The greatest investment Suzuki Touichirou had ever made was in a pair of earplugs.
They were a necessity on these plane rides. Being so near to Daughter's friends…it was always a headache. They just never. Shut. Up. No matter how short or long the plane ride was they always just carried on and on and on…and he had no clue how Daughter could stand it. She spent so much of her time with these people…and he had been trying to figure out why for years now….and had been making no progress.
"Are you ok, dad?" asked Mob. She and dad were sitting next to each other with laptops balanced on their laps. That was why they were called laptops. Mob had never noticed that before even though she and dad had spent a plane ride like this already. His aura had been all weird then, too. His aura was weird now and also…he was ignoring her?
"Dad?" asked Mob. She didn't know if dad was ignoring her or not. His aura wasn't even reacting to her. Maybe he just couldn't hear her over Shimazaki's singing. He had been singing about being back in the USSR since the plane took off…and they weren't even going to the USSR. The USSR had been dissolved at the end of the cold war, dad had said, which was not a war which took place in winter. So really Shimazaki should have been singing about being back in the USSR but also if they had gone back in time to when dad and Fukuda had been kids. Or maybe he should have been singing about being back to Russia. Or maybe he shouldn't have been singing at all because it really bothered dad.
Mob hated it when dad was bothered.
"Hey, dad?" asked Mob again. She tapped her aura against his. He looked up really fast from what he had been doing. They were in a new world now, this one was mostly underground tunnels, and it was a lot of work. They kept on going too deep and hitting lava or going up too high and hitting water. They had to try and build underground, though, because they had been doing a lot of above ground construction lately. Dad had said so and he was the boss and she was just the kid.
"Daughter? Something you need?" asked Suzuki. She had gotten his attention. She must have needed something. Was she alright? Ill? Airsick? Dying? Was she dying? Was she-no, she was not dying and he had no idea why his mind kept on going there. She was not going to die. Ten year olds did not spontaneously die. Fukuda had assured him of that.
"You were ignoring me and also your aura was being all weird. I was just worried, that's all." said Mob
"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I just couldn't hear you over your friend's incessant singing." Said Suzuki as he popped his earplugs out with his powers. There. Now he could hear her clearly….and everything else happening on that airplane. The roar of the engines, the incessant singing, Minegishi's incessant orders to Shimazaki to stop that incessant singing, the incessant noise of whatever game Son had roped Fukuda into playing with him, the incessant click of a keyboard, and the incessant incessantness of the incessant noise that was enough to give him the beginnings of what was sure to be an incessant headache.
Incessantly.
"Shimazaki likes to sing sometimes. He likes the Beatles, too, and that's a Beatles song about going back to the USSR so it sort of fits." Said Mob. Well it did and it didn't but she wished that he would sing something else. Like the song about the diamond lady who lived in the sky. That was a nice one. Or about yesterday…well that one was kind of sad. She just wanted him to sing anything else because even she was starting to get annoyed. She wished that she could just go over there and tell him to stop…and then also to stay over there, but dad needed company on plane rides because nobody ever wanted to be his moving buddy. So the job fell to her because he loved him….and stuff. Because she had to be a good Daughter.
"It would have fit if we had been making this trip thirty years ago." Said Suzuki
"I thought so too. They really should change that song so it makes sense in today times." Said Mob
"No, it's a good piece of history if anything…if Shimazaki weren't singing it on a loop. I used to enjoy that song….and music in general…" said Suzuki. He had enjoyed music in the past. On a 'this sounds good' level. He had never been good at the technical aspects of it and his attempts at playing it in school, the recorder was truly an instrument of torture, had been abysmal failures. Still, though, he could enjoy music…just not when it was the chorus to a song that he'd heard a thousand times sung over and over again with the occasional improvised lyric.
"You can still like music. Shimazaki knows a lot of good music…it's just better when he isn't singing it…not to be mean or anything like that." Said Mob
"That's true. I didn't even know that you liked the Beatles. If you had been born sooner I would have had them perform for you. Daily performances if you had wanted them." Said Suzuki. He was not going to indulge his more violent thoughts about Shimazaki Ryou. He was not going to tell his Daughter that he would never be good enough for her. He was not going to think about her growing up and leaving him for the likes of Shimazaki Ryou. He was going to think about the wonderful world he would build his Daughter so she would never want to leave him. If there was some way to bring people back from the dead, there wasn't he'd tried, he would put on daily Beatles concerts for her…or whatever other groups she liked. Constant concerts that she could wander into and out of at her leisure. He'd build her a movie theatre too with incessant showings of the ice queen and all of her other animated favorites. He would build a playhouse for her too. Did she like theatre? She might. There was a stage show called Cats which she may have liked because she had an affinity for those creatures. He would even allow her to get a real cat….well there was the island of cats…and he would preserve it so she could go there when she needed to spend time with cats so she wouldn't bring them to their house.
He would build her the biggest house he could.
He would build her a house bigger, even, than the Taj Mahal…though that was a tomb…but he would still build her something bigger than that. He would build a house big enough for her and her children and him as well…and her husband could live in a shed in the backyard or something….and Daughter would be happy and he would be happy and he would spend the rest of his days just…being with her. Figuring her out. Learning her. There was so much about her that he didn't know…and he wanted nothing more than to learn all that there was about her…
Because he loved her.
"That's ok. I think that they would have gotten tired of singing for me even if I had been born sooner and they had been younger." Said Mob. She didn't think that she would like that. She didn't want that because then people would be bored of playing for just her all the time and she didn't want to make anyone feel bored or anything like that.
"Still living. I think that half of them are still living. I don't know, I was never really much of a fan." Said Suzuki. Mother had been a fan back when she was still alive. He and father, however, had enjoyed more traditional Japanese music…though the Kotoro was an instrument or torture even worse than the recorder would ever be.
"Oh…we shouldn't tell Shimazaki that some of them are dead. They're his favorite." Said Mob. He would be sad if he knew that. He would maybe even cry. He didn't like to cry, he said that it felt weird, and also when he cried he had to clean out his eyes too which was a real pain even if it wasn't painful. Also he would have been sad and she never wanted any of her friends to ever be sad ever for any reason at all.
