Minegishi had a lot of plants.

Mob was happy to help hem hang all of them up. Some of them lived on the floor, some of them lived on bookshelves, and some of them lived hanging from the ceiling. Mob was in charge of hanging them from the ceiling because she had telekinesis and Minegishi didn't. That was fine. Mob was happy to help. Especially after how bossy she had been on the plane…and how mean her own little brother had been to Minegishi.

"Minegishi-" said Mob. There were no such things as too many apologies. Especially not when your little brother, you own little brother, said something that was just so not ok to your best friend that you didn't even have words for it. She had no idea how she was supposed to fix this. Sho was sorry but Minegishi's feelings were probably still hurt. Mob knew that her feelings would have been hurt if she had not only had her breasts pointed out to everyone she knew, not that she had any yet but still, and not even that but if she were to have found out that Fukuda had been talking about them…and if he had been saying that they weren't very nice…well…

She sort of understood why Minegishi wanted to exorcise Fukuda.

Also why they were wearing a shirt under their t-shirt. Mob could sort of see the strap of it poking out from where their shirt had ridden down over their shoulder. She couldn't blame Minegishi for wanting to wear two shirts even to bed. Mob sort of felt weird about the whole thing too and it hadn't even been her that Fukuda had been talking about. Well Sho had been talking about but he just thought that it was ok because Fukuda said it. Why he would say something like that Mob would never know but she did know that the whole thing made her feel weird so she was wearing an undershirt under her nightshirt.

Which wasn't that comfortable but was a lot less uncomfortable than she had been feeling before.

"Mob, this had better not be about how sorry your brother is. I get it, he's sorry, you're sorry, everyone's sorry. Can we just drop it?" asked Minegishi as they stacked some books on the floor beside their bed before putting a potted plant on top. This was precarious but they needed all of the plant life near them that they could get. They felt crappy. They felt vulnerable and crappy and they just needed to get their room to the way they liked it so they could just get back to laying down and resting. They had wasted too much time feeling sorry for themselves and now it was late and their room was nowhere near ready for them to get some actual sleep in.

God damned Fukuda.

And God damned Ryou, too, for going out there and 'defending their honor' or whatever the hell he planned on calling it. They knew what he was doing, teaching Fukuda a lesson, but he wasn't worth it. They had more important things to deal with…like not pissing off Suzuki. Fukuda was apparently his best friend fuh-evrr or whatever. Minegishi did not need to be demoted or thrown in a traitor hole or shot into the sun or whatever else Suzuki did to people who roughed up his healer, best friend, and most valuable ass kisser. No, Minegishi knew when to fight and when not to fight.

And that lump of sun dried sidewalk gum was not worth it.

"But…but you're so upset. I can tell by your aura that you're upset and I don't want you to be. I just want to know what I can do to make this all better. I mean I talked to Sho and he's sorry and he knows what I said was wrong…and I don't know what else I can do." Said Mob. She felt little and she hated it. Her friend had been hurt and she couldn't do a thing to make them feel better. Nothing at all. Fukuda was such an A-word sometimes…and Mob knew that she was being mean but that was just how she felt in the moment.

He should have just said sorry.

Because then, if he had just said sorry, then Minegishi could have forgiven him and then everything would have gone back to normal and they could have finished their game of I Hear. But, no, he went over to sit with dad and watch him play Minecraft…and also he took Mob's seat so she couldn't go back to playing Minecraft….but that wasn't the point. Mob had been about to turn the plane around and bring everyone back to England because of him. She only hadn't because then they would have been on the plane for even longer and they had already been getting on each other's nerves bad enough to fight. So she hadn't turned the plane around but….

But he should have just said sorry and stopped being a….not very nice person.

"Do you have a time machine?" asked Minegishi

"No, dad tried to have one made before I was born but the science didn't work out…but maybe if we found a wormhole…but then we would need to go into space…so this would take a lot of time but if you wanted me to start up the Claw space program ahead of schedule I will." Said Mob. They weren't supposed to go into space until twenty years after domination day…but maybe dad would give her the power to advance their timetable. Anything to make Minegishi feel better…even though dad had said that wormhole travel was only theoretical…well she would figure it out when they got to space and found a wormhole.

