Sho didn't write a lot of emails.
Who would he have written too? Everyone he knew traveled with him. He mostly just had his email address for logins to stuff. He got plenty of emails, a lot of them junk, but this was the first time he would ever send one. The only problem was that he had no idea how to even begin to write an email. Was it like writing a letter? He had never written a letter before either. Well he had written a Mother's Day letter to mom back when he had been really little but he could barely remember how he did it…and also he was not writing a letter to his mom anyway.
He was writing an email to his girlfriend.
His laptop was sitting there in front of him. He was in a fort that he had made out of Fukuda's couch. Fukuda was sitting on the floor with his laptop on the coffee table. He had his own work stuff that he was doing. Moscow was sort of important for some reason. Sho didn't know and he didn't care. That was dad and Fukuda stuff. He had his own Sho stuff to worry about. Like what he was supposed to say to Emmy. He wished that she'd had a phone. Then he could have called her or texted her or something. He knew how to do that. He had no idea what he was supposed to do here. He wished that he could have just sent her a 'what's up?' message and then she could have said something and then he could have said something back like a normal conversation.
Email sucked.
Maybe he should have asked big sis for help. Dad let her do his emails for him. She knew about this stuff…but he didn't want her help. She got all weird when it came to him and Emmy. She was always asking him how she was and if he loved her and if they were going to get married and stuff like that. He didn't get it. What the obsession girls had with love was. Maybe that was because they got more out of the relationship thing than boys. Shimazaki had said, before, that when it came to being with girls you always had to give twice as good as you got or you wouldn't ever get anything. He knew a lot about this stuff…and Sho had no idea why he cared.
It wasn't like he liked Shimazaki or anything.
They were just friends, like Shimazaki had said, and he was crazy for thinking that Sho had ever thought about them as anything else. Of course he knew that they were just friends and they would always be just friends. What else could they possibly be? It wasn't like Sho ever thought about what it would be like to be more than friends with Shimazaki. It wasn't like Sho ever thought about what it would be like to use Shimazaki as a pillow or to hold his hand or to kiss him like he had kissed Emmy or to…or anything at all because those would have been really weird thoughts to think and Sho was not going to be weird like that. He was normal. He was a normal guy with a normal girlfriend who he was going to write a normal email to in the most normal way imaginable.
So it was time to start this email normally….whatever that was.
'Dear Emmy,
How are you? I am fine. I'm in Moscow now. It's cold. All of the buildings look the same. There are stray dogs everywhere. They don't like to be petted. That's all I have to say about Moscow. It was nice talking to you. Goodbye.'
….maybe he should type this out in English.
Yeah. She couldn't read Japanese so maybe English, a language that she knew, would have been better. He switched over to the English keyboard. This would be a little harder. They read weird and wrote weird and it was just weird but…but he would get this. His English was ok and stuff. She could understand him. He couldn't always understand her but he could be understood. Maybe he should put more of her British stuff in there so she would understand better.
'Dear Emmy,
How are you? I've been brilliant. I'm in Moscow now. The weather is groty. All the buildings look the same. There are strays dogs everywhere. That's brilliant. They don't like to be petted. It's not brilliant. That's all I have to say about Moscow. It was brilliant talking to you. Goodbye.'
That was better….right? He had zero idea. He had no idea if that was a good or a bad email to send to his girlfriend. Wasn't he supposed to tell her that he loved her or something like that? He didn't know. He wasn't in love with her, he had never been in love with anyone, but wasn't he supposed to tell her that he loved her? Maybe he loved her and he didn't even know it yet.
What did love even feel like anyway?
Like there was a goldfish in his stomach. Like his heart was going to jump out of his chest. Like he really needed to run and hide but also he never wanted to go. Like he was standing next to the most amazing person in the world. Like he was going to die but in a good way. Like he was-
He slammed his laptop shut.
"Sho? Something wrong? If you died again I'll be able to come and help you in one second." Said Fukuda, his fingers hovering over his laptop keys. He didn't write a lot of emails but this was an important one. Masami never replied, he had no idea if she was even getting these, but he still wrote her periodic updates. He didn't mind, he enjoyed it actually, it was better than the multipage missive that he'd had to write about Minegishi Toshiki's breasts…which he still wasn't sure why he even wrote. Shimazaki couldn't kill him just…maim or seriously injure him….but he had still wrote out his missive. Well copy and pasted Shimazaki Ryou made me write this a few hundred times.
This was better.