"They've been dead for some time. I'd imagine he's known for some time." Said Suzuki. He wasn't so old that he was the only one who remembered the death of John Lennon…right? That was in…he had been young…mother had been quite upset…it had to be been in 1980. He couldn't be the only one to have been old enough to remember…or even alive. He did some mental math. He was forty four, time to start rounding up, and he had been born in…he came to a realization that he should have come to ages ago. He was the oldest person on that plane.
Well what did you know?
He and Fukuda were the same age but he was…he was the oldest person on this plane. His children were barely more than a decade old. His Daughter's friends…he oldest friend was thirty…which placed his birth year in 1985…well then. There was something…existential about it. He had been in his last year of elementary school when his Daughter's oldest friend had been born. He didn't think about this often. Different eras, aging, himself aging and his era passing…and he was not going to think about it now. He was not aging, he was not getting old, and his back did not hurt so much…because he was not getting old…
Time kept on passing and there was nothing that he could do about it.
"We still shouldn't tell him in case he didn't know. It would hurt his feelings. Sometimes it hurts people's feelings when you tell them things that they don't want to hear." Said Mob. Like how she had told dad, before, that he was weird. He didn't like to be called weird, who did, so she would not be calling him that…even though he did weird stuff all the time. Like how he'd had someone dye her yellow dress blue…and now she was an itchy blue dress…but she wasn't going to say anything else about this because dad…he didn't need to have his feelings hurt again.
Dad was a person with a lot of feelings.
"Well maybe you should tell him that nobody wants to hear his creative interpretation of Back in the USSR for the thousandth time." Said Suzuki. He would let Daughter deal with her friends. She had this way about her, this way of getting people to do things without even having to threaten them with violence once, and he had no clue how she did it. Maybe it was her gender. Women really were the kinder sex.
"I'll tell him to stop if you want me to…but I'll be nice when I tell him to…because he's my friend." Said Mob. She wasn't going to be mean but she was going to ask him nicely to sing something else. She got up from her seat and pulled her dress down as she walked. Tulle was clingy. She was wearing tights but she would rather her dress not get stuck to the backs of her thighs. She wished that she didn't have to wear this dress. It was blue now, which she liked, but it was still mom's dress. Or maybe not. It was blue and mom had mostly worn a lot of yellow so…so this was her dress now? She didn't know. All she knew was that it had to be in her clothes rotation now to make dad happy. That was her job, to make him happy, because she was a good Daughter like that.
Sometimes it was hard to be a good Daughter.
Good Daughters sat with their dads on long plane rides, and short plane rides, because nobody else wanted to be moving buddies with him. Mob didn't blame them, though, because dad wasn't exactly nice to people. He used up all of his niceness on Mob…even though it would have done better for him if he used some of that niceness up on other people too. Like Sho. He could sure use some niceness. He had to leave his girlfriend behind in England and he said that he was fine but Mob knew that he wasn't. He must have been so sad and hurt…
And she would be there for him if he needed it.
She would have been there for him now but dad needed her. In a way being there for dad was like being there for Sho. If she distracted dad then he wouldn't find things about Sho to get mad at. She would be there for Sho later. Right now he had Fukuda to be there for him and that was good. He needed all the people who he could get to be there for him and stuff. Even if Fukuda could be a little bit mean sometimes. That was probably just because he was getting old like Sho had said. He was just turning into an old person and they could be really grumpy and stuff. Probably because they knew that they would die soon.
She didn't want Fukuda to die.
She didn't think that Fukuda liked her as much as he used to but he didn't need to be dead or anything like that. Minegishi was always saying that they would kill him if they could but that was just them saying stuff. They would never actually kill someone, they were too nice for that, and either way it would have been wrong to kill Fukuda anyway. Well killing was wrong all the time, unless someone was trying to kill you first but even then you should try and be nice, but Fukuda hadn't done anything wrong but be a little grumpy and a little too formal. That wasn't reason enough to kill someone.
Also he was really nice to Sho.
He and Sho were sitting together in the back of the plane playing games. Mob would have liked to play too but she knew that she couldn't. Fukuda didn't really like to play with her anymore but that was because she was older these days and also a girl. She didn't know what either of those things had to do with being allowed to play games with everyone else but she wasn't there to argue with him. She wasn't there to argue with anyone. She was just there to stop Shimazaki from singing…or to get him to sing something else already.
"Back in the USSR….you don't know how lucky you are….being back in the USSR….where we are…." Sang Shimazaki. He couldn't help it. The setup was just too perfect. Besides, who didn't like the Beatles? Well everyone he was annoying, obviously, but they were a bunch of philistines or whatever. They wouldn't know good music if it walked up and spat in their faces.
"If you have to sing can you at least sing the right words?" asked Minegishi with a groan. They had their hands shoved in their pockets. The seeds didn't help. Winter was making it worse. They were flying over land but that land was cold and dormant. Their plants down in storage were cold and dormant too. Everything was cold and dormant.
Well aside from the warm person beside them.
They kept their eyes closed and leaned more onto Ryou. He raised an arm so they could rest their head against his shoulder. He brought an arm down over them. They would feel his barrier against their skin. He kept it close when he was awake. He wasn't the biggest fan of flying, the world got a lot smaller for him when he was up this high, and he hated a small world. It bored him. He hated being bored.
Something that they had in common.
Minegishi hated being bored too but they were better at keeping themselves entertained than he was. All they really needed was a good book and they were fine. They couldn't always read though, like now, they just felt too crappy. Too much winter. Too much distance between themselves and the ground. Too much of…of too much. Too little. Too much and too little at the same time.
"I am singing the right words. Back in the-" said Shimazaki. They felt Toshi raise their hand and made no move to stop them. He wasn't going to move a muscle until they landed. Not unless Toshi moved first. Toshi was…a lot of things and those things were Toshi and for them he could sit still…even though he hated it. Even though there was a plane wing right there and the kid was clearly pissed off about something, his aura was doing the high pitched shriek it did when he was pissed off, and he really wanted to take the kid out onto the wing of the plane….
But Toshi needed him and they felt like crap and Toshi…was Toshi.
And Toshi had a hand over his mouth. They had really soft hands. They smelled nice, too. New moisturizer. This one smelled like peonies and spring time. Their last one smelled like lilies and lilacs. Toshi always smelled so nice. Toshi always smelled so nice and they were always so soft and…and he just didn't get himself sometimes. The had always liked Toshi the best out of everyone else in the world…that he had met, anyway, it wasn't like he knew all the billions of people in the world or anything, but now this was just…he didn't know the hell this was….
