Sho hated peas.

Well he hated a lot of vegetables. The only vegetables he could eat were bok choi, but only in stir fry, and then lettuce, but only with ranch, and spinach, but only in spanakopita, and also tomato but only with ranch or in a sauce, and also carrots also with ranch. Sometimes plain, if there was no ranch, but he preferred ranch dressing….on just about everything. Ranch dressing was the best thing that people had ever invented as far as food went. If he'd been allowed to he would have had a glass of ranch to dip all of his food in…but he didn't do that at meals now because Fukuda said no…and Fukuda wasn't here but Mukai's mom didn't keep any ranch in the house.

And he wasn't about to tell her to get some, either, because that would have been rude.

It also would have been rude to not eat the lunch that she had made for him. It was baked chicken, peas and carrots, and also a slice of bread with butter. Not Sho's idea of lunch. He would have had pizza and fries or a box of cereal or a couple poptarts with extra frosting….with an apple or a slice of lettuce to make it healthy. Something besides this. He just….he had to be polite and he had to eat it. If he had been with Fukuda he would have just refused to eat until either he or Fukuda got sick of this. If he had been with big sis he would have been negotiating bites and also he would have had some ice cream or cake or something as a reward for his good eating. If he had been with Shimazaki they would have just eaten pudding cups or custard or mashed potatoes, stuff that Shimazaki said had a good mouthfeel, and Sho would have eaten whatever he wanted even though he didn't much like eating mush as a meal….

Because that was the polite thing to do.

Also he didn't want Shimazaki to think that he was a baby….or boring. That was why he needed to stop taking his food apart….even though the peas and the carrots were touching. They were touching and their flavors were mixing and he knew that everyone would get mixed up in his stomach…but his mouth was not his stomach. His mouth had a tongue and his tongue did not like too many tastes at once. Also it was his food and he would eat it in whatever way he wanted to….but he couldn't. Boring people made everyone wait while they took their food apart for hours and hours…and he was not going to be a boring person.

And also baby sis was watching.

"Come on, Mukai, here comes the airplane. It's coming in for a landing….if you'd just open your mouth already." Said baby sis's mom. She had a spoon that looked like an airplane and she was doing that thing that you were supposed to do when babies wouldn't eat…and he didn't blame baby sis for not eating. She didn't want to eat this and neither did he….but he had to eat it. He was the big brother now and he had to show her how to be a good eater. She didn't have Fukuda around. Sho knew that eating unhealthy foods could make you sick but for him it didn't matter because Fukuda could heal just about anything.

Baby sis wasn't so lucky.

She was lucky enough to have a mom that put her dinner in the mush machine and stuff but she wasn't lucky enough to have a Fukuda in her life. A person who could heal her no matter what happened. So she would need to learn how to eat her fruits and vegetables and also how not to take her food apart. She needed to be a good eater and he needed to eat a good example….right now. He had been eating his chicken, the chicken was ok even though it was baked, not fried, and also there wasn't any ranch for it…but it was ok. It didn't really taste like anything.

The peas and carrots on the other hand…

He held his fork in his hand. Baby sis had her mouth closed and she was shaking her head. Sho wanted to tell her mom to give her a cookie, she liked cookies, and then after she had one she could have one when she was done with her food as a reward. Or after every bite like big sis did to get him to eat cucumbers. Baby sis was shaking her head and she slapped her spoon away….and now there was mush everywhere on her high chair…and Sho wanted to tell her mom to just give her a cookie already…

But he didn't.

Sho could have all the cookies he wanted because he had Fukuda. Sho could live on chips and fries and cookies and ice cream but baby sis was not so lucky. So he needed to set a good example. He finished chewing the piece of chicken in his mouth and swallowed. He swallowed twice just to make sure that he was done swallowing…and then he drank some water too just to make extra sure. Also he wished that he could have had a soda but baby sis's mom poured him a glass of water without even asking him…and he knew that she had soda in her fridge….but she didn't want Mukai to have any because she was only baby…and if Sho had been in charge of her then she could have lived with him and drank all the soda she wanted and eaten all the cookies she wanted…because Fukuda would have been with them…but he was not in charge of her…

So he had to be a good big brother about this.

"Baby sis, look. See, it's not so bad." Said Sho. He got her attention and then stuck one pea on the end of his fork…and then he put it in his mouth…and then he started to chew. His eyes watered and his stomach felt like there were goldfish in it….but in a good way. Not in the way when he thought about how good it had felt to kiss Hideki or how awesome Shimazaki was….this was more like…like the time he ate four churros and then rode the teacups and used his powers to make them spin faster….but he held his throw up inside of his stomach and the pea inside of his mouth…..

Even though he would have preferred to have been eating actual pee instead of this….

He did a thumbs up as he chewed. Baby sis laughed and did a thumbs up too. Good. She was learning that…that something you had to eat disgusting things in order to make the people around you happy. Sometimes you had to choke down something sick and wrong, obviously you weren't supposed to eat a plant named after pee, to be healthy and to make someone else happy…like when he had been little and mom had made stuff that he hadn't liked….