He forgot what he had been about to write. He didn't have a lot of good to write about but he did his best. She might have still been reading these, this was still an active email address, and she may have even been sitting there at her own computer on her own living room rug in her own apartment in some strange city in some strange country trying to figure out what to say to him. Maybe she had so little in her life good to talk about…no. This was Masami. She must have been happy. She was free of Suzuki. She'd left her children behind but…but at least she was free of Suzuki. She was out there living the best life that she could have had…
Her best life.
Maybe she was sitting there on her own rug in her own apartment with…with another little boy sitting there in a fort made out of pillows. Maybe another little girl, too, sitting there with her. Maybe another man in her life…the thought stings…but she's Masami and she deserves all the happiness that she could get. She deserved someone who could make her happy. She deserved someone who could be there for her. She deserved someone who could help her raise her…her children. Not that he had any idea at all if she'd even had other children. He knew that she would have done a better job of it than he ever would….if she'd had any other children.
He hoped that she hadn't had any other children….and he hated himself for hoping that.
"I…I didn't…." said Sho. He didn't need help. He could do this himself. What kind of a guy needed help messaging his own girlfriend? He knew what he was doing!
"We can get back to Minecraft or whatever you're playing now in a second, ok? I just have to finish this up." Said Fukuda. He had no idea what he was doing. He had no idea what he was supposed to write. He had no idea what he was supposed to tell her. So far he had nothing, just words on a page, and not even a page. Just a screen. Maybe it would have been better if he had bene writing a letter. He knew how to write letters. He must have written thousands of letters in his lifetime. There hadn't been any other option. Now he had to write her an email and…and it was hard.
It was always hard.
"I'm not playing anything just…." Said Sho. Could he ask Fukuda for help? What was wrong with him, of course he could ask Fukuda for help. Fukuda would always be there for him, he had said so a thousand time already, but this was not something that he should have needed help for. This was something that he should have been able to just…know. Even if the boyfriend thing was supposed to be boring it was still something that he just should have known….
It was hard.
This was hard and it should have been easy. What was wrong with him? Why did everything have to come so hard to him all the time? Why had he been born wrong? Everything came easy to big sis, everything that mattered anyway. She had gotten Hatori like her and to be her boyfriend until he messed it up and before that she had gotten Shimazaki to like her…and then she stopped liking him when dad beat him up….and why did he even care if Shimazaki had liked her? Why did he even…..ugh!
What was the MATTER with him?!
"Just a second, ok? This is…this is important…" said Fukuda. Nothing. He had a whole lot of nothing.
'Dear Masami,
Things are mostly the same here. Suzuki is still headed off the deep end but that's been his destination for as long as I've known him. Shigeko is still Daddy's little girl as always. Sho is….'
That was all he had. He couldn't tell her the truth, the truth would devastate her. Suzuki was getting closer and closer to his goals every single day. He was getting closer and closer each day and Fukuda could do nothing to stop him. He was getting closer and closer to Shigeko each day and if she had been a decade older and not Suzuki's daughter then he would have sworn that Suzuki had replaced Masami. That he was honestly worried about what was happening there mentally for the both of them. That Suzuki's relationship with his daughter looked like some sort of sexless incestuous mess. That Shigeko had more power now than she ever had in her life and she had been about to turn an entire plane around just because he wouldn't apologize for something that he had said in confidence? That Sho needed her now more than at any point in his life? That her son had an intense, young Suzuki Touichirou level, crush on a man three times his age? And an ex yakuza member with a long body count and even longer rap sheet to boot? That Sho also, amazingly enough, had a little girlfriend that he had been forced to leave behind because Suzuki had to drag everyone around the world with him? That Fukuda had lost control of the situation years ago? That he was starting to hate himself for losing control of it? That sometimes he looked at the person he had become and-
And he would not be telling Masami any of that.
But he had to tell her something. He was overdue to send her an update. If she actually read these then she may have been worried. That is if she actually read these. She was off living her own life and she could have just….moved on. Moved on in ways that he knew that he was not capable of. How could he move on from her? From anything? He was still playing Claw after all, just like he had been when he'd been a kid, only now it was for real. How could he move on from someone as wonderful as her when he couldn't even move on from something as horrible as this?
He didn't know.
But he did know that Sho needed him. Sho had been clingy to him as of late. Something had upset him. Fukuda had no idea what, it could have been anything, but the 'what' of it didn't matter. Sho was there in a fort that he had made and he had slammed his laptop down in anger and it was Fukuda's job to be there for him no matter what. Sho needed someone in his corner, and in his corner for real. Someone with his best interests at heart. Someone who would always put him first.