This was Toshi's hand over his mouth.
"Ryou, enough. Come on. I have a headache." Said Minegishi. He held them closer. He extended his aura around them. Minegishi let their aura mix with his. They saw red, a lot of it, and not just Ryou's. What was that kid glaring for? They could feel him glaring, feeling him focusing on them, and they didn't get it. He was weirdly possessive over Ryou. Minegishi didn't get it. They weren't in the habit of psychoanalyzing people but they figured that it stemmed from a distant and abusive father who favored his sister and a mother that had either run away or just died and nobody told him…either way it made for a very possessive little boy with some very big anger issues…
But at least their birthday present seemed to have been serving them well…since the little demon child hadn't started anything with them yet.
"Don't worry. We'll get there eventually. We'll get back to the USSR and we won't know how lucky we are." said Shimazaki. They liked it, he knew that they liked it, he could hear their aura hiccupping. He could feel them smiling just a little. He knew them. He knew them and he knew what they liked. He knew what he liked too and it was them. Everything about them. He focused on the sound of their aura. He focused on the sound of their aura giggling and hiccupping.
God, he loved that sound.
"You're lucky I don't have my plants." Said Minegishi. They kept their eyes closed. Just a little longer…or a lot. They weren't sure. Knowing wouldn't make this plane fly any faster. They focused on the feeling of him. Not the fact that they were flying through the air in a metal tube far from the ground, the dead ground, the cold dead world…he was there and he was warm and they…they were there too and…
And this was nice.
"No, I think I know how lucky I am." Said Shimazaki. He said it because he felt it. He was lucky. He had Toshi, for one thing, but also the rest of his life was pretty sweet too. He had a job where he got to meet a lot of interesting people, and kick their asses, and when he was done he got to hang out with Toshi and Mob, who was a fun kid, and Sho who was an infinitely more fun kid. Also he got to hang out with those other two, too. Shibata had grown on him and Hatori was always good for a laugh at his expense.
"You're lucky Suzuki only sent Mob over here and didn't come here himself. I told you to knock it off." Said Minegishi. They could feel Mob getting closer and they knew that Ryou could feel it too. They had warned him. Now he had pissed off Suzuki and rather than deal with it himself he sent his ten year old Daughter to deal with it….not that they wanted Suzuki to come over and start dealing with things. No, nobody could want that.
"Hey, Mob's here. Hey Mob." Said Shimazaki. He thought Mob was a cool kid, he really did, but now Toshi was sitting up and had stopped using him as a pillow and he felt weirdly….cold? Well it wasn't cold on the plane but he felt a cold spot where Toshi had been resting. Maybe because had been so warm. Now they were farther away and he couldn't feel them anymore…well he could hear their aura. He could hear their aura but it had gotten muddled in Mob's. Her aura was always screaming. It was always screaming and it filled whatever space they were in.
If he hadn't been used to her he would have been afraid of her.
Her aura did not match her body. She was little but her aura was loud and heavy. He had never seen a kid that powerful. The only person he had ever seen more powerful than her was her father but at least that made sense. He was a grown man. This was a little girl. She had always been too powerful for her own good. Amazingly enough Suzuki's other kid didn't have that problem. He was a powerful kid but more gifted than pants pissingly terrifying. Not that he was afraid of Mob, no, who could ever be afraid of her?
That kid was way too nice.
"Hi. Um…my dad says stop singing. He's getting annoyed and bad things happen when he's annoyed." Said Mob. She wondered if she should tell Hatori to stop cursing at his laptop while she was at it…but at least he had headphones on and was cursing quietly. She wondered, too, if she should tell Shibata to turn down whatever he was listening to. She could sort of hear it through his headphones and that meant that he was going to end up hurting his hearing and stuff…and she didn't want that at all.
"I told you to knock it off. Now Suzuki's pissed off." Said Minegishi
"He's not…that word. Just annoyed." Said Mob
"Who's being annoying?" asked Shibata as he took off his headphones. Great. He decides to relax for one minute and Shimazaki ends up doing something. At least he hadn't been doing anything to Hatori. No, he was still playing his game. Thank God for the little things. At least Hatori was ok…he was so fragile for someone his age. Like a really tall kid.
"Who do you think?" asked Minegishi
"I am not being annoying. I'm filling our otherwise dreary lives with the gift of song." Said Shimazaki
"What's happening?" asked Hatori taking off his headphones and looking up from his laptop. Were they there already? He looked out the window. Nope, still high up. He looked away and made brief eye contact with Minegishi. He immediately looked back down at what he had been doing.
"Shimazaki is filling our dreary lives with the gift of song. Unfortunately we can't return this gift." Said Minegishi
"Toshi, come on. You love my singing." Said Shimazaki
"Wait, he's STILL singing? We're been flying for an hour. What's even happening anymore?" asked Hatori
"Nothing. Keep playing. Shimazaki's just being annoying again." said Shibata. He wondered if there was any way to help with Shimazaki's condition. That must have been pure hell, needing people to pay attention to you twenty four hours a day or you thought that you had stopped existing. He could forgive him for how he acted…most of the time…but he could be so grating sometimes….most of the times. At least he had ben leaving Hatori alone lately. That guy was too fragile for all of that.
"I don't mind but my dad does and-" said Mob. She had to make sure that he knew that she wasn't the one who was bothered. Dad was the one who was bothered and he was the one who had made her come over and be all mean to everyone and stuff. She would never have been so mean if she could have helped it. She would have just put up with the noise until they landed and then she would have gone to her new room and put everything the way she liked it in silence so her head could reset and stop hurting. That was what friends did, they put up with each other no matter what.
"Who cares what dad likes? Shimazaki can sing for the whole trip if he wants to." Said Sho. He wished that dad would just sit in his own corner and mind his own business…and stop sending big sis to mind other people's business for him. He should have just sat there with big sis, since they were moving buddies, and left the fun part of the plane alone.
"Sho, stay out of it." Said Fukuda. He was about ready to open the emergency hatch and take up amateur skydiving. He hated these plane rides. Long or short they always drove him to the brink of insanity. He could have handled playing this game with Sho over and over again. He could have handled the feel of all of those auras pressing down on him at once. He even could have handled wrangling Sho to keep him both away from Shigeko's friends and also away from the drink cart, he loved soda but did NOT need any more sugar or caffeine in his system, but it was the singing that got to him. The never ending singing….
