Minegishi was honestly at the end of their rope.

They could feel an aura hanging out outside their door. Not Mob's aura, she never lurked like that, and she would have done well to teach her little brother not to lurk either. He was out there, lurking, and he had been since Minegishi woke up…and they had been awake for a while. They had been awake for a while and normally they would have enjoyed the feeling of lingering in bed…but now they couldn't. Not with Mob's little brother standing right outside of their door. They could feel his aura and see the shadow he cast under their doorframe…and they could not relax with someone just…standing there like that even if the door was closed.

Ryou, on the other hand, could sleep through anything.

He was fast asleep. He had one arm thrown over them and both legs tangled up in theirs…and they wished that they could appreciate it. They wished that they could just close their eyes and press their head against his chest and just…listen to him and enjoy being there with him…enjoy the rise and fall of his chest…and the feel of his arms around them…and just enjoy him before he woke up and said something stupid like 'Morning Toshi, I love you' or something like that. They wished that they could have just enjoyed him before he opened his stupid mouth about stupid things that he never should have picked up the stupid habit of saying like a stupid, crazy, idiot….

They would have been able to enjoy this if there hadn't been a possessive ten year old lurking outside of their door.

They were trying, really trying, to be understanding. The kid was going through a lot. He was ten, on the cusp of that godawful time in life, and he was dealing with not only being in love but all the confusion and doubt and just…everything that came with being in love with another guy. They got it, they really did, and they had made an effort to be understanding…or at least not openly antagonistic….but it was really getting to be a lot with this kid. He couldn't help it. He was being raised by his eleven year old sister and his father was Suzuki, and Minegishi wasn't in the habit of psychoanalyzing people but the man clearly had some kind of personality disorder or something, so really they didn't expect him to be the best at dealing with his feelings…

But enough was enough.

They were going to do…something. What they wanted to do was throw the kid out of the house because they did NOT like people lurking like that…but he was only ten and he didn't know any better. They'd probably just tell him, once they fully had enough, that Ryou was his own person and that he could do whatever he wanted and that there was no point in being jealous since he was only ten years old anyway. It was best, well Minegishi thought that it was best, to get these hard conversations over with like ripping off a band aid. That's what they would have done if they had been in Ryou's position….and they thanked God that they weren't.

They would have lost their mind if Mob's little brother had been in love, or whatever the ten year old equivalent was, with them.

Hell. They were close to losing their mind now. They needed to do something about this since Ryou was content to sleep the day away and now deal with the kid that they knew he could feel, even in his sleep he could feel when other people were close to him, they would have to….talk to him? No. That would just end in him getting upset and then Mob would get upset and she had more than enough on her plate as it was…and they weren't going to tell Mob about this. She hadn't noticed yet that her brother had the crush to end all crushes on Ryou and Minegishi was not about to tell the kid's business. They could just tell him to get the fuck out…but then they'd have a pissed off ten year old to deal with…and they were not in the mood to deal with a pissed off ten year old….

So they were stuck.

Metaphorically and physically. Ryou was pulling them in close now like they were a stuff animal or something. Something to make him feel secure. He would never acknowledge it, not even to himself, but he did need something to hold on to. Someone to hold on to. Hence the constant declarations of love. They had no idea if those were even real. If Ryou was in love with them, romantic love, or if he just needed them. If he needed them to be there for him, they had stuck by his side no matter how much 'what' there had been over the years, or if he just needed something to hold while he slept…or someone to sleep with. They didn't know. They just knew that he had said it and he was never going to stop saying it and he said that he didn't expect them to say it back….but they knew that he did…that he wanted it even if he didn't know that he wanted it…

They knew him.

They knew him just as well as he knew himself…even better in some ways. They knew him well enough to be able to acknowledge the things that he did not want to acknowledge about himself. The fact that he was not as blasé about his life and he liked to seem. The things that kept him up. The reason he was constantly moving. The fact that Tokyo wasn't the best place for them to be. The fact that he was reliving his childhood vicariously through the kid. The fact that he only wanted a child, and he did want a child, so he could have a redo of his own life. They knew him inside and out….and they knew that he would never do anything about that damn kid…

That damn kid who was now pacing.

They could hear the floorboards creaking and they could see his shadow passing back and forth….and honestly they'd had enough of this. They were not going to lay in bed all day while the kid paced like a caged animal. Not happening. They were going to…they really did not want to get up. This was warm and comfortable and Ryou….Ryou was warm and comfortable….but they would rather deal with getting up now than dealing with the hole that kid was pacing into the floor.

"Ryou, wake up." Said Minegishi as they tried to untangle themselves from Ryou. He clung tighter, for a moment, and in that moment they both wanted him to let them go and also to spend the rest of their life in that space with him…but then he had to ruin it.