Fukuda got up.
"I didn't die I just…..I don't know what to…to email to my girlfriend!" said Sho. He reached up to the roof of his fort and pulled down the blanket. That was as close as he could come to slamming the door. He wanted to slam a real door….and that was a jerk thought to have. He had no idea what he was even so upset about. He just had to say something to his girlfriend. Then she would be happy and she would message him back and then that would be how their relationship would be.
He was in a relationship now.
He liked her. He had to like her because she was his girlfriend. She was nice. She had red hair like him and plenty of freckles. She liked to play Smash and Mortal Kombat and also she had introduced him to Street Fighter, which was awesome, and she was a good opponent. She didn't just throw the match when it looked like Sho was going to lose. She actually beat him. She liked to climb trees and look at birds, too, and she wanted a cat but she couldn't have one, too, and also she hated mushy like he hated mushy peas and…and she was really nice and he liked hanging out with her. The kissing and handholding were just a thing that he had to do so that he could keep on hanging out with her….and so was this.
This was just a thing that he had to do.
So he had to just do it already! He had to get on with this so that…so that he could do what he had to do to be her boyfriend. Then if he was her boyfriend then everyone could see how normal he was and nobody would know all of the weird things he felt and thought about. How he thought about, sometimes, kissing people he shouldn't have ever thought about kissing or holding their hands or what it would be like to use them as a pillow or how cool they were and…and he just….he had a girlfriend now and that proved that he was normal and now he had to keep on proving how normal he was but for some reason he just couldn't! He really couldn't do anything right just like how dad was always saying. He was a disappointment of a human being. He was pointless and being him was pointless and….and he just sucked!
He pulled his shirt up over his head.
He closed his eyes and started to count. He was getting mad again. He was in a small, dark place so now all he had to do was count until he got better. There. He could do that. He could and would do that. So that was what he did…only it was hard. With his eyes closed his aura was trying to see for him. He could see Fukuda getting close, he could see big sis downstairs hanging out with Minegishi, he could see dad sitting on his bed, he could see Shibata in the kitchen, he could see Hatori hiding in the bathroom again….
But he couldn't see Shimazaki.
He was gone. Sho had no idea where he had gone off to. He could have been out making a new best friends and having all kinds of adventures with him. The thought hurts. He could have been climbing trees with someone else or petting stray dogs with someone else or switching the mail in mailboxes with someone else or playing in the sewers with someone else or jumping out and scary people with someone else or letting someone else help him clean out his eye sockets…and the thought of someone taking Sho's job makes him feel like the time that he had seen Shimazaki and Minegishi all curled up asleep and naked and…
And he can feel Fukuda's aura pressed up against his.
"Sho….it's ok. Let me help." Said Fukuda as he sat outside of Sho's couch fort. He felt Sho's aura extending out in all direction before being quickly pulled back. Not a pleasant feeling at all. It was reminiscent of someone he didn't want to think about. Someone who was gone, for now, thank goodness. He didn't know where it was that Shimazaki went sometimes and he didn't care. Anywhere was fine just so long as it was far away from Sho. Sho didn't need all of that in his life. He had enough going on as it was. He didn't need all of those sorts of feelings getting stirred up again for that man. What was it with the Suzuki family's terrible taste in men? First it was Masami and Suzuki, then Shigeko and Shimazaki and then Hatori, and now it was Sho and Shimazaki….they could all have done so much better…
"You can't help. You can't help because I shouldn't need help." Said Sho through his shirt. Breathing into his shirt made his face feel weird. Well he was rebreathing the air that he was breathing out. Maybe he would run out of air and die….no. Fukuda would never let that happen. Fukuda would always be there for him. He had said so a million times before.
"Everyone needs help sometimes Sho. You know even your dad needs help…sometimes. Back when we were kids he needed help all the time and I was the man to help with so I had might as well help you too." Said Fukuda. There was some stirring from inside the fort before Sho popped his head out.
"My dad needed help?" asked Sho. He knew that dad liked to give orders, telling people what to do was his favorite part of being President of Claw, but dad….asking for help? Admitting that he didn't know how to do something? Well something for real, not like when he forgot their Netflix login and stuff, the thought of it was….it made no sense. Dad was dad. He could do anything…for good and for bad. What could he ever need actual help with?