He hated the Beatles now. He used to like them, had even lit a candle when Lennon died back in the 80's, but now he never wanted to hear another Beatles song again for as long as he lived.
"I don't mind the singing but dad does so maybe you could sing inside of your head until we land?" asked Mob. That seemed like a good compromise. She knew that if she wanted to she could have ordered him to stop, she outranked him in Claw after all, but she didn't like to do that. She had only brought up her rank once and she hadn't even wanted to then. She had just wanted Sho to stop hurting himself…and this wasn't nearly as important or serious as Sho hurting himself…
But dad's feelings were still very important.
"Seconded." Said Minegishi. They opened their eyes…and wished that they hadn't. Right. Mob was still in that dress…that had been dyed blue. Why? They wondered what sort of insanity they would find if they cracked Suzuki's head opened. That was still his dead wife's dress. He was still making his daughter wear his dead wife's dress…and apparently their little overly emotional best friend talk about saying 'no' and the importance of telling someone when they were being weird went in one ear and out the other…or maybe Suzuki was the one who had the problem with listening. They would believe ether.
"I vote 'yes' too." Said Shibata raising his hand. He accidentally bumped into Hatori. He hadn't meant to. These plane seats were not designed with someone as big as him in mind. He hoped that they landed soon. He needed to get up and move…and also once they got home he was going to try his hand at making Russian food. How complicated could it be? He'd make everyone a good meal and then they'd be at each other's throats less. Well they weren't there yet but he could see it coming. Minegishi was in a bad mood so Shimazaki would just act more and more obnoxious to try and fix it and then he'd end up messing with Hatori and Shibata himself would get pissed off and at that point the boss would notice and then the shit would really hit the fan.
"I vote 'yes' too! Uh...what are we voting on?" asked Hatori. He whispered that to Shibata. He needed to follow what was happening. Apparently this was now a democracy instead of a cult. He hated using that word but that was what they were, a cult, but not the Kool-Aid drinking kind…thank God.
"Shimazaki shutting up." Said Minegishi
"Well now I feel personally attacked." Said Shimazaki with his hand over his heart. Fine if they wanted to sit there in silence and contemplate how awesome Toshi was then they could do that…or maybe that was just him doing that…that had better just have been him doing that. Toshi was…well not HIS but…Toshi was Toshi and only he was allowed to think about how awesome they were. Nobody else. Certainly not that brail faced dork who thought that he had a shot with them. Not that Shimazaki still felt threatened…or had even felt threatened in the first place. He didn't feel threatened at all. He was Shimazaki Ryou! Nothing threatened him! He threatened others!
But maybe it was time to shut up since Toshi had a headache.
"Stop voting! Nobody's allowed to vote for anything!" said Sho. He tried to stand up but Fukuda held him back. They were all being so mean to Shimazaki and for no good reason. Who cared what dad wanted? If dad had it his way then all of the fun in the world would have been hunted down and killed and then it would have gone extinct and they would have all been as boring as he was!
"Sho, I said to stay out of this." said Fukuda. He was doing his best to hold Sho back. He was amazed that Suzuki wasn't doing anything. No, he was completely engrossed in whatever it was that he was doing. It was like he couldn't hear or sense what was happening….or maybe he couldn't. Maybe he was just drowning it out because he figured that Shigeko had this.
"We would have noticed by now if this was a democracy." Said Minegishi. They could feel themselves being glared at. Again with this? What was this kid's problem with them? Was it because they were friends with his big sister? Because he had years to be mad at them about that.
"Don't help me. I don't need your help." Said Sho. He knew that he had been mean but he didn't care. He didn't need from anyone least of all from them. He could handle himself. Shimazaki was his best friend and he could defend his best friend from anything. He wished that he could have been over there to defend Shimazaki better but he had to stay near Fukuda because nobody else wanted to be his moving buddy because he was sort of mean to them sometimes. He couldn't help being a grumpy old man so Sho wouldn't hold it against him. He was almost forty four, that was practically ancient.
"Sho, that wasn't nice. Say sorry to Minegishi." Said Mob. Sho must have just been in a bad mood because he had to leave the girl he loved behind. That would put anyone in a bad mood…but he still should have been nice to Minegishi.
"Fine, I'm sorry that I told you that I don't need your help and I'm sorry that you so obviously can't see that I don't need your help." Said Sho through gritted teeth. He didn't want to fight with big sis. There was enough of a fight going on already. He didn't need to have another one.
"Toshi, don't kill him. He's just a kid." Said Shimazaki. The kid was in a bad mood, he could tell, and he knew that he had to make it better before this plane ride got unbearable. He could sympathize with the kid, he really could, plane rides sucked. There was nowhere to go, the world shrank down to nothing, and it was enough to drive even him insane. Yeah, he was taking the kid out on the wing of the plane again. Mob would understand. If it was to make her little brother happy she'd understand…or he could just smoke her up so she'd forgive him.
"Let's everyone just calm down." Said Shibata. Little Suzuki was just a kid and kids didn't do well on long plane rides. Well Her Little Ladyship did but she was a weirdly mature kid. She was even keeping cool under all of this. He wondered why the boss was just letting all of this happen…and then he decided not to question it because nobody wanted to deal with the boss all pissed off on an airplane thousands of kilometers in the air with no escape.
"Don't say that, it just pisses people off more." Whispered Hatori. Nope. He did not want to deal with a fight while they were this high in the air. He reached out with his powers. He could fly this thing if he needed to…but his powers would do no good if this plane exploded and they all ended up living out some Alive style thing in the mountains or wherever they were flying above…not that he would survive to that point. Nope, he couldn't fly. He couldn't even put up a barrier. He'd be one of the guys that would end up getting eaten.
"Shibata has a good idea. We should all just calm down and um….play….eye spy? No, wait, that leaves out Shimazaki. Um…we can play I Hear? That's better. We could just-" said Mob. Friends were not mean to fight. Friends were meant to get along. That was why they were all friends. Enemies were meant to fight but they weren't enemies, they were friends, and she had to figure out a way to get them to act like friends.