"Mob…never change." Said Minegishi as they woke their plant up. They felt better just being near it. Stronger. Their headache was gone but they were still off kilter. They tugged at this chest. This stupid sports bra wasn't helping…but it did flatten their chest…what little chest they had…and they were being ridiculous.

"Um….I'll try? But I keep on getting taller and stuff…but if you want me to stay little forever it might not be something that I can control." Said Mob. She didn't know why people wanted her to stay little forever. She was getting taller and stuff. Shibata was always saying how little she was and how he wished that she stayed little forever…and then he always threw her up in the air like he did for Sho…and then dad was always saying that she was perfect now and how he wished that he could keep her this age forever….and then he said stuff like he couldn't wait for her to grow up so they could always be together…and now Minegishi was telling her that they always wanted her to be little…and stuff….and it was just…

She didn't want to be little forever.

She reached over with her powers to hang another plant. She had much better control than when she had been little. She was taller, too, which didn't really help with what she was doing but she liked. She didn't, however, like how short her stuff was getting. This had started off as a nightgown but now it was a nightshirt. The sleeves only went to the middle of her arms and the bottom only went to her knees now. It had been long sleeved and to the floor when mom had gotten it for her. It had been so long, actually, that she'd had to fold over the sleeves…and now it was too short. It was tight, too, and the undershirt she was wearing didn't help. She had to wear it, though, to feel better…or at least less like she was being looked at. She didn't have breasts yet, just these weird sort of bumps that hurt a lot of the time, but she still felt like she was being looked at…and she didn't like it. Would this get worse as she got older?

In that case maybe she wanted to be little forever then.

"No, I didn't mean stop aging just…always be like this. Nice. You'd waste an exorbitant amount of money going to space just to make me feel better. I can't think of anyone else who would do something like that for me." Said Minegishi

"Shimazaki would. He's always talking about you and how great he thinks you are. Like when we went to all of those places in Tokyo together after the party he mostly just talked about you…so I think that he would do that for you. He was about to throw Fukuda out of the plane for you too…but then that would have been bad and stuff…but he likes you a lot." Said Mob. Sometimes Mob thought that Minegishi and Shimazaki liked each other. That would have made sense since they were always together and cuddling and stuff…but they weren't together. If they had been together then they would have been boyfriend and boyfriend/girlfriend/they-friend, not just friends who kissed sometimes. Minegishi didn't like relationships, they had said, because they didn't think that one person could belong to another.

Mob didn't see it as one person belonging to another, though.

It was two people finding each other and deciding to spend their whole lives together to make each other happy. Dad said that when she got older she would find her most perfect person and then she would get married and have babies. Dad had also said that she didn't need to find her most perfect person to have babies, though, and that no matter where they came from he would be there while she had them and then he would help her take care of the babies…but Mob did not want that for a million reasons. She wanted to find someone who loved her and also who would want to kiss her and stuff, because kissing was the best thing ever, and also…she sort of didn't want to spend the rest of her life with dad…

She loved him a lot and she loved spending time with him but too much of his love could be sort of…smothering.

So maybe that was what Minegishi meant by one person belonging to another. Mob wished that they would reconsider. Then they could find someone who loved them and get married and have babies and then their kids could be best friends with Mob's kids and they would be best friends and also Minegishi wouldn't have to wear a dress if they didn't want to because it would be their wedding. They would wear pants and everyone would be there and she would keep Hatori away from the champagne because he didn't know about moderation and it would be great and everyone would be so happy.

Or something. Mob didn't know. She just mostly wanted her friends to be happy.

"Oh I know he would do anything for me….even shit I never asked him to." Said Minegishi

"What did he do?" asked Mob. She hoped that he wasn't out there doing more bad things. Like the time that he and Sho had gone to play in the sewers and came out smelling like…well like the sewers. Or the time that they went to the icr cream and got kicked out for excessively sampling. Or like the time when they picked up that skunk and it sprayed them but instead of putting the skunk down they chased each other with it…or the time with the noodle….Mob didn't want to think about the time with the noodles.