"Risa…" said Ryou as he ran a hand across their back. They didn't care. They knew that he'd had a life before them. They knew that there had been people in his life before them. They'd had people in their life before him. They didn't care. They didn't give a damn that he had called them by someone else's name. He could think about whoever he wanted to while he held them. They didn't care. They didn't. There was nothing to care about.

"Guess again." said Minegishi. His hand was still trailing up and down their back. They knew what he was looking for. They knew him. They knew who he was looking for. They didn't care. He could do whatever he wanted and he could miss whoever he wanted and he could drag his hand up and down their back all day looking for a scar that wasn't there all day. They didn't care one bit.

"Toshi?" asked Ryou. Minegishi rolled their eyes. His hand had found a collection of moles on their back. Why he needed to feel for them they didn't know. They were right there. Their aura was right there. They didn't know what he was feeling for…but they didn't have the energy to stop him. His fingertips trailed from their back up to their neck and then into their hair. He had this fixation with their hair. He said that it felt nice. It was dye damaged to hell. They had no idea what he was even talking about.

But they didn't stop him.

"We have a winner." Said Minegishi as his hand wandered through their hair and then down to their face. He knew what they looked like. He just liked to do this…to them. He never did this with anyone else….or at least anyone he didn't care about. He didn't give a damn how people looked. He did this just because…well because he felt like it…and they didn't feel like stopping him.

"I am a winner." Said Ryou as he let his fingers trace the space where they would have had eyebrows if they hadn't been infected by their parent's genetics. He had been so fascinated with that space the first time that they'd met…the first time they had let him do this. He had just trailed his fingers across and across and across over and over and over again….

Like now.

"What makes you say that?" asked Minegishi as he moved his fingers from their eyebrows down to the bridge of their nose. They could feel his barrier, the one he kept skin close to himself, and they wished…they wished that he would drop it. They wanted to feel him, actually feel him, just feel him near them…like when he was asleep….and they would have been able to properly feel him if that damn kid hadn't been lurking around outside, pacing, and generally being a little nuisance.

"Because I get to wake up next to you." Said Ryou. God, he could be so sappy sometimes. All of the times. Even more than normal since he had confessed to them. He watched a lot of movies, listened to a lot of music, and read a lot of books. He had a lot of lines stored up…and that might have been one of them. They didn't know. Maybe it would have just been easier to think that he had been using a line and not just…saying what he felt…whatever he felt….

They knew exactly how he felt.

"Do you have to be this sappy so early in the morning?" asked Minegishi as he went from the bridge of their nose to their cheek. They knew what was coming, they didn't have to be able to read their opponents movements to know what was coming, because they knew him. They knew him better than he knew himself.

The let him pull them in.

"You know that I do. It's a compulsion, and so is this." said Ryou as he kissed them. The whole thing was simple, really, but they still felt their toes curl. That was his other power. He could strip their senses on the spot so the world around them ceased to exist. It was just Ryou and them, there, in that bed…and it was….nice. It was more than nice. It was just….really nice. Him, there, with them. The world was the two of them and…and it was nice. They wanted….they wanted to pull him close and….and several other things. Things which they were not going to do with a jealous ten year old lurking right outside their door.

That god damned kid.

"Would it have killed you to brush your teeth, first?" asked Minegishi as they pulled away.

"Maybe, you never know." Said Ryou with as much of a shrug as he could do while laying down beside them in the latest of their beds. Tokyo again. The beds here weren't as narrow as the ones before. It was warmed there, and stickier, and maybe they should hold off on sharing a bed until the summer heat and stickiness passed….or maybe not.

"You're ridiculous." Said Minegishi. They rolled their eyes hard enough for Ryou to sense. If he sensed it, they still weren't entirely clear as to how much he actually noticed, he made no indication that he did.

"I know it." Said Ryou. He leaned in and kissed them again…and they wanted to stay, un-brushed teeth and all, but they had to get up. That damn kid was out there, they knew that Ryou could feel him, and they needed him gone. He was driving them up the wall, had been driving them up the wall, and would be driving them up the wall unless they got up, got dressed, and let Ryou to deal with him…not that he would…but they could hope. A person could always hope.

"Well then you can stay and be ridiculous on your own because I'm getting up." Said Minegishi. They didn't need the ability to read people's movements to know what would be coming next. The same thing that always came next.

"Toshi….I love you. Stay." Muttered Ryou as he clung tighter to them. They had to extricate themselves now. They had no other choice. Always with the declarations of love. The constant, never ending declarations of love. They had heard him the first time, the second time, and the five thousandth time. He loved them. There. He had been saying it in plain Japanese for months now…and they…they had no clue how they felt about hearing it….

So they sat up.

