Mob went to bed ten and woke up eleven.

She felt the same but she knew that she was different. Eleven. Two ones right next to each other. Eleven years ago she had been born. She had been a baby and now she was a kid…well she had been a kid for a while…but now she was an older kid. She was an older kid and…well she was the same height as she had been when she had gone to sleep…and nothing else had changed really…but she was a whole year older now and that was something.

And also there were pancakes.

"Today is your birthday….it's my birthday too…." Sang Shimazaki as he reached over and stole one of the pancakes from her stack. Now she had ten. She'd had eleven before and now she had ten but that was ok because she hadn't been sure how she was supposed to eat eleven pancakes all by herself. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to eat ten pancakes all by herself. She would have asked her friends to help but they all had their own pancakes.

Even Shimazaki.

"You can have it." Said Mob after he stole her pancake. She had plenty. She had plenty and she was always happy to have something to share with her friends. This may have been her birthday but everyone was there and everyone deserved to have a great time.

"Hey! Is it your birthday? No, it's hers. Now you put that pancake back where it came from of so help me-" said Shibata from his spot in front of the stove. He was making more of the strawberry in syrup topping that she liked. He had made this whole breakfast for her and he didn't have to make anything else but he had said that he'd wanted to. It was her birthday and she got whatever she wanted.

She mostly just wanted everyone to get along.

"You can have all of my pancakes….you didn't have to take one from my sister." Said Sho. He pushed one of his pancakes, he got ten because Shibata didn't want him to feel left out, onto Shimazaki's plate. If he noticed he didn't say anything…but maybe he should have said something because Sho was staring at him. He might have been staring at Shimazaki because he was waiting for a thank you. Shimazaki forgot those sometimes. Sho might have been staring for a whole other reason though. She didn't know why he stared at Shimazaki all the time, and it was all the time, and she wanted to ask but this seemed like something that she should not have been nosing into. She tended to be nosy, Minegishi had said before, so Mob was trying to fix that.

She was eleven now so she might as well fix all the bad things about herself before she turned twelve.

"Better yours than mine." Said Hatori as he pulled his plate in close. That wouldn't stop Shimazaki. He could teleport, move fast without teleporting, and was a lot stronger than Hatori. Hatori must have known by now that he couldn't stop Shimazaki….but it was still nice to see him try. He was so…he made Mob's chest and stomach feel funny. She didn't know why. He was just hunched over his pancakes like he was protecting them or something. She didn't know why she felt like this…maybe because he wasn't in a sweater. He was just in a t-shirt and sleep shorts…and she never saw that much of him…and she didn't know why she cared. Shimazaki slept in just sleep shorts and staring at him didn't make her heart and stomach feel funny and he was a boy too. Maybe because he was in love with Minegishi….that might have been it. Mob didn't know what this feeling was but she knew that she could never let herself have it for a person who was in love with her best friend.

So then why did she have it for Hatori?

He had been in love with Minegishi, also he wanted to eat them but he couldn't help being who he was, and she still felt….she didn't want to be his girlfriend…but she felt….she didn't know how she felt. She felt like…like she liked looking at his arms…they were pale and thin and she wanted to touch his skin to see…well to see what it felt like….and she had no idea why she felt all…this feeling. This feeling which was very personal and embarrassing that she was never going to tell anyone about ever for as long as she would live….and also she needed to stop looking at him because the more she looked at him the worse it got.

She hoped that she could fix whatever this was by the time she turned twelve. That would have been very nice.

"What pancake?" asked Shimazaki as he stuffed the pancake he stole from her into his mouth. Mob hoped that he didn't choke. That would have been a terrible way to start off being eleven. Her friend choking and dying and then she'd never be able to hang out with him again…..that would have just been the absolute worst thing to ever happen on anyone's birthday ever.

Or in general.

He was a good friend and she didn't know what she would do without him. He was Sho's best friend but they were still friends…but sometimes she got the idea that Sho didn't want her to be friends with Shimazaki because they were best friends. Like now. His aura was focused on her and it felt…not happy. She didn't get why. People could have lots of friends. They all liked each other and they were all friends with each other.

There was enough friendship to go around just like there were enough pancakes to go around.