"He's out there doing something stupid, that's all, forget him. Here. Help me hang the rest of these spider plants." Said Minegishi. If Ryou had been there that would have been his cue to start singing the Spiderman theme song in English. Spiderman, Spiderplant, does whatever a Spiderplant does…Minegishi smiles just a little at the memory of it. God, how was he so ridiculous all the time? So ridiculously….ridiculous.

"But…he always does stupid things. That's just how he is as a person." Said Mob. After she said that she realized how mean it had come out. She hadn't meant to be mean to her friend. Sure he could be annoying and sure he could do stupid stuff sometimes but he was still her friend. He was Sho's friend, too, Sho's very best friend…and she needed to be nice to him. Even though he did stupid stuff sometimes like all of the times when he ruined Shibata's waffle makers by putting caramels in them….or when he and Sho had been microwaving eggs specifically to make them explode….or the time when he trapped Hatori in a revolving door just for fun….

Boys were weird.

"Yeah, he's an idiot…but he's an honest idiot." Said Minegishi as they woke up the plants that Mob had just hung. There, their room was done. Now they just had to do the rest of the house…tomorrow. They could work on it tomorrow. Right now they just needed rest. The flopped down on their bed and stared up at the ceiling. Grey. There was a crack there, too, across the ceiling. They focused on it. Maybe if they focused hard enough they would go off to another dimension….heh. Then not even that idiot Ryou would find them. He'd look, oh how he'd look, but he'd never find them. That idiot. Didn't he know that if they were to let themselves slip away into another dimension they wouldn't want to be found? Not even by him.

She just…they just…wanted to be alone.

They wanted to be alone. They wanted to be alone but also they wanted to be with people. They wanted to move to the fourth dimension with their books and their plants never to be seen again but also…they wanted to be there with Mob…and Ryou. Even though he was an idiot. Even though he was out there defending them when they didn't need to be defended. Even though he had been holed up in his room discovering new ways to alter his already unstable brain chemistry. They still wanted to be with that stupid, crazy, annoying, unbelievably honest, earnest, sickeningly sweet when he wanted to be, idiot.

They felt the bed dip beside them.

"Are we done hanging the plants up?" asked Mob as she laid down next to Minegishi. Their aura was all…tired but also…hiccupy? She didn't know. All she knew was that Minegishi still felt bad about what had happened. The rolled over onto their side and pulled at the shirt that they had on until their shirt.

"Yeah, for now. I need rest. It's been…a day. It's been a day Mob…and I don't want to hear any more about how sorry you are or your brother is. Ok? Let's just…rest." Said Minegishi as they rolled over onto their side. This stupid bra was digging into their chest and arms and back…and they hated it but also they were not going to take it off. They felt…less vulnerable his way. It wasn't that they hated their breasts, they hadn't been afflicted with any a-cup angst since they were thirteen, they just…didn't like the attention they brought. Didn't like being defined by them. Didn't like the fact that having breasts seemed to mean that every idiot within seeing distance could offer up his opinions on them.

They were a person with breasts, not breasts that just so happened to be attached to a person.

"Ok….I won't say that anymore. Also why are you wearing an undershirt under your shirt if it's uncomfortable? Wouldn't it be better to just wear your hoodie?" asked Mob. They had been tugging and tugging and tugging since even before Mob had started helping them set up their room. Mob knew that they always had trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep and she didn't think that being uncomfortable would help matters.

"It's not an undershirt, it's a bra, and I'm wearing it for my own stupid, irrational, emotionally driven reasons that I don't think that you'd be able to understand because you're ten. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just stating a fact." Said Minegishi. Mob was just a kid and she didn't need their emotional shit rattling around in her head. She wasn't there yet. She was just a kid and she hadn't even been anywhere close to there yet. Things would change as she got older, very soon if Minegishi wasn't imagining things…and then Mob would get it…

They didn't want Mob to know how they felt, to get it, but she would and there was nothing that Minegishi could do about it.