"Good idea. I hear the sound of Toshi realizing that Little Suzuki is just a kid and accepting his apology." Said Shimazaki. They could be so high strung sometimes. He knew how they could be and he knew how Sho could be, that was the most high strung kid he knew, and he didn't need either Toshi or the kid getting upset at each other. It would be like the time he tried to fight fire with fire as a kid and burnt that house down. Fun to watch but not fun to deal with the aftermath of.
"That's not how you play. You're not supposed to give it away." said Mob
"Well I just did." Said Shimazaki
"Suzuki, I accepted your empty, backhanded, apology." Said Minegishi. That little…if he had been older then it would have been a different story. He was a kid. He didn't fully know what he was saying. He knew full well that he was being a little asshole but he didn't realize that he shouldn't have been a little asshole. Well that was fine. Let him carry this into his adult life and he'd see what happened. For all of that healer's fretting he was doing an even worse job raising Suzuki's son than Minegishi was of raising Suzuki's daughter.
"Ok, now we can all be friends again and play I Hear. I hear something with my little ear that sounds like-" said Mob
"Don't talk to him like that." Said Fukuda. He didn't want to get involved but he couldn't just let them talk to Sho like that. He didn't need that. He had enough going on in his life. He'd had to leave his first girlfriend behind, Fukuda had no idea the depth of Sho's feelings for this girl but he knew that even if she had just been a friend it must have been hard, being packed into this plane like sardines with everyone else, the disruption to his sleep cycle that was coming, the three sodas he'd had already, his sister ordering around, and having to watch his crush sit there cuddled up with the person his crush had a crush on. It was a lot for the little guy.
And of course Fukuda would defend him.
Because, really, who said that sort of thing out loud to a child. It was one thing to be backhanded in your own mind but another to speak that way out loud. Sho didn't need to hear this. He had enough happening in his life already. He wasn't like Shigeko. That was the most disaffected child that he had ever met…well next to Suzuki. How was he not NOTICING this? How was he just sitting there clickity clacking away on his laptop without a care in the world?
Well, obviously, because Shigeko was handling this.
"Is it the engine? I think that it's the engine. Am I right, Your Little Ladyship?" asked Shibata. Nope. Now that guy was getting involved. He got it, he really did, you had to keep the little people safe and all of that but you also had to, you know, not sit there fanning the flames while someone else was getting the water buckets. Really.
"Don't talk to Toshi like that." Said Shimazaki. Toshi was not his but…but in the moment he felt like they were. Like this guy had no right to talk to them like that because it was like…like he was talking to HIM like that…and he didn't like this feeling and he wanted to make it go away…and he had no idea how to make it go away. If anything it had only gotten worse as time had gone on. This weirdly possessive feeling that he had towards Toshi.
"Don't fight my battles for me, Ryou." Said Minegishi. They could fight their own battles and that sticky public men's room floor of a human being was not worth it. They knew when they needed to defend themselves and when they were making extra work for themselves. Now Ryou was making extra work for them when they did not need it…well they never needed it…but now they especially did not need it.
"Don't talk to him like that." Said Sho. Fukuda was holding him back. He wanted to get up but Fukuda was stronger than him…well he could be stronger with his powers…but that would have been mean to Fukuda and he wasn't going to be mean to Fukuda even though he didn't need to be held back. It wasn't like he was going to beat Minegishi up or anything. No, he just needed to get up. That was all…and even if he did beat Minegishi up it wasn't like Fukuda couldn't heal them when Sho was done.
"How about everyone stops talking to everyone else? We could all….look out the window or…something." Said Shibata
"Wow. Sounds like a real good time. Can I sit in front?" Said Shimazaki. He didn't get why Shibata was so opposed to this fight, and there was a fight coming. This was Claw. In Claw they fought. Claw was a very violent cult where they proved themselves by fighting in the most violent way possible. This guy…sheesh. The kid had the right idea. Not about fighting Toshi of course, Toshi didn't need this, but about fighting in general.
"Stop fighting. Friends shouldn't fight. I think that we're all just in a bad mood because….um….we're all just in a bad mood. That's all." said Mob. She had no idea how to fix this. Friends weren't meant to fight. Maybe if they drank some of the tiny bottles on the drink cart. Dad said that she was allowed to drink socially and never to excess, which meant no acting like Hatori at the Christmas party, so it would be ok…but no, because Sho was there, and she didn't want him to start drinking too.
"I-I'm going to go to the bathroom!" said Hatori. He was just going to hide in the bathroom and if the plane went down then maybe he would be safe there. That was the safest part of the plane, right? Or was it a boat? Train? House with wheels? He didn't know. All he knew was that he did not want to be in the middle of whatever fight was happening. On his way to the bathroom he passed the boss….who was too busy playing Minecraft to deal with this…and he had wireless headphones…no, just earplugs, in too. Oh. Well that would explain his uncharacteristic lack of involvement.
"Remember to come out eventually!" said Shibata
"Great, now he's going to be in there for the rest of the plane ride. Wonderful." Said Minegishi. Well now they had two problems to deal with. Great. Just great. This was just what they needed. They wondered if they should take another Xanax…no, that would be sliding into addictive behavior and that was wrong. They had a kid looking up to them now. A very stressed out kid.
"It's ok. He'll come out on his own when he stops being scared. Sometimes when people have a lot of feelings, like fear, they have to hide in small places. Like Sho does-" said Mob
"I'm not afraid of anything!" said Sho. What was she doing going around talking about how he had to go and hide when he had too many feeling?! He didn't go around telling her personal business about…well she couldn't think of anything embarrassing that she did but when it came to him then he would keep it to himself like a good little brother was supposed to.
"I never said that you were. I was just saying-" said Mob
"Suzuki-san, why don't you go talk your friend out of the bathroom. There's only one bathroom on this plane and he likes to lock himself into small spaces when he feels overwhelmed. Why don't you deal with him instead of talking to your brother like-"said Fukuda
"Don't talk to her like that. She may be tone deaf but I'm not. Mob, stay put. If that idiot wants to go panic in the bathroom then let him panic in the bathroom. You're not responsible for him. We're all grown adults here and if we need to we can just drag him out. You focus on yourself for once in your life." Said Minegishi. The nerve of that asshole. Mob did not need any more on her plate and that pointed end of a double ended dildo was heaping more onto her plate? And while Suzuki was doing his best to use her as a vessel for the spirit of his dead wife or whatever? Minegishi was about to get up but Shimazaki held them back.