"Oh grow up. You're thirty years old, you have access to food now. Stop being a scavenger." Said Minegishi as they reached over and took a pancake from his plate and put it on Mob's. Shimazaki had covered his in so much syrup that they were in danger of falling apart….and also she didn't really want another pancake. She was happy with what she had. Ten was a lot and eleven was even more than a lot. She had no idea how she was even supposed to finish all of these on her own….but that was ok. This was part of their birthday tradition. You got pancakes equal to however many years you've been alive. It was a nice tradition.

She missed the old traditions though.

She missed how mom used to wake her up by blowing a birthday blower and telling her 'happy birthday'. She missed the special birthday breakfast of whatever she wanted. Even a non breakfast food like pizza or fries. She missed how they would go to whatever places she asked to go like the pool or the library and places like that. She missed how they would do presents after birthday lunch, whatever she wanted, and then they would watch whatever she wanted on TV before birthday dinner. She even got to stay up late on her birthday too….

She liked the new traditions though.

Even the part where Shimazaki stole food off of her plate. She knew why he did it, when he had been really little he'd had to take food from wherever he could get it because his parents locked him in his room for all day and didn't even let him out to go to the bathroom. So she didn't mind it when he stole food at all sine he had a good reason. She didn't know why everyone else made a big deal out of it. It was her birthday and she would decide what was and was not a big deal.

And Shimazaki stealing one of her eleven pancakes was not a big deal at all.

"I'm not a scavenger, I'm just someone who takes food from others at the first opportunity." Said Shimazaki

"Yeah! He's not a scavenger, he's a food thief, now why don't you just leave him alone and go back to your pancakes with gross fruit on them?" asked Sho. That was not a nice thing to say at all…and she wished that she knew why he would say such a thing to Minegishi. They had never been anything but nice….Minegishi nice….to him. They had even let him have their spot at the breakfast table. Usually they had breakfast sitting next to Shimazaki but they had let Sho have their spot. Now they were sitting next to Hatori even though he was probably thinking about eating them right now. Minegishi was so nice like that.

And she really wished that Sho would have been nice to them right back.

"So….you planning on doing something about this at some point, Ryou? Or is this just what life is now?" asked Minegishi. They pointing at Sho with their fork…and Mob didn't get it at all. Sho was Sho and he hadn't been THAT mean…she'd seen him be meaner…but Minegishi wasn't used to him and stuff…..but still they should have asked Mob to do something….but Sho listened to Shimazaki more than he listened to her. Probably because they were best friends.

"Leave him be, Toshi, he's fine." Said Shimazaki with a shrug. Mob looked between them three of them, Sho and Shimazaki and Minegishi, and there was something there in the atmosphere and she wished that she knew what it was. There was some silence now and it felt heavy. Hatori was scraping his fork and knife against his plate, even though that ruined the plate, but the sound of that didn't break the silence, no, it just seemed to make it worse. Sho was glaring at Minegishi and they were staring at Shimazaki and Shimazaki…he was folding pancakes in half and eating them like tacos.

Mob didn't get it.

But there were a lot of things she didn't get. That was just part of being friends with people. They were people in your life who you cared about, true, but you didn't know everything about them. You couldn't ever know everything, the whole of everything, about another person. She didn't even know everything about her own little brother. So it was ok that she had no idea what was going on there. Why Sho was making such a mean face at Minegishi, why Minegishi was looking at Shimazaki with one eyebrow raised up even though they didn't have any eyebrows and also Shimazaki wasn't good at seeing people's expressions, why Shimazaki folded his pancakes in half and filled the middles with syrup before eating them like tacos, or why Hatori was eating so fast even though he knew that he was going to give himself a stomach ache and also pancakes weren't at all like human flesh so he shouldn't have been so enthusiastic.

Mob didn't understand, also, why Shibata had to slam the bowl with the strawberries in syrup down onto the table to hard her plate and glass of strawberry milk jumped.

"Who wants more fruit!? I bet you do, Minegishi, since you grew it yourself. Here, have lots more fruit." Said Shibata. He tried to ladle some strawberries in syrup onto Minegishi's plate but Minegishi made the table plant grow into a roof for their plate.