The feel of skin peeling away from skin was the most unpleasant part of the whole thing. They were sticky and he was sticky, summer in Tokyo was always such a joy, and also there was everything else that had transpired between them. Him teleporting himself beside them, making them lose their place in their book, and then Ryou's….Ryou-ness. The way that he could just strip them of their sense, their senses, and a few other things before they could even think….God. That was how it always had been with them…

Though they could do the same.

He was not an easy man to surprise but they could surprise him. Those times when they would come to him. When he would be there in bed listening to music or whatever, he Ryou things he did when he didn't have an audience to either entertain or annoy, and they would come to him and kiss him and he would be well and truly surprised…and the trick to that was to kiss him when he didn't realize it...when he didn't expect it…

Like now.

The leaned down and kissed him. They could feel his shock. They hadn't been planning on doing that, they had just done it, and now they were kissing the shock right off his face. Yes, they knew that neither of them had brushed their teeth yet, and yes they were well aware of the eavesdropping little spy right outside their door, but they did not live their life according to the whims of a ten year old boy. No, it was the eleven year old girl they lived for…

And they would not be telling her to talk to her little brother.

Because she was not his mother. It would have been easier to tell Mob to do something about her brother but she had enough to deal with as it was. She was eleven, eleven going on eleven and a half, not eleven going on twenty like every seemed to think. Sure she could have told her brother to knock it off already but Minegishi was not going to ask that of her. She wasn't the adult in this situation. She didn't have to deal with this.

The person who was responsible for this situation having gotten as bad as it was should have been the one to deal with it.

"I know. Now go and deal with the kid. He's been out there since God knows when." Said Minegishi as they pulled their shirt back on. The reached down and passed Ryou his pants before stepping into their own. Ryou didn't get up to get dressed, he just slid into his pants, and then he crawled over and pulled them close from behind. They reached over and grabbed a vine to steady themselves with.

"Toshi, come back to bed. It's early." Said Ryou. Minegishi sighed.

"It's not that early and I am not going to fuck you with a kid right outside the door." Said Minegishi

"I never said anything about sleeping with you. I just want you near me for a little longer." Said Ryou. God. He knew what his words could mean. They chose to believe that he was saying nothing more than the words he had spoken. That he wanted to be near them for no other reason than their company. That no more declarations of love were forthcoming. That he wouldn't hand them anything that they wouldn't know how to handle. That he wasn't about to tell them that he loved them and then looked up at them waiting for them to say it back.

They had no idea if they would ever say it back.

They had no idea if they ever could say it back. They just…did not make those sorts of declarations anymore. They didn't say that and they didn't…they knew what it would come with it…if they were to say it…and neither of them were good at the relationship thing. Neither of them had any business trying that relationship thing again. Besides, it was pointless. Minegishi had no desire to claim ownership over him…and he had better not have wanted ownership over them….

And aside from the ownership thing there really wouldn't have been any difference between their…situationship…and any possible relationship.

"You were with me all night now go and deal with the kid….and I mean actually deal with him." said Minegishi

"I am dealing with him. Today he's going to teach me how to draw, he said, and then we'll throw paper balls at Hatori and then maybe we'll find a park and play with some dogs and-" said Ryou. Minegishi smacked him over the head, lightly, with a vine. Playing with the kid was not the same as dealing with him. Ryou wasn't deaf and he wasn't stupid. He knew what they meant. He knew full well that the kid was deep so deep into that crush that he was drowning in it…and he knew that he needed to deal with this before the kid got hurt.

"I mean deal with his feelings, Ryou, the way he feels about you." Said Minegishi. They didn't care if the kid heard them or not. He was obvious about his feelings, way too obvious, and if he didn't want people to know about this crush of his then he shouldn't have worn his heart right on his sleeve.

"I am dealing with them." Said Ryou

"How?" asked Minegishi. They knew that they would either get a nonsense answer or none at all…and they were prepared for that. Ryou…he didn't do serious or heavy. He avoided everything that was serious or heavy. So he was probably going to avoid this until it exploded in his face…and they got caught up in it too. Well that was just lovely.

"He told me he loved me and I told him that I loved him as a friend." Said Ryou. Minegishi smacked him over the head a second time, a third time, and then a fourth one for good measure. They knew that he couldn't even feel it, he had his barrier up, but this was more so they could relieve some pent up stress and frustration. This man….of course that would go in one ear and out the other. Mob's little brother had come from Suzuki and both of them only heard what they wanted to hear. That kid had probably just latched onto the 'I love you part' and completely ignored the friend part…and they were so glad that they didn't have these sorts of problems with Mob…

Because they would not have been able to deal with it.

"Ryou….this thing is going in the wrong direction." Said Minegishi shaking their head.