"God yes. Not a day went by, back when we were kids, when he didn't need my help with something. He needed my help building our fort and talking to people in our class and to take out extra library books since they capped you at ten back then. There was this one time, though, when we got caught and he tried to pin it all on me but the librarian knew him. She was all 'Suzuki Touichirou, you borrowed this copy of Race to the Stars forty three times this year. I've had to add multiple check out cards just because of you. Do you expect me to believe that Tadashi suddenly wants to borrow it?' and then he was all 'Yes. That's exactly what I expect you to believe.' With that same poker face he's always had….and oh my God I thought Missus Sakamoto's head was going to turn all the way around." Said Fukuda. He laughed, a little, at the end of it. He couldn't help it. The entire exchange really had been hilarious….even if later on he did end up with huge library fines since Suzuki was REALLY bad about returning books…which was why he was at his limit in the first place…but at the time he had been glad to help out his friend.
Now he wished that they just had overdue books and extremely costly library fines to worry about.
"But….why didn't my dad just by the book, then, if he had checked it out all of those times? Wouldn't it have been easier to just order it from Amazon?" asked Sho. He lifted the blanket off of his fort with his powers. He felt better. The counting had helped a little but Fukuda had helped a lot. He gave him something to help take his mind off of everything for just a little bit….God….Dad was such a fucking weirdo when he had been a kid. Well he still was. Maybe being a weirdo was just in his blood. Dad was weird, big sis was weird, and now he was weird. He was just the sort of weird that made him want to kiss other guys and stuff…not that he wanted to kiss other guys and stuff.
"Because he was constantly either burning through his pocket money on nonsense or getting it cut off for doing…well nonsense. Also it was the eighties and Amazon didn't exist yet." Said Fukuda. Sho did not need to know that his father had constantly had his pocket money cut off for beating people up with his powers over nonsense. Fukuda had tried to heal his victims as best as he could but he had just come into his powers back then and couldn't do much. There was only so much he could do….and he had to focus on Suzuki for those rare times when his victims managed to get a shot in. They hadn't even been planned fights. Suzuki had just always been violent…sort of like Sho…but at least Sho had a good reason for being the way he was.
"My dad did nonsense?" asked Sho. Now he was fully out of his fort and sitting across from Fukuda. He couldn't picture dad ever doing nonsense. He was always accusing him and big sis, if anything, of doing nonsense. Being nonsensical, he called it, which was sort of a compliment because he always said that when they were having fun. Like that time when they had found all of those garden snails and built a track so they could race them….that had taken a while….because snails did not like to race. Turbo was a movie of lies, ninety minutes of lies, and now he and big sis knew the truth.
"All the time. Like, get this, you've been to candy stores, right? And you've seen those ice pops where every third one or whatever is a winner?" asked Fukuda
"Yeah. Me and big sis ate a until we got sick because we kept on getting winners." Said Sho
"Well back when we were kids they didn't just have that promotion for ice pops. They had it for honey sticks and sugar suckers and chocolate licorice sticks….they had that a lot. Now your dad, he loved Space Invaders, I mean he would play from when the arcade opened until it closed. He found out how to use his powers to cheat the machines at the big arcade so we had to move over to the candy store with the Space Invaders cabinet in it but old lady Minamoto said that we had to buy something first so your dad gets, well he gets me, an ice pop and it turns out that it was a winner….so you know what he does?" asked Fukuda
"Tell you that you're ridiculous and that you need to eat something that has nutritional value?" asked Sho
"No." said Fukuda
"Lick it, make a face like you collected a punch of cat pee and froze it into a popsicle to prank you, say that it was vile, and then lick it again even though he hated it?" asked Sho
"….no….and never do that. That is not a funny prank….actually I think that might be a crime…" said Fukuda
"Use his powers to make it melt right in your hand just to be a jerk?" asked Sho
"No. He bought another one….and you and I have a lot to talk about later…." Said Fukuda. He needed to spend more time with Sho…for his own good.
"Why would he do that? Dad hates sweets. He says that they make him want to throw up when he even thinks about them." Said Sho
"Because he likes to win. So he bought another one and it turned out to be a loser…but the one that I got for free was a winner again…and then he bought another one and it was a loser…and my next free one was a winner…so then he spent all of his money trying to get lucky…and he didn't." said Fukuda. That had been one way to waste a summer's day. Watching Suzuki spend almost ten thousand yen, his entire allowance…..Fukuda missed the eighties….on popsicles trying to get a winner. Seeing him get more and more frustrated….that had been long before he knew just how dangerous Suzuki could be when he was frustrated….it had been sort of funny, even.