And if that seven day long, extra heavy, menstrual cycle of a human being said one single word about Mob's body to anyone Minegishi wouldn't hold back. Let Suzuki demote them or throw them in a traitor hole or shoot them into the sun or make them sit there and watch home movies of what was sure to be his very fucked up childhood. They didn't care. It was one thing to talk about them, they were a grown adult, but Mob was a child…even though nobody else seemed to understand that fact.

"Oh…ok. Um…but if you were wearing that for the same reason that I'm wearing an undershirt then I understand." Said Mob. That didn't look like a bra strap. She had seen mom getting ready for her day before. Moms bras had been all pretty with lace and bows and the straps had been made of lace and silk and stuff. That strap looked like it was made out of the same stuff her undershirt was made from and didn't have any silk or lace at all…but that made sense because Minegishi didn't like that sort of stuff. They liked simple things, they said, because proper outfits took too much work.

"Why are you wearing an undershirt with your pajamas? That can't possibly be comfortable…especially since you grew out of the nightgown years ago." Said Minegishi

"I know that this doesn't fit anymore but my mom got it for me before she left…and it was bigger back then…but I'm not wearing an undershirt because of my mom…well sort of because she made me and I turned out to be a girl…but I'm wearing this because…I just sort of feel weird. It's like I know that everyone was talking about your breasts and not mine but….I just feel weird. So I'm wearing an undershirt." Said Mob. She wasn't good at talking but she thought that maybe she had made sense. It was like…like they had been talking about her but they weren't…and she didn't even have anything to talk about…but they still could have been talking about her…and stuff….

"Mob…I get it. I get it and it sucks and….and if anyone ever talks about you like that then tell me and I'll ki-I'll make them regret it. Ok?" asked Minegishi. Mob got it. Mob was only ten, not even eleven yet, and she got it. Well everyone had to get it eventually, this inevitable fact of life when you were born with a second x chromosome, and now Mob got it. How truly disgusting some people could be. Well at least he had her father. They got the feeling that in a few years Suzuki would start executing people on the spot for so much as looking at his sacred virgin of a daughter. So at least his creepy overprotectiveness would work out in her favor for once.

"Ok…but I want to make things better for you too…but I feel like you're talking about beating people up and I just…don't know if I could do that. I mean…I don't know. I don't like fighting." Said Mob

"Well, Mob, one day you'll have to fight. I don't know when that day is going to come but it will come and you need to be able to fight. And I want you to. You're stronger now at ten then I will ever be in my whole life. Just…defend yourself when the time comes and remember what I told you about telling people to fuck off if they touch you and you don't want to be touched." Said Minegishi. They did not want to think about the shit show that her teenage years would be. They did not want to think about all the creeps that would come out of the woodwork for her. She was young, naïve, rich, powerful, and the daughter of the future ruler of the world….and they never thought that they would ever say this but thank God for Suzuki's overprotective paranoia when it came to his dearingest, darlingst, daughter.

"I remember what you said…but I hope that it never happens. I hope that I never have to fight anyone ever." Said Mob

"I hope so too." Said Minegishi. Mob was too little, too sweet, and too…herself….for Minegishi to start dropping the big truths on her. The world was a dark cruel place. Most people would sell you down the river for a ten yen coin and a pat on the head. People turned into pigs when they figured out you had breasts. One day you'd wake up and the whole would think that they had the right to put your body under a microscope and discuss their findings. No, they were not going to drop those sad truths on their ten year old best friend just yet.

Something else dropped on to them.

"Toshi, quick, it's an emergency! Oh, hey Mob." Said Shimazaki as he teleported down onto Toshi's bed…and on to Toshi. Well that had certainly been off target. He felt Toshi lift their legs and he knew that a kick to the chest was coming. He let himself be kicked to the end of the bed. It didn't hurt. Toshi was trying to move him, not hit him.

"Hi Shimazaki….please don't fight with Minegishi. They've been having a bad day. Also is this a real emergency or is it like the last time you said that it was an emergency but you just couldn't find your other shoe? Because that wasn't a real emergency." Said Mobas Minegishi kicked Shimazaki down to the end of the bed. That looked like it hurt…but then again he had started it by teleporting on top of people.