"I can serve myself, thank you." Said Minegishi as they made the plant go back to normal. They weren't looking at Shimazaki anymore and Sho wasn't glaring at them anymore. Good. Mob felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders even though she had no idea why. Maybe because it was her birthday. Maybe because it was her birthday and all she wanted for her birthday was for all of her friends to get along. Maybe that was it.

She also wanted fruit.

She held her plate out with her powers to get more fruit. Shibata gave her a big ladle full and Mob didn't have it in her to tell him that he had given her too much. Wasting food was bad because there were people in other countries that had no food at all, mom had said, and Mob had never understood the point of that. If the people in the other countries needed food so badly then how did it help them if she and Sho ate all of their food? Wouldn't it have made more sense to send them the food that she and Sho didn't want to eat? Things didn't always make sense….but she knew not to waste food….

So she ate as much as she could.

She managed to eat five pancakes with syrup and fruit before she just couldn't anymore. That was half of her stack not counting the one that Shimazaki stole. She would have eaten more but Minegishi stopped her because it looked like she was going to throw up, they had said, and Mob was happy to have had an excuse to stop. If she had been smoking then she could have eaten more but this was not the day to smoke. Sho was there and she did not want him to start smoking, at least not until he was a grown up. He didn't have to control his powers, well he did, but he didn't have trouble with it like she did….so there was no reason for him to smoke. When they were adults they would smoke together because that was something that was ok for adults to do. She knew that she had smoked with Minori…well she had smoked a little bit with Minori. She had trouble with moderation so Mob had to be sneaky and switch out the cartridge for vape stuff. Still it was….different. Minori was not her responsibility. They weren't siblings so it was ok.

You always had to think of your sibling.

That was why she didn't make Sho put any fruit onto his pancakes and also why she didn't try and make him stop glaring at Minegishi. Minegishi would have told her if they had a problem with it, and she would talk to him about being nice after her birthday, but today….today she wanted to relax. She wanted to have pancakes and presents and cake and hang out with her brother and her friends and just…not have to worry about anything at all. She just wanted things to be good and easy and just….she didn't want to have to be in charge for just one day.

Even though that was sort of selfish.

But on your birthday you got to be sort of selfish. Like how when they had lived in the Castle mom had let her and Sho do whatever they wanted on their birthdays. They could go and swim in the pool all day, well until all the family swims were done with, and they could go to the playground or just stay at home and have unlimited screen time. Mom had said that a birthday was the celebration of the day you had been born so that meant that you could do anything that you wanted to do and be whatever you wanted to be…and Mob….

She just wanted to not be in charge for just a little bit.

And also she wanted to open presents. Present time came after pancake time. When the pancakes that they had eaten had been cleared, Hatori finished hers off and she had tried not to feel weird at that even though she had no idea why she even felt this weird sort of feeling she had about him eating her pancakes, and the dishes had been washed….or at least stacked in the sink in a leaning tower of dirty dishes…after all of that it was present time. Mob didn't need presents, having her friends around her and stuff was presents enough, but she did like presents….

And her friends gave great presents.

Shimazaki went first. He handed her a gift bag, it was blue and said 'it's a boy' in English on the front…and had a picture of a baby….but she wasn't going to say anything. He had obviously picked it out himself and that meant that it came from the heart and Mob didn't care that this bag was for a lady with a baby in her stomach. She was just happy to have any present. Even if it was just a….

…a giant bag of socks?

"You had better like it. I spent all day feeling socks trying to find the softest ones." Said Shimazaki as Mob laid out all of the pairs of socks on the table. Some were white, some were black, some were blue, some were with dots, some were with stripes, some had characters that she knew, some had characters that she didn't, some were for boys, some were for girls, and some were just….odd. Like the rainbow colored ones with individual toes that looked way too big even for Shimazaki's feet. Some had tags and some were just balled up or tied up…and Mob didn't want to think about how he had gotten these socks.

"Hey! That's where my Metroid socks went!" said Hatori. Mob quickly slid them across the table with her powers. She had to return them to their rightful owner, Minegishi said that Shimazaki was part magpie which meant that he stole all the time, even though she wanted to keep them…sort of. She didn't know what Metroid was but those had been Hatori's and they had been near his skin and she had been thinking about his skin a lot lately…

And she started sorting her socks so she could think about something else.