"Well of course dad lost. The universe hates him." said Sho simply. Why would the universe reward dad with anything? He was a jerk.
"He has always been pretty unlucky. He spent ten thousand yen, a lot of money even nowadays but back then…wow. He spent all of it on popsicles and I couldn't eat them fast enough so, really, he just wasted a whole month's allowance….and then after that he tried to mathematically quantify luck so it all worked out in his favor." Said Fukuda
"Dad figured out the secret to being lucky?" asked Sho
"No, your grandmother just decided to reward him for working hard on his studies and not getting into trouble so she slipped him twenty thousand yen in his school bag." Said Fukuda. That had been the first time he had ever seen Suzuki slip down the path of obsession. He stopped doing everything other than trying to figure out how luck worked, going to school….but just because they let him mess around on the school computers, and occasionally eating and bathing…though once the bathing stopped Fukuda stepped in. That had been…scary…but he had gotten used to it. How weird Suzuki could get about things…well he liked to think of himself as having gotten somewhat used to it. This latest obsession was…troubling…but he would step in once things got…to a worse point than they were at now. If he went to more than one day a week of being obsessed with Shigeko.
"Did he spend it on popsicles again?" asked Sho
"No, he spent it on a girl this time." Said Fukuda with a shake of his head. He felt Sho's aura focus on him. His eyes were forced more, now, too. His pupils had shrank down to almost nothing….not the best look for him…but nothing like Suzuki. Well a little…but nothing like Suzuki.
"Dad bought a girl a present? Was it mom? Did dad know mom when you guys were kids? What was she like? Did she go to the same school? Did she have a lot of friends? Did she-" asked Sho. His mind was going a mile a minute. Mom as a kid. What had she been like? The thought of her as a kid….well he knew that she must have been a kid at some point, everyone started off as a kid, but he had never really imagined her as a kid. He could imagine dad as a kid because Sho had played with his old toys back in the Treasure Room and also he had visit dad's old places back in Seasoning City. Mom was…a mystery to him….and he wished that she wasn't.
"No. He didn't meet your mother until much later. She grew up in….I don't know where she grew up….but this was another girl entirely. I don't remember her name but I do remember that your dad followed her around for three weeks trying to figure her out and then when he thought he'd gathered enough information he had me help him write her a love letter…and then he waited behind the school with this huge box full of her favorite foods. Not normal stuff like candy and chocolates, no, he had her favorite instant cup noodle, her favorite soy sauce, her favorite brand of long stem rice, her favorite brand of short stem rice, her favorite color of apples….just….a lot of her favorites." Said Fukuda
"Girls like that?" asked Sho. Gifts. Right. You were supposed to send them gifts. Who would have thought that dad knew about girls? Well he must have, obviously, because he had gotten married to mom and made him and big sis with her. Girls didn't make babies with just anyone….right? No, that was a very special thing that two people who were in love did, mom had said so. She had sad that one day he would meet someone that he loved so much that he wanted to do gross stuff to but also make babies with...and Sho did not want to think about this anymore. Himself growing up and doing that or…even worse….his PARENTS doing that….
He could still hear mom calling dad Touichi….and nothing would ever make that right.
"The gifts, yes, the following them around, no. That was why she had ended up breaking up with your dad after two weeks, actually. He...came on a little too strong." Said Fukuda. He didn't know how to tell a ten year old boy that his father managed to, over the course of a lifetime, creep out the entire female population of his elementary, middle, and high school. Thank God Suzuki had taken such a heavy course load in university. Thank God that he was so busy running Claw now. Well the female population could thank God, anyway. Fukuda had no idea how Suzuki had managed to be more romantically successful than him…though it may have had something to do with the fact that he hadn't been trailing after someone completely out of their mind since middle school…not that Fukuda was bitter…and it didn't. At the end of the day he'd gotten Masami so…so maybe if this whole Claw thing imploded or whatever he could tell Suzuki, before he met his doom or end or comeuppance or whatever, that he'd made love to his wife in his bed in his house and…and now was not the time for that revenge fantasy.
He felt Sho's aura on him.
He forced himself to stay calm. Right. Sho hadn't suddenly developed the ability to read minds…and if he did Fukuda was screwed. Sho…he was too young to know the truth, to know why his mother had left, to know what a shit show his parent's marriage had been, and to know how much Fukuda loved his mother….Sho was way too young for the truth. It would devastate him. When he got older…and Suzuki was dead, cremated, and interred with his parents, then Sho could know the truth.
But not now.