"We're not fighting and this is a real emergency…and also not being able to find my shit because people move shit without telling me is an emergency…but also so is this. Toshi, quick, make me a nectarine!" said Shimazaki. He say up on the end of the bed. He could feel Toshi's aura. They were….he loved it when they aura did that. The hiccupping laugh thing. God, he could listen to that all day…but he had to figure out this nectarine thing.

"Yes, Ryou, this definitely sounds serious." Said Minegishi as they picked pine needles up off their bed and tossed them onto the floor for them to step on later once they forgot about them.

"Right, it is. Like….are they just hairless peaches from hairless peach trees?" said Shimazaki

"Were you climbing trees?" asked Mob as she picked up pine needles and then tossed them in an empty box so nobody stepped on them and ended up hurting their feet.

"It is. Just…are nectarines real? Because I've never had one and I need to know if they're real." Said Shimazaki. Minegishi sat up and rolled their eyes. They knew that he couldn't see them. They knew that he wasn't focused enough…oh. He was. Even in his state he was still able to focus on them…but in a nice way…God. What was with them?

"They're real. Sho can't eat them even though they aren't a citrus fruit, one time he tried to eat the pit and almost choked so he can't have any fruits with pits, but they're real." Said Mob. She watched Minegishi and Shimazaki's auras. They were coming together and getting all tangled now…and Mob got the feeling that she wasn't supposed to see this. They weren't doing anything, they weren't doing anything but looking at each other, but Mob felt like she was not supposed to be seeing this.

"Toshi…can you make me a nectarine?" asked Shimazaki. He put on his best begging voice, the one that Toshi acted like they didn't like but their aura gave them away. He nudged them with his foot. They were going to be mad at him later, they didn't like other people fighting their battles for them, but they also didn't like extra work…so it all worked out. He didn't know. He would deal with it later. Right now he was just so happy to hear them and feel them and smell them and just…he was just so happy to be near Toshi….

"Do I look like a fruit cart to you?" asked Minegishi. They still reached down to the plant beside them and did their best to make him a nectarine. He smelled good, like pine, and they wondered if he'd left Fukuda out in the pine forest to die in the Russian winter. It would have served him right. Ryou didn't need to fight their battles for them…but it was nice of him to go out of his way for them.

"No, you look like some kind of nature…being…who can make fruit." Said Shimazaki. They looked like nothing because he had no idea what he would describe them as if he had to use his sense of sight. He didn't have one but he knew what they sounded like. Their voice was the best sound that he had ever heard. Sort of like the little bells that people wore around Christmas time mixed with the sound of someone stirring stovetop pudding. They felt soft, like really good silk, really good raw silk. They smelled…well they smelled like a bunch of different things. Their hair smelled like flowers, their skin smelled like a different kind of flowers, their clothes smelled like flowery detergent, their nails smelled like acetone, the back of their neck smelled like…like he didn't even know. Like Toshi. They smelled best in the morning when they were just getting up. The never smelled bad but the best time to smell them was when he was the big spoon and they were the little spoon and they were just getting up…

Toshi was Toshi and Toshi was amazing.

"Fine, I guess I am. Mob, you want a nectarine while I'm breaking the laws of nature?" asked Minegishi. They felt better with him near…and they had no idea why. He had come crashing down onto them asking for a late night fruit delivery…but they still felt much better having him near. Having him there. Ryou. Stupid Ryou. That stupid, crazy, idiot. That stupidly honest, ridiculously transparent, idiotically thoughtful…..when he was capable of thinking….idiot…

Stupid Ryou making them feel things.

"No thanks….I'm just…going to go to bed. Goodnight." Said Mob. She got up off of Minegishi's bed and went back home. She didn't know what she had been there for but she got the feeling that she shouldn't have been there for that. That had been a weird sort of atmosphere. She had never been good at reading the atmosphere but that had been…not usual. She did want a nectarine though….but she could eat one later…or she could make it herself maybe. She didn't know. She'd figure it out later, not now, but later.

Tomorrow when she came back to help Minegishi put up the rest of their plants.