"He's not worth it Toshi. Let me deal with him. I bet he'll change his tune after riding on the outside of the plane for a little bit." Said Shimazaki so only Toshi could hear. They pulled their arm out of his hand and threw themselves down onto their seat.
"Ryou, shut up. I can deal with this shit on my own." said Minegishi
"Please don't fight. Friends shouldn't-" said Mob
"Big sis we heard you the first million times. Your best friend isn't going to stop starting things so maybe you should just go sit with dad and let me and my best friend handle it." Said Sho. He was trying his best not to be mean. He and Shimazaki had this. Minegishi might have been the person that he did gross adult stuff with but Sho was his best friend. He would defend him…even if it was from Fukuda…but he was being kind of a jerk…but he had always been there for Sho…but he was still acting like such a jerk…so Sho wasn't too sure what to do….well stick with his best friend, obviously!
"I'm not going to go back to dad because I know that if I do then everything will just get even worse than it is now. Minegishi and Shimazaki are fighting and Shibata is upset and you're upset and Hatori is hiding in the bathroom…and I have to fix this before it gets any worse." Said Mob. She was not going to sit with dad, not until this was fixed, even if it took the whole plane ride. She didn't care if she had to pick up the plane with her own powers and fly them around in circles until this got resolved. She was going to fix this because these were her friends and she had a responsibility to them. She had a responsibility to Sho, too. He was someone who was little and already liked to fight as it was. She wasn't going to make him think that it was ok to fight and stuff…even if Fukuda was there and he was setting a terrible example by being a part of this fight in the first place.
"Suzuki-san, maybe it would be for the best-" said Fukuda. Her being there was making this worse. She was bossing Sho around, which he hated, and she was bossing everyone else around too. Including him. She and her 'friends don't fight'. Was this really Suzuki's daughter? The man lived for a fight, that was how he controlled people, but there she was trying to make everyone 'friends'…he did and did not understand her. She was the most powerful…the second most powerful being on Earth. Even now at not even eleven she was second only to Suzuki. Fukuda could feel her aura pressing down on him. She was getting stressed and she was making this whole thing worse and she needed to either start giving real orders or go and sit down next to Suzuki…who was still doing nothing. Still off in his own little world. Well maybe he and Shigeko should go off to their own little world together. Then that way this whole little conflict could just fizzle out and they could spend the rest of this plane ride in awkward silence.
"She hates being called that. She hates being called that and she hates being condescended to. You know what would be for the best? If you stayed out of this. If you stayed out of this and maybe, just maybe, taught that kid how to pick a fight. That's what you're supposed to do with kids, you know, teach them things and be a good role model and all of that shit. Not, you know, sit there and escalate fights for no good reason…you human, light days, weak stringed, off brand hotel tampon." said Minegishi. They were about to open that emergency exit and start tossing idiots out one by one. They did not need this. They were tired. They were drained. They needed to close their eyes and listen to Ryou's annoying renditions of Beatles songs until they made it to land where at least there would be dormant plants for them to interact with. That was what they needed. Not to sit there and listen to that human roll of single ply off brand toilet paper sit there and talk to Mob like that.
Minegishi didn't know what his problem with her was but he had better fix it or else they would fix it for him.
"Um…I don't hate-" said Mob. She didn't much like being called Miss Suzuki but she didn't hate it. Minegishi was just in a bad mood because there were no sky plants. They had to make all of their plants dormant before the flight because air travel freaked them out. They had seeds in their pockets but that only helped a little bit. Maybe they could take a boat next time. It would make for a longer trip and all but at least with a boat there would be seaweed and stuff for Minegishi.
"You can't talk to Fukuda like that! He may be grumpy and sot of boring but he's not a….what even is a light days, weak stringed, off brand hotel tampon?" asked Sho
"Nothing that you'll ever need to know about." Said Fukuda. Well now it looked like they were trading middle school insults. Wonderful. He'd have to have Sho tag in for him in that case. Then Minegishi would be able to verbally spar with someone on their level.
"Yeah, you just keep on doing a better and better job with that kid." Said Minegishi
"Hey everyone! You know what we haven't talked about in a while? Politics. Yeah, let's have a lengthy political debate." Said Shibata grasping at anything, anything at all, to make this stop.
"I've never voted in my life but I do like to mess with ballot boxes." Said Shimazaki. Gross. Politics. Why not just recite their bloodlines while they were at it? He would much rather fight with their only healer than talk about something as dull as politics.
"Well then let's discuss that terrible crime you've committed at length." said Shibata
"What? Like you've done such a good job with Shigeko? Yeah, you've taught her so much. Should I do the same with Sho?" asked Fukuda. How dare they lecture him on caring for a child! What did they know? They were the ones who had gotten Shigeko drinking and smoking! They were the ones who had probably gotten her running around with men three times her age too! If anyone was a terrible influence it was them! He had at least given Sho some actual stability in his life and hadn't taught him that the answers to all of life's problems could be found at the bottom of a bottle or the end of an electronic cigarette….marijuana smoking…thing that young people used! The nerve of that-that-that he didn't even know how to insult them! He didn't know an insult that would completely encompass the sheer blood boiling rage that he felt when he looked at them.
"Fukuda, come on. They aren't worth it. Like you said before they aren't worth getting upset over." Said Sho. He had never seen Fukuda upset and he did not want to. He wanted everyone to just get along like big sis said. Friends were not supposed to fight…but Fukuda wasn't friends with anyone….but Sho wished that he would stop fighting….and he wished that Minegishi would stop getting him going.
"Toshi, come on. He's not worth it. You're exhausted. You're exhausted, you feel like crap, and you don't need this shit. Here, put your head down and close your eyes for a little bit." Said Shimazaki. He needed a drink. He'd send the kid to raid the drink cart after Toshi fell asleep. They were so tired their aura was practically screaming it. They needed rest and so did that kid, too. That healer really should not have been escalating shit. He knew that Toshi never felt good on these long plane rides. Whatever, he would get his. Someone was itching for a ride on the wing of the plane…and not just Sho.
"Shimazaki, stop…stopping Minegishi from fighting! Just because they're a 'they' who is also a girl that doesn't mean that they can fight on their own! So stop letting them use you as a pillow!" said Sho. Girls could fight just like boys could so if Minegishi wanted to fight then he would fight with them for the rest of the plane ride. Fukuda could tag out, Sho hated seeing him this mad, but Sho could keep the fight going all day and all night if he had to.