You had to eat what your mom made you. That was a very good lesson to learn.

"See? It's delicious." Said Sho after he swallowed. He drank some water really quick after he said that just to get the horrible taste out of his mouth. Great. One down and about a million more to go. Maybe if he mushed them all up into one big pea and then swallowed them…or maybe he could fill his pockets with peas and then flush them down the toilet later….or maybe if he hid them on the bottom of his plate and then offered to do the dishes….

But that would have been setting a bad example for his little sister.

Big sis never did bad things. Ever. Not even in secret. She hadn't even kissed Shimazaki even though she had the chance…not that he wanted her to kiss Shimazaki…and not that he had ever thought about kissing Shimazaki either! Because he hadn't! Because that would have been a weird thing to dream about! He never had dreams where he and Shimazaki were sitting in a fort eating pudding cups and throwing the empty pudding cups at Hatori and then they ran out of pudding and then Shimazaki kissed him…but it was for a good reason, he tasted like pudding, and not because he wanted to kiss him or anything…and also Sho didn't want to kiss him either! He did not have thoughts like that and…and he was going to set a good example like big sis set!

You don't kiss your friends.

You kiss whoever you're told to kiss. Sho had a girlfriend and he was supposed to have a girlfriend and he kissed his girlfriend. Big sis had a boyfriend, well she probably did by now since she was so in love with Hatori and stuff, and that was setting a good example. He didn't want baby sis to felt how he felt…not that he felt any way at all! He felt exactly like he was supposed to….but if he ever felt like…like maybe he wanted to kiss other boys….well then baby sis would have felt the same and then her life would have been very hard because people would be upset with her for that…and they'd make fun of her…and he didn't want that for her….

And he had to set a good example for her like big sis had spent her whole life setting for him.

"Here, you give it a try." Said baby sis's mom. She turned and handed him Mukai's little baby plate and baby soon. She couldn't have her plate on her high chair or she would throw it, she liked to throw things, and Sho was careful to keep it out of her reach when he took it from her mom. He stood there in front of her with a spoon on one hand, a plate in the other, and baby sis looking up at him with her matching eyes, matching to his, and normally he would have thought that it was cool how their eyes matched but now he just felt bad.

Because he was about to feed her something awful.

This was good for her. The best things in life tasted bad and the worst things in life tasted good. He had no idea why food followed that rule, only that it did, and that there were was escaping it. Food was something that you needed to live and good food made you live a long time…so it was time to feed baby sis some good food. Good for her foods. He just had to get some mashed peas and carrots….they were even worse mashed together…and then he just had to…to bring it over to her mouth…

She slapped the spoon away.

He caught it with his powers before she could make a mess. She clapped when he did that. She always clapped when he used his powers. That was how she showed how happy she was…and also she hit but she wasn't hitting now. She was clapping and laughing. He held the spoon in the air with his powers. She clapped and laughed as he swirled it around and around her head.

"Round and round and round it goes….where it stops nobody knows." Said Sho. He spun the spoon around in front of her face…and he felt guilty. He was going to feed her something she hated…but it would be good for her…and at least she was being entertained. That was good…even though if it had been up to him she would have had a cup of ranch dressing to wash her food down with or a cookie or something as a reward for her good eating…but he was only her pretend big brother, not her real big brother, so he didn't get that kind of say. What would have happened if she had stayed with them? Would he have been in charge of her like big sis was in charge of him? Would he had been the one in charge or would they both have been bossed around by big sis? He didn't know. Back on the days when he'd watch her he had been in charge…but big sis had been at work….

And even though formula had been gross it had been easier to make her a bottle than to feed her like this.

It had made him feel less guilty. When he fed her the bottle at least there hadn't been any other options. He knew that there was a whole world of food out there for her and she didn't have to eat this…or at least not without ranch…but he wasn't in charge of her. He wasn't the for real big brother or the grown up. So he fed her what her mom decided that she had to eat. He made the spoon go into her mouth…and she didn't spit up. She swallowed. She swallowed and blew drool all over her bib…but she kept it down.

She was so awesome like that.

"You did so great, bay sis! You did ate and you didn't even spit up. You did good! Go-od. Good." Said Sho. Maybe he could get her to say 'good'. She couldn't say her own name, and she spat when she tried to say his, so maybe she could say this. She had to say something. She had to learn how to talk.

And he wanted to be there for her first words.

He had already missed her first Christmas and her first birthday and her first steps and her first solid foods….and he didn't want to miss her first words either. He knew that once he left he wouldn't be able to come back for a while….and he knew that he needed to spend as much time as he could with her. He needed to spend as much time as he could with her and he needed to teach her everything he could and he needed to hear her first words. He knew that he needed to make the most of his time with her…

And also he had to set a good example for her.

She didn't try to say good but she did try to kick the plate out of his hands. Judging by how her little baby aura flared she also wanted to use her powers….or the powers that she had seen him use, to knock her plate on the ground…and he sort of wanted her to knock the plate on the ground. Then he could get her a cookie from the cafeteria. She had taken a bite and that was enough to earn a reward…in his opinion, anyway. When he grew up and he had kids with whatever girl wanted to have kids with him, probably Emmy since she was his girlfriend and stuff, he would let them have a reward cookie for every single bite they took.

