that mattered to women. Things that had mattered to Masami. Things that mattered to Daughter.

"That's not….what I meant. This is…this is something that mom would have liked and…and it's her yellow dress. I like….I like my dresses….." said Mob. She had no idea how to tell dad that dressing her like mom made her feel weird and was a weird…and she had no way of telling him any of that without using the word 'weird' again…

"Oh…so it's the color…you do wear a lot of blue….yes. I suppose that…the color…that you-you like blue…" said Suzuki. She was not Masami. Masami had loved yellow but Daughter…she loved blue. That was because she was a different person. There was so much of Masami in her and…and she was also her own person and…and he loved the person that she was.

He loved her.

He loved the way she braided her hair even though it looked better long. He loved the way she knew how to make the most perfect omelets in the world, she used more butter than Masami had and put ketchup in the egg mixture, he loved the way she rolled over onto him in her sleep, he loved the way she mouthed along to movies that she knew by heart. He loved so much more about her. The games she played. The games she introduced him to. The movies she introduced him to. That television series they had been watching for some time now. He just…he loved her. There was so much to know about her and…and he loved it. Learning everything that there was so know about her. About Daughter.

About Suzuki Shigeko.

"I do. I like blue a lot….like my Elsa dress…because I like Frozen. I like Disney and anime about school life and friends but also space and giant robots…also… and documentaries about cats and…and I don't like mom's shows about people living in big fancy houses that much and…and I like to watch with you but also….also I like to watch things that I like…..and you like…but not the stuff that mom likes…" said Mob. Dad's aura was being weird. Was she saying the wrong thing? Was she messing up? Was she….she didn't know. She didn't know if she was doing something good or bad, right or wrong, this or that. She had no clue. She just….she just had to tell dad how she felt…because she had felt so bad last night….

And also Minegishi had said that talking to dad was a good idea and they were very smart.

"Yes….you like…you like things that we have in common. Alright. I understand. Take off the dress and leave it. I'll have it dyed blue for you. Also we can watch some more of that show you've been showing me. We both enjoy that. We have…we have things which we both enjoy." Said Suzuki. She was so smart, his Daughter, so socially intelligent. She knew that he enjoyed figuring her out and she enjoyed figuring him out. It was mutual that way. She was a part of Masami but she was not the whole of Masami. There were so many things about her that he could learn…and he wanted to learn those things…and there was so much about him that she wanted to learn….

So why not learn from each other?

"Thanks Dad….I'd like that…and also I can give you your gift too. That'd be nice." Said Mob. She had no idea how she had gotten through to him but she had. Now he would stop trying to make her be like mom. Now she could be like Mob, not like mom, and that was just the best. He loved her and that was what love was, in her opinion, looking at someone and seeing them for who they were and loving them. Dad loved her so much….and she loved him…and he had managed to understand her. As bad as she was at talking she had managed to make herself be understood.

And she hadn't had to be mean to him like Minegishi had said that she would.