"You know what we haven't ever done? Let's all go around in a circle and talk about our life stories. I'll go first. My name is Shibata Hiroshi and-" said Shibata
"Shibata that sounds nice and all but right now I think that everyone should maybe….just stop talking to each other all together. Because talking seems to lead to fighting and I don't want anyone to fight. So maybe we should all be quiet until we land. That way we'll calm down and stuff." Said Mob. Nope. Nobody was allowed to talk about Minegishi being a girl…because they weren't a girl. They didn't feel like either a girl or a boy and they didn't see why something totally out of their control and stuff should have defined them. They were just Minegishi and it was not nice to call them a girl so…so now nobody was allowed to talk anymore because this fight was getting out of hand.
"Kid, I told you, Toshi is Tosi and Toshi can use me as a pillow if they want to. I don't mind." Said Shimazaki with a shrug. The kid was right. He had been trying to fight Toshi's battles for them. They could fight their own battles and shit. They weren't his, they didn't belong to him, and it took a kid calling him on his shit for him to see that. See? This was why you had a kid for a best friend. They had, like, kid wisdom and shit. They could see past all the bullshit and shit.
"He has a point Ryou. Stop fighting my battles for me." Said Minegishi. They were going to excuse certain things that Mob's little brother had just said because he was a child. He may have been a little demon child but he was a child and, yeah, it was a simple concept but also a lot for most adults to understand. At least the little monster was making an effort.
"Sho, come on. Let's go back to playing-" said Fukuda. He did not like the look of Sho's aura. Not before and not now. No, now he was even more pissed off. Well why wouldn't he be? The person he had a crush on was cuddling, again, with the person that the person Sho was crushing on was crushing on. Sho's crush was obvious as all else. Why put the kid through that? Why not just…not do that in front of the emotionally volatile ten year old with feelings that he couldn't even begin to understand? And why not just sit him down and talk to him about why he felt what he felt and why nothing could ever come of it?
Fukuda was ready to start tossing people out of this plane.
"You shouldn't call him Ryou. I don't even get to call him that and he's my best friend. You don't get to call him that just because you have boobs." Said Sho. He glared at Minegishi and kept that glare up even after Minegishi opened their eyes…and they had very scary eyes when they wanted to…probably to make up for their weak aura….
Sho was not afraid.
"Sho! No! You can't say things like that!" said Mob. Why had he said something like that!? That was not ok. She should have done more to teach him what was and was not ok to say to people. This was her fault for not being a better big sister to him. He was lucky that dad was ignoring all of them.
"Yeah, Little Suzuki, that was…not a good thing to say." Said Shibata. Huh. So he had been right about Minegishi…not that it changed anything. It didn't. Though he was going to have to tell Hatori to stop walking around in nothing but boxers and an undershirt. That may not have been ok. He wasn't sure. He'd worry about this later. After he figured out how to have a talk with Little Suzuki about what was and was not appropriate to say. He was just a little boy, that was all, and he was still learning how to talk to people. This was really something that his father should have been teaching him but President Suzuki was a very busy man. He was so busy that he didn't even have time to deal with everything that had been happening.
"What did you just say to me?" asked Minegishi slowly. What had just come out of that kid's mouth? What the ever loving…had he been raised by WOLVES?! No. He did not just get to say that. He got away with a lot because of his age but even a ten year old should have known better than to just SAY something like that!
"Toshi, come on, he's just a kid. He didn't mean anything by it." Said Shimazaki. There was a time and a place to talk about someone's tits like that and on a plane thousands of kilometers in the air in front of God and Fukuda was not the time. Well it looked like he was going to have to teach the kid what was and was not ok to say and when and how. The hard and boring parts of taking care of a kid. Well this was what happened when you had a kid as a best friend. Maybe he would need to make more adult friends….nah. Kids were more fun. Even now. He may have been running his mouth like it was training for a marathon but at least he was causing an interesting commotion.
"I said that you didn't get to call Shimazaki by his given name just because you have boobs. Best friend outranks friend with boobs. Fukuda said so." Said Sho. Everyone who had been staring at him was now staring at Fukuda.
"What? He needed someone to reassure him that he still had Shimazaki's friendship after he heard him and Minegishi carrying on together back on Valentine's Day. You two aren't exactly subtle." Said Fukuda. Sho should not have said that but it was a conversation for another day that they would have to have about that. Not now.
"You're jealous? Kid, you and Toshi aren't in the same category and if you want to call me by my given name then that's fine…but shut the fuck up about Toshi's tits. There is a time and a place to talk about tits and this is not it." Said Shimazaki
"Please just say 'breasts'…." Said Mob. She didn't want anyone to talk about this either. She was about ready to turn this plane around if they didn't start getting along. Like when she and Sho had been little and they had gone out with mom she had been all 'if you two don't stop then we're turning around and there will be no library or pool or park for anyone' or something like that.
"How about they just aren't a topic of conversation to begin with." Said Minegishi crossing their arms over their chest. They felt vulnerable in a way that they didn't like. Their aura, what little they had, retreated around them. They could feel Ryou's barrier encompassing them. They let him cover them in his barrier. They were not happy, not at all, and if it had been anyone else then they could have made him pay for what he said….but this was a child being raised by another child. They were not going to continue this with Mob's little brother. They were not going to stress Mob out any more than she was…and they were not going to fault the kid for acting like he was being raised by wolves. He was being raised by his older sister because his father couldn't be bothered to get off his ass and do some parenting. Even now after his son had said something VERY inappropriate he was still off in La La Land.
"Yeah. Fukuda said that they weren't anything to write home about anyway." Said Sho. He knew that he had made them feel bad…and he wanted to make them feel worse…but he had no idea that he had said something bad enough to make everyone start shouting at each other…because that hadn't been that bad…right? Right? He hadn't cursed or said something truly terrible like telling Minegishi to go and die or anything like that…but big sis had still put her hand over his mouth….and everyone was shouting now.
"What the fuck…what the ever loving FUCK!?" shouted Minegishi. They reached into their pockets and felt a handful of seeds. They could kill a man with these. They could easily kill a man with these.