"Well now they're hers. If you wanted to keep them then you should have hidden them better." Said Shimazaki. He teleported over and snatched the socks out of Hatori's hands…and Mob could not let him do that. It wasn't nice. She used her powers to put them back in Hatori's hands…and then Sho used his powers to hand them back to her….

She really didn't want everyone to fight over a pair of socks on her birthday….or ever.

"But….they weren't hidden at all….because I was never expecting anyone to steal my socks…that's just…weird." Said Hatori. Mob felt bad for him. She didn't want his socks….well she sort of did…she did and she didn't. What she wanted, to borrow, was his sweater with the kitten on it. It was probably warm and soft and it probably smelled like him too….and Mob didn't know why she cared whether or not it smelled like him. That was a weird thing to care about and she needed to stop thinking weird thoughts like that.

"Welcome to your life." Said Minegishi as they took a pair of lavender socks out of the pile, looked at them, and then put them back. Those weren't their socks. They only wore seamless socks because seams bothered them. Even if those had been their socks Mob would not have kept them. She knew that it was rude to refuse a gift and all…but she didn't want to just take socks from her friends. That wasn't a nice thing to do at all. Stealing was wrong.

"Yeah, well, it's Mob's birthday and she needs socks and you left yours unguarded so I had no real choice." Said Shimazaki like that was the most natural thing in the world….and for him it was. He just took things sometimes and Mob…well she had told him that stealing was wrong and she had wanted him to listen but she couldn't watch him every second of the day. He was going to do what he was going to do…though she really didn't want him to go around stealing for her and stuff. That wasn't something that she would ever want.

'Yeah! Give my sister your socks! All of them! Even the ones off of your feet!" said Sho. He stood up quickly as he said that and made the whole table rattle. Mob steadied it with her powers.

"But I'm not even wearing socks." Said Hatori. Mob looked under the table. Nope. He wasn't wearing socks at all…and she had never seen his bare feet before….well not that she could remember. He had hobbit feet, like from the book Minegishi lent her, hair on the tops of his toes and stuff. She had never noticed that about him before….but now she couldn't un-notice.

"Well then go and put some on so I can give them to her." said Sho. Mob didn't want him to steal for her either. He just thought that it was ok to steal because Shimazaki made it seem like it was ok….and she would talk to him about that later. Right now she just needed to put a stop to this.

"I don't want-" said Mob. She wanted new socks, hers kept on disappearing in either the washer or the dryer, but she didn't want to take socks from her friends. She just needed to make herself heard….somehow.

"Or we can all just wear our own socks and Ryou can stop stealing from everyone." Said Minegishi. They took Hatori's socks from her and passed them back to Hatori. He made a weird noise, sort of like a cross between a squeak and a yelp, and tried to bow while he was sitting down. Mob slid some socks under his head before he could smack his head on the table. His hair bounced when he put his head down and lifted it…and then that made her stomach bounce….

He was cuter than all the kpop boys in the world.

"I didn't take any of your socks, Toshi." Said Shimazaki. Mob wondered if he had avoided taking their socks because he was in love with them or if it was because he knew that they would attack him with plants if he stole from them.

"That's not the point, Ryou." Said Minegishi with a sigh. The sort of sigh that they did when they were very tired…but it was only ten in the morning. But then again they were always tired. Dealing with nonsense was their fulltime job, they had said, and Ryou did a lot of nonsense. Mob wondered why they complained about his nonsense when they had also said, before, that they loved that about him. How he always had something going on and how he was never dull. How he was honest in whatever he did. How nothing he did ever had an ulterior motive. How he wasn't even capable of having an ulterior motive. They had been sort of quiet and reddish when they had said that, which based on what Mob knew about herself meant that they liked him back, but for some reason they didn't even admit it let alone become his theyfriend and stuff.

Sometimes it was hard to understand her friends.

"Guys, really-" said Mob. Sometimes it was hard to be understood by her friends, too. It was like they weren't even listening to her. It was like she just said words and they died in the air before they could reach their targets. That wasn't fair. It was her birthday. If there was ever a day where people were meant to hear her it was this day.