"Hey Fukuda….I was just…I was…um..do you think that my girlfriend is going to break up with me?" asked Sho after a while. He didn't know how he felt about that. On the one hand he didn't really like kissing her that much but on the other she was a really cool person…and also he had to have a girlfriend so then people would think that he was normal. Then Shimazaki would stop thinking that Sho liked him….and he had been acting like he thought that Sho liked him…even though they were both guys so, of course, Sho couldn't like him like that. Of course Sho didn't sit there and imagine what it would be like to actually hold his hand instead of brushing against it. Sho didn't sometimes lay awake in bed and imagine Shimazaki next to him holding his hand and saying something like 'Sho I think that you're the coolest guy to ever live. You're smart and funny and good at a lot of things and not at all a disappointment or a failure. I decided that I like you, not Minegishi, and also your dad died choking on an omelet, he suffered a lot, so now we can be together even though we're both guys so let's get matching tattoos and also kiss….' or something like that….
Sho had never once imagined that in his life.
"Probably not. You're a great kid and I have no idea why any girl wouldn't want you as their boyfriend." Said Fukuda quickly. First break ups? So soon? He had thought that it had been about videogames….but, no, it had been about…poor Sho….well he would help him through this. Even if he went full Suzuki and moved to a fort in the woods to hide his shame at his own hurt feelings….or went to the twenty four arcade all the way in Tokyo and played Space Invaders for two days straight….or decided to lead a life of celibacy as a monk, that last one hadn't ever lasted for more than a week, Fukuda would be there.
"She might not like me anymore because….because I promised her that I would email her but I just…I don't know what to say. I don't know what I'm supposed to say or do or…this whole being a boyfriend thing is really hard. I just don't know." Said Sho. He wiped his eyes. He didn't know why he was so sad. Well, obviously, because Emmy might break up with him. Not because he could feel Shimazaki's aura now and he missed him so much…and he hadn't seen him since he got suspicious about how Sho felt…and he just wanted to see him and be with him and….and stuff….and junk….but just as his friend…because they could only ever be friends….
"Sho….let me help you. I'm sure she doesn't dislike you just because your email is late. I'll help you write this out and then later on you and me can go out and find a present for her and I bet that after that everything's going to be just fine. Right as rain, as her people say. Right as rain." Said Fukuda. So that was it. This was….good. Sho was being normal, not at all like his father, and that was good. He had tried to write a love letter…upon reading it felt more like a mission report but that could be fixed….he had tried to do it on his own. His goal was to make this girl happy, he cared about another person, and that was good. A girl person. Fukuda…he didn't give a damn who Sho fell in love with but the rest of the world, including Suzuki, sure as hell did. He hoped that, for his sake, he had real feelings for this girl. He wanted Sho to be happy, that was all he had ever wanted, and….and he walked a hard enough road as it was.
His life didn't need to be any harder than it was now.
Being Suzuki Touichirou's son came with it the terrible burden of knowing that one day you would have to rule the world…and all that came with it. Suzuki had been obsessed with his bloodline, his powers, and how they were passed down since they had been kids. He had been obsessed with having children and then those children being espers and then eventually peopling the world with espers….and also just seeing what he would make….
And now he was putting all of that on Sho and there was nothing that Fukuda could do about it.
Fukuda didn't give a damn who Sho loved just so long as it wasn't Shimazaki Ryou. He was not a good person for Sho or in general. He frequently got a ten year old girl drunk and high and was probably planning on sleeping with her at some point, too, if his track record was anything to go off of. Shigeko…Shigeko was Shigeko and….and could try and warn her but she had power over him, not the other way around. He could tell her to her face that what she was doing was dangerous, that there were things coming in her future that she was not ready for, but she was under no obligation to listen to him. Not like Sho was.
He could protect Sho from himself.
Sho still listened. Sho still thought of himself as a child. Sho may have outranked him, he had never asked but he was Suzuki's blood son, but he still listened. To a degree. He knew that if he outright ordered Sho to stay the hell away from Shimazaki and all the others Sho would never speak to him again. No, he wouldn't ignore it but he wouldn't order Sho to do anything, either. He would just…let the whole thing fizzle out. It was a kid's crush, that was all, and it would pass….especially since he had someone now. A sweet girl, from what he had heard, and a kid living a normal life. Something that Sho needed in his life. Fukuda didn't care who Sho ended up loving, well anyone other than Shimazaki Ryou, but no matter who he loved Fukuda would be there for him not matter what he needed help with.
Even writing an email to the girl he'd left behind.