"Don't kill him! There are kids watching!" shouted Shibata blocking the way. He could block Minegishi easily, they were tiny, but Shimazaki was bigger than them and he could teleport….right past Shibata…
"Well it looks like someone wants to go for a nice ride on the wing of the plane." Said Shimazaki. There it was again, that possessive feeling, it was back with a vengeance. Well he would deal with this later. How dare he say that about Toshi's tits?! They were great! They were the perfect size! There was plenty to write home about and he would have written home, pages and pages and pages, about Toshi's tits…if he had been able to write and if he'd had anyone at home to write to. He would have written pages and pages and pages about Toshi's tits for whoever would read them….and also how dare this idiot go around talking about Toshi like that! Toshi was…not his but…but still! That wasn't the way to talk about Toshi! And now he went splat. And now he went out on the wing of the plane and fell off and went splat.
"Try it and see what happens." Said Fukuda. He was glaring at Shimazaki. He knew that it was pointless, glaring at a blind man, just like it was pointless to even try and fight. He couldn't even put up a barrier and Shimazaki had been kissing people since at least the age of fourteen if his file was to be believed. His only hope was the fact that he could feel Suzuki's aura…well better late than never.
"Stop it! Stop fighting or-or-or-or I'll turn this plane around and then nobody gets to go back to the USSR!" shouted Mob. She knew that shouting was wrong. She knew that covering her brother's mouth with her hand was wrong. She knew that she was being mean and wrong and stuff…but she also knew that she wanted everyone to just stop fighting already!
They did stop fighting.
Not because of her but because of dad. She didn't know why he had let this go on for as long as it had. Maybe because he trusted her. He trusted her a lot and stuff…but also….also she would have liked some help. She would have liked some help back when the fight had been ramping up but…but it was better late than never she supposed.
"What is going on over there?" asked Suzuki as he popped his earplugs out. He had been trying to ignore the dull roar around him, the stab of flaring auras, but now he could not ignore this. Apparently they were killing each other now. Honestly. He was surrounded by adults more childish than his own children.
"Dad, everyone keeps on fighting. Can I have the pilots turn the plane around until they stop?" asked Mob. Dad trusted her to handle this so she was going to handle this. She was going to handle this just the same way that mom would have handled it. Mom had been very good at handling things.
"That's fine." Said Suzuki. There. Daughter was handling it. She was handling this and he could go back to his very important work. If he dug deeper to the east then….
"Suzuki…what? Are you seriously going to let your Daughter throw us off schedule?" asked Fukuda. No. There was no way in hell that Suzuki was going to let his Daughter just turn this plane around like they were a minivan full of unruly sixth graders. He couldn't just be giving her this kind of power…right?
"Do as my Daughter says and either settle this conflict or we're going back to England." Said Suzuki. They could always go back, land, and then take off again. He would have rather just kicked them all in the ribs until they stopped but that was not her way. He would trust her judgement when it came to this. She really knew a lot more than he did when it came to social things like this. She was so good at managing people.
"You heard my dad. Now no more fighting. Fukuda, stop talking about other people's breasts. Especially not Minegishi's. It's not nice and when you do that then it makes Sho think that it's ok. Shimazaki don't kill him, killing is mean, and also we need a healer. Minegishi…you said a lot of mean things to my brother and other people but also your feelings have been hurt so it's even. Shibata can you please get Hatori out of the bathroom. I know him and I know that he's going to be in there forever if you let." Said Mob in her best 'mom' voice. The same sort of voice that mom used when things needed to get done right now right this minute or else. The same sort of voice that she used when Mob and Sho had been bad. She felt so much like mom…and not just because she was in her mom dress that had been dyed blue.
"You'd actually turn this plane around?" asked Fukuda. She wouldn't. She knew how important it was to keep on schedule and also…also he would follow Suzuki. They were both grown men. This was a little girl. He was not going to live is life according to the whims of a ten year old girl.
"If you don't say sorry to Minegishi and if you don't stop talking about their breasts then, yes, I will go and tell the pilots to turn the plane around right now and then there won't be any USSR or Russia or Moscow for any of us….and also everyone will have to stand in the corner. Everyone but Minegishi and Sho." said Mob. She was being fair, she thought, well she was being unfair. When people were bad then you punished them. The concept wasn't hard to understand. Everyone was being bad so…so it was time to be a little bit mean.
"….I'm going to go sit with your father." Said Fukuda. He got up quickly. He could hear all of them exchanging apologies. He wasn't going to. Fine, he had been out of line with the comment before, but he had never expected Sho to repeat it. What he said in private was his own business…and if she wanted to give orders then she shouldn't have let that fight go on for as long as it did. He made his way through the plane and sat down next to Suzuki…
Who was playing Minecraft?
"Suzuki…?" asked Fukuda. Was he being ignored? No, Suzuki had never ignored him. He had been told by him, before, to shut up because his voice had been annoying but he had never been ignored by him….but Suzuki wasn't even looking in his direction.
"President Suzuki? Suzuki Touichirou?" asked Fukuda. His given name seemed to have been the thing to get his attention. He reached up and….oh. Ear plugs. That had been the reason why that had gone on for as long as it had. Well there was the genius level intellect that he was so fucking proud of.
"Yes Fukuda? Why are you disturbing me from my work?" asked Suzuki. He closed his laptop just a bit so that Fukuda couldn't see just what that work was. He felt with his aura. Less murderous intent. Good. Daughter had managed to settle this without them having to turn around. He knew that he could trust her.
"You got another pair of those ear plugs?" asked Fukuda. His head was killing him. He needed to rest and just…he would rather deal with Suzuki Touichirou than his Daughter's entourage. He was taking his own plane from now on. He and Sho. This was…he could not deal with that again. He was either taking his own plane or bringing ear plugs because he could not deal with this.
"Here. These are the greatest investment that you'll ever make." Said Suzuki as he handed Fukuda his spare earplugs from his pocket. He wasn't usually this generous but he could be a kind man when he needed to be. The fighting was over, the singing was over, but now they were all just….apologizing to each other? He had no clue what he had missed but he knew that Daughter had been able to handle it better than he ever could. That was why he trusted her. He had trusted her before and he trusted her now. He popped his earplugs back in and went back to his very important work.
Daughter had, objectively been the best investment that he had ever made in his life….but earplugs were most certainly a close second.