"That's where my rainbow socks went….you can have them if you want, Your Little Ladyship." Said Shibata. Mob shook her head. First she shook her head a little…and then a little more…and then a little more from there….and then she shook her head so fast and so much that her hair was smacking her in the face over and over again.

She needed a smoke.

"I don't want any socks! I mean…I don't want any socks that were stolen from you. Thank so very much for the gift but I don't want me feet to be warm at the expense of others." Said Mob. She managed to calm down by the end of that…and everyone had heard her. They had all heard her and they were all looking at her and…and she didn't know what she was supposed to do now.

Or when Shimazaki started clapping.

"You're too good for this sinful Earth, you know that Mob? You were sent here to die for our sins-" said Shimazaki. Minegishi reached over, past Sho, and put their hands over his. Sho glared at them and they rolled their eyes as they pulled their hands back.

"Mob, open another gift already." Said Minegishi. As they motioned to the pile of gifts at the end of the table. Mob used her powers to put her socks back into their gift bag. As she did that Sho used his powers to drop a box in front of her. This one was wrapped in newspaper comics and had a pink ribbon around it. She didn't want to undo Sho's handiwork so she undid the bow slowly and then slowly began to undo the tape. He had worked very hard on this.

The newspaper was not torn or anything.

"Mob, come on, before you turn twelve." Said Minegishi. Mob didn't want to go too fast. The paper lined up and it looked like this had taken him some time. He'd had to pick out all the comics and then line the paper up…and that had taken a lot of time…and Sho didn't like to do things that took a lot of time…but he had done this anyway….

"Hey! My sister can take a whole year if she wants to!" said Sho. Mob sped it up. She ripped the paper a little bit but ripping the paper was better than letting a fight break out at the table. Once she got the paper off she saw a doll. A Korean doll based on the words on the box.

She loved it.

Even though it was one like the ones dad got her, the ones that looked like little people only….not alive…she still liked it. It had come from her little brother and she could and would love this doll until the end of time. She loved Sho and she would have loved any gift from him. Even the time he had painted a bunch of rocks and then put them in a shoebox. She loved Sho so much. He was the best little brother that she could have asked for and if she had nothing on her birthday but him right there with her then she would still be happy.

So she kissed him on the forehead.

"Thank you so much, Sho. I love this doll but not nearly as much as I love you." Said Mob. She kissed him on the forehead again. He wiped it off as soon as she was done. She didn't mind. She knew that he was too old for big sister kisses. He as ten and he had a girlfriend and stuff. Well no matter how old he got he would always be her little brother. She'd be kissing him on the forehead even after he got married and had a bunch of kids and named all of the boys Shoyo and the girls Shoko. He would never be too old for her to love him.

Ever.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…just open another present before it's my turn to turn eleven. Here, why don't you open Hatori's present? I bet he got you something nice like a diamond ring or a necklace or a crown or something." Said Sho as he wiped off her kiss like it had been made of acid. She didn't want to fight with him. Not about the forehead kisses and not about what he thought Hatori had given her.

She didn't know what she would do if it was a diamond ring….or any fancy jewelry.

That was the sort of gift that you gave someone you wanted to marry…and Mob was eleven. She didn't want to think about marrying Hatori. She had thought about it before, when she had been ten and she hadn't known him as well as she knew him now…and about all the things she knew about him….she didn't want to marry him but…but she wanted something. She wanted something but she had no idea what that 'something' was.

So she decided to open her present.

"….it's not a diamond ring….or a necklace…or a crown…" said Hatori as she carefully picked the tape off of her present. She maybe needed to speed up, especially with how Sho was carrying on, but this was really nice paper. Minecraft paper. That was their game. She still played with him sometimes…and they still had fun together…but that didn't mean that she was ready to start planning their married life together…

But married people could kiss….and she ripped the paper a little bit there….

"What is the matter with you? Are you saying that my sister isn't good enough for fancy jewelry?" asked Sho. Him bumping the table was a good cover for her ripping the paper…and cutting herself just a little. It wasn't a bad cut, not bad enough to call Fukuda, not that she ever called him these days. She just didn't much like to talk to him. He didn't much like to talk to her either. She hoped that he didn't come and break up her party like he had broken up Sho's. She wondered why he didn't like her…Sho said that he had turned into a grumpy old man because he was forty four now…but Mob felt like it was something else. Something she couldn't put her finger on….but that was ok. It wasn't great, he had always been fun at parties when she had been little, but it was ok…

Because she didn't need one more thing to worry about at this birthday.