That seemed like it would be good.

They would have dessert, too, because cookies were more of a snack than a dessert. Whatever they wanted. In fact his kids could eat whatever they wanted whenever they wanted and in whatever way they wanted…but with a salad and ranch to keep it healthy. It was important to have something healthy on the table. Yeah, his kids would eat whatever they wanted and so could everyone else. They would eat at one long table, like in movies, with him and his family and big sis and his family and also Shimazaki and Hatori and Shibata and Minegishi…they could sit over by big sis….and also Fukuda if he felt like coming over every once in a while. When he got lonely and only if he didn't tell people what to eat or how to eat it. Yeah. It would be good. Dad wouldn't be there. He would be running the world or dead or something. That would be good. Baby sis would be able to eat with them then and he wouldn't make her eat anything this gross…

He would be the best big brother in the history of big brothers.

"Here, have some more. It's healthy…and stuff." Said Sho. That was good. Healthy food was good. She liked this, she liked it when he made the spoon fly, and he could do this. At least he could make her happy. At least he could make her smile…and he loved her little baby smiles. He loved her little baby smiles more than anything else in the whole world. She had her little baby teeth and they may have been green and she may have had mush all over herself but her little baby smiles were the best smiles in the while world….

He heard a camera click.

Her mom took a picture of them. That was just what moms did. They liked to take pictures….and that was ok because she could keep a secret. Fukuda wouldn't have sent baby sis to someone who couldn't keep a secret. She took pictures of them, him and baby sis, and that was ok….because then baby sis would remember him better. She had to remember him. He had no idea how much of this she would remember…but he just needed her to remember him….

He needed to remember this and so did she.

"Shh…shuh…..shuhhhh…" said baby sis through a mouthful of mush. She got mush all over her bib, it used to say 'The baby, the myth, the legend' but now it just said 'the legend'…and she was a legend. She was awesome. She would be the best, most amazing, most legendary baby sis in the whole world!

"Sho. Come on, baby sis, you can say it. Sho. I'm Sho. Sho." said Sho as he pointed to himself with her spoon…and he got green much on his shirt….but that didn't matter. That wouldn't matter just so long as she said his name. Would this be it? Would this be the first word she ever said? His name?

"Shush….shuuuush…." said baby sis. She was going to get it. She was smart, the smartest baby sis in the entire world, and she was going to say his name. He was going to be the first word that she had ever said. She was going to say his name and then he would be her first word and then if he was her first word then she would remember him for the rest of her life.

Even if they weren't really siblings he still wanted her to remember him for the rest of his life.

"That's it. Sho. Sho. You can say it, say my name, Sho. You're so smart, the smartest baby sis in the world, and you can totally say my name." said Sho. He was only going to tell her good things. That way she would know that she had been born right. Even though her parents didn't want her, they had given her away to dad after all, she was loved and she had been born right and anyone who dared to tell her that she had been born wrong could go off and rot in a traitor hole.

She had been born right.

"Shush….shush….shush…." said baby sis. It was more like spitting than words but she was getting it…sort of. Maybe she was just too little…or something….but he needed her to talk…he needed her to say his name…he needed her to remember him….he really did. She wouldn't be able to remember big sis, even though she had that doll that looked like her and also Sho had left her some sketches of big sis baby sis wouldn't be able to remember her….but she would at least be able to remember him. At least he had done that right. She would remember him and…and he had no way of making sure of that…but he would try. He would try his very best…

What else could he do?

"Hey, kid, one thing at a time. How about you just get her to eat and then work from there." said big sis's mom. Sho sort of wanted to tell her to mind her own business, that he was trying to teach his sister to speak, and that he had this….but that would have been the sort of thing that would get him kicked out and he didn't want that.

"…sure…but maybe it would go easier if you had some ranch. Everything tastes better with ranch." Said Sho as he loaded her little baby spoon up with mush and made it float again for her. She had been so close…but he could try again later…or tomorrow…..if he was even here tomorrow. He had no idea when he would be going….and he needed to make the most of this….he was trying to make the most of this….

He loved her so much.

"I'll put it on the list." Said baby sis's mom. Sho blinked. Well that had been easy. Now baby sis could have ranch and then she would eat her food and she could be healthy and then she would live a long time, long enough to see dad die, and then they could be together because dad would be dead and she could live in the house with him and the others and it would be great.

It would be the best thing ever.

But first he had to feed her. He had to finish feeding her so she could go down for her after lunch nap and he could sketch her sleeping. Then they could play until dinnertime and then he would help give her a bath and then…and then he could read her a story and go home…and then maybe do it all again. Yeah…again and again and again. He missed big sis, he missed Shimazaki, he even missed Hatori and Shibata, though not as much, but he also….he also knew that when he left here it would hurt so much, he would miss her so much, and even being with her now made him all…not the best…

Or maybe that was because he was feeding her gross baby must without any ranch.