"I'm figuring it out. I mean I do love him, but like my own kid, and he knows that I love him like my own kid and I would never fuck my own kid so…I'm dealing with it." Said Ryou

"Right. Well then why don't you go out there and tell the kid that he's never getting out of the son zone?" asked Minegishi. Ryou and kids…Ryou and wanting kids. They knew that he wanted kids even if he didn't say it in that many words. He never came out and said 'I want to have a baby' but he had joked enough times about what it would have been like if they'd accidentally gotten pregnant, kept the baby, and decided to raise it….and that was never going to happen. They'd made sure that was never going to happen and if they did they wouldn't have kept it, they had no business raising a child, but that hadn't stopped Ryou from 'joking' around…and those times when they would wake up to his hand splayed out over their stomach….

They cared about their hypothetical future child enough not to bring it into the world with them and Ryou as parents.

"Yeah, I guess I should…after he teaches me how to draw." Said Ryou

"You know how to draw. I've seen you draw." Said Minegishi with a shake of their head. He wasn't good, he drew like a toddler, but he could draw. Basic shapes, and he had to press very hard to feel what he was doing, but he could draw….and he drew well…in their book…and they might have still had that drawing in a book somewhere…as a bookmark. They'd find it later. They weren't going to go through every single book they had just to find something that he had drawn for them years and years ago.

"Yeah I can do shapes and shit but he can draw…well I'm told that he can draw things so they look just like they do in life, and if he wants to share that with me then, cool, that's what we're going to spend our day doing. Maybe go to HQ and throw shit at Hatori or steal some cookies…or maybe just find some dogs to play with…when we're done with all of that then I'll ten him that he's permanently son zoned. How's that sound, Toshi?" asked Ryou

"It sounds like you and him are going to dick around all day and no progress is going to be made on any front." Said Minegishi

"Yeah pretty much. Well anyway he feels restless so duty calls. Love you." Said Ryou. He didn't give them a chance to respond. He just leaned in, kissed them, and then teleported away. They could hear him and the kid...and they paid the two of them no mind. They just let themselves fall backwards onto their bed. Their foot hit a pile of books…and they would deal with that mess later. Eventually. Once they dealt with this mess that they were in.

So many messes.

At some point in their life, they couldn't pinpoint it exactly, they had turned into a housekeeper. They had to deal with all the little messes that kept on popping up in their life….and the lives of others. Maybe when they had met Mob and joined the Suzuki family's entourage…or maybe even further back when they had first met Ryou when they had been young and bored and he had been fascinating…or maybe even further back when they had been fifteen and found themselves alone in the world…alone and free…and free to clean up all of their own messes. Free to make mess after mess and free to clean it up….

They weren't the only one making messes.

In fact they had been trying for years now not to make a mess out of this thing. They were the one who had set down the rules. No spending the night, no cuddling, no 'just because' kisses, no 'I love yous', nothing. They had set down, well proposed, those rules and Ryou had agreed to them…and then they had both let those rules just fall by the wayside…and now they were in this mess. They were in this mess and they had no idea how to clean it up….

They rolled over.

They rolled over until they were on his side of the bed. Not very far to roll since they were in a twin bed. They could feel the warmth where he had been, or that might have just been their imagination, and they could smell him, too, his cologne…the crap he put in his hair to get it to stand up…the faint smell that could only be described as 'Ryou'….though that might have all been in their head, too. Maybe this bed just felt like shitty fabric softener and overly perfumed detergent. They didn't know. They didn't know anything. How they had gotten themselves into this mess, how to clean it up, if they even wanted to clean it up…

Why they were laying in their bed with a pillow pressed up against their face.

This was all that idiot's fault. He was the one who had to go and say something stupid like 'I love you' and just…make another mess for them to clean up. He had moved into their mind rent free. He was there, on the periphery of their thoughts, Ryou. Ryou's fuck ups. Ryou's cologne. Ryou's body against theirs. Ryou's stupid smiles when he was near to them. Ryou's compulsive need to be center of attention. Ryou and the stupid shit he did during his day. Ryou and the cookies from the Claw cafeteria that he would leave there on their dresser even though he knew that sugar was poison. Ryou who would crawl into bed with them when he could sense that they were about to fall asleep. Ryou who would pull them close and say something stupid like 'I love you'….and Minegishi who would say something stupid right back….

They wouldn't.

They would just…not say something stupid right back. They didn't know. He was…Ryou. He was himself. He was unapologetically himself…even when he was a dumbass. Like when he decided to get Mob's little brother stoned…or the thing with the acid…or the time he borrowed a baby…or all of the other crazy, stupid, ridiculous shit he did…all of it. He was himself and….and he was a dumbass…but he was an honest dumbass. He never tried to be anything other than his stupid, crazy, ridiculous self…

And they loved him for that.

They loved him for that and….and they were at the end of their rope, too…and they had nobody to blame but themselves.