"…um….she is…but…that didn't seem like…something she would…want?" asked Hatori

"You are hopeless!" said Sho. He picked reached into Mob's sock bag, took out a balled up pair of socks, and sent it flying at Hatori's head. Mob caught it with her powers and put it back. Sho….he should not have done that. She didn't know why he had been so mean to people all day but he had to stop. This was her birthday. When it was his birthday then he could act however he wanted to but right now this was her birthday and she needed him to be nice.

Not that he ever should have been mean to anyone on any day ever.

"Sho! Be nice to Hatori! I'll be happy with whatever he got me…and I don't even wear jewelry let alone fancy jewelry." Said Mob. She knew why Sho wanted her to het fancy jewelry from Hatori. He wanted her to be Hatori's girlfriend because he knew how much she had liked him back when she had been ten. Well she understood wanting someone else to be happy but this…this was not the way to go and try and make her happy.

Really he was just making her stressed.

"….well his gift had better not suck or I'm going to make him get down on his hand and knees and suck a bag of di-" said Sho. Mob had no clue what he had been about to say but based on the shocked face Shibata was making, the way Hatori kept looking under the table like he wanted to dive under it and hide, the way Shimazaki was laughing like his lung were in danger of exploding, and the way Minegishi's hand covered his mouth she knew that he had been about to say something bad.

She would have to talk to him about that later too.

"Mob, just open the present. Ryou…talk to him later about…all of what was about to come out of his mouth since you're the one responsible." Said Minegishi. She didn't know why Minegishi kept on glaring at Shimazaki when they knew that he either couldn't sense it or wasn't paying attention, Mob would believe either, but she wasn't going to say anything. Sho had stopped being mean, now he was just glaring at Minegishi with his eyes and his aura, and Mob decided that the best thing to do was to open her present.

Oh.

Two videogames. Both the same. She read the covers. One of them might have just been a sequel but…no. The same game. What did that mean? Was that like how couples had his and her stuff? Like how mom and dad had his and her tea cups and coffee mugs? Did Hatori want to be a 'his and her' with her? But….why now? Why now and not back when she had been ready to be his girlfriend, when she had spent hours thinking about what it would be like to kiss him….well she still did that….but with the doki doki feeling instead of the warm and kind of tingly feeling? Maybe because she was older now. Maybe because she was finally old enough for him…or something….

She had no idea what she was supposed to do.

"You have a 3DS right?" asked Hatori. Mob nodded.

"I-I do…" said Mob. Was this his way of saying that he was ready to be her BOYFRIEND? Was that her birthday present? A boyfriend….actually that sounded pretty good….but he was….he had peed a sink at the Christmas party and he had confessed to Minegishi and also he wanted to EAT PEOPLE and….and maybe she could have looked past one or two of those things but all three together…well they were VERY hard to look past….but she couldn't reject him. She couldn't hurt him like that…and also she wanted to kiss him. Well she wanted to be kissed in general but she wanted to kiss him…and he was so cute…and maybe she could look through all of those things…but then dad would beat him up…but he and dad were late night videogame friends now….

Mob didn't know what she was supposed to do so she just smiled and nodded and tried to keep her powers and aura in check.

"Good. That's Animal Crossing. I thought that you might like it because I know that you don't like games with fighting in them. It's a nice life sim. Lots of making friends and helping people, I thought you'd like it. I gave you two so you could play with your brother. I figure he'd like it too since he loves animals so much." Said Hatori. Mob swallowed and nodded. She had been an idiot. Of course Hatori didn't like her like that. He was twenty and she was eleven. He could get girls who were twenty, and he didn't EVEN like girls…and she had been such an idiot….

She was an eleven year old idiot.

She didn't move as Sho took his copy of the game from his hands. This was…this was really nice of him….and now….now she had that doki doki feeling and….and it was back and…and now she felt like…like she really wanted to hold his hand and…and also she wanted to kiss him and….and this was not the way to feel at her own birthday party in front of all of her friends, minus Minori, and her own little brother. She needed to make words. She needed to say something. She needed….she needed….

Minegishi's aura tapped hers.

"Thank you so much Hatori. I'm sure that I'll love it and so will Sho….so…um…..I'm going to open Shibata's gift now!" said Mob. She practically shoved his present into the pile and she nearly lifted the table when she reached for Shibata's gift. It was in a pink bag that said 'birthday princess' on it in English. She practically upended the table but he held it down. He even reached over and took the bag to her. Glitter fell everywhere, including onto Minegishi, who then glared at it like it had fallen onto them on purpose.

"Here you go. You're going to love it." Said Shibata. He handed her the bag and then went back to taking pictures. Mob didn't have to open the bag to know what it was but she did so anyway because this was present time and during present time you were supposed to open your presents. She reached into the bag and pulled out a sweater dress. Well she knew that it was supposed to be a sweater and not a dress but just by holding it up she knew that it would fit her like a dress.

She would grow.

She would definitely keep this one long enough for her to grow into it. Shibata had gotten the sleeve length right, well at least they wouldn't be dragging on the ground, and even if he had made hers as big and long as he'd made Sho's she still would have loved it. She would have loved it even if it hadn't been blue, Elsa blue, and she would have loved it even if there hadn't been what looked like it was supposed to be a snowflake on the front.

This was a gift made by hand from someone who cared about her and she would cherish it forever.

"Thank you so much Shibata. I'll try it on now." Said Mob. She pulled her sweater over her head…and it fit. It fit her like a dress. The sleeves went down over her hands and the bottom went down to her knees….and also the neck hole was big enough that it came off of her shoulder…but she still loved it. She loved it and she loved the person who made it for her.

And he loved her too based on how he picked her up and squeezed her.

"Wee World." Said Minegishi. They said that and Shibata put her back down in her chair instantly. A present was put in front of her. This one was from Minegishi. They had used the same paper they had wrapped her Christmas gift in…and Mob liked this paper so she didn't rip it. It was Frozen wrapping paper which made it extra special….even though Minori said that eleven was way too old for Frozen….but she still loved it. She opened it slowly it was small and rectangular. Too small to be a book, unless it was a short story, and too small to be a movie too…unless it was a short film….but those came on normal sized disks….and she had no idea what it was until she took off the paper….

Whoa.

Double whoa.

Triple whoa.

Quadruple whoa.

All the whoa.

"Since you're starting to get into makeup, not that you need it, I thought you'd like that." Said Minegishi. The pointed to her present like she didn't know what it was. She knew what it was. That was an eye shadow palette. That meant that inside of that case, it was plastic and it looked like ice and….and it was so beautiful….there were eye shadows…she flipped it over to where the guide was….there were eye shadows from Frozen. There were….there was a war tones palette for Anna and a cool tones palette for Elsa…and she was supposed to wear warm tones because she was pale….but she liked the Elsa palette…and she had both…and she liked doing eye makeup best….and Minegishi had told her that she didn't need to wear makeup or try to fit in….

But they had gotten her makeup…and they knew that she was starting to like makeup….

Mob got up and hugged Minegishi. They hugged her back after a moment. She hugged them so close and so tight and they hugged her back so close and so tight and…and she loved Minegishi so much….and they loved her so much….and this was…this was…

This was the best birthday ever.

"Thank you much, Minegishi. I love your gift. I love your gift and I love you." Said Mob. She hugged Minegishi with all of her strength. They hugged her back. They hugged her back and she heard a camera click. Shibata was taking pictures. She was glad, so glad, that this moment was saved forever. She would be able to look back at this day and then Minegishi could too and…and this was the best birthday ever. She decided. This was the best birthday that she had ever had, even better than the ones she'd had back when she lived in the castle, because this birthday….she had her friends at this birthday. She had friends who knew what she liked and…and friends who loved her and paid attention to her…and even though they could fight sometimes…

She still loved her friends with all of her heart.

Mob was going to like being eleven, she decided, not because of gifts but because she had so many people in her life that loved and cared about her and who she cared about too.