Mob didn't mind baths.

Not like Sho did. This bath had been meant for him but he really was not in the mood to take a bath tonight. That was normal for him, though, he spent most nights arguing with her about why he didn't need a bath….and she knew that he didn't like water but she also knew that they were living in the world with other people and that meant that those people could smell them so maybe it was best not to smell bad. She had told Sho this but then he had had said that didn't care if other people thought that he smelled bad and Mob…she hadn't had the energy for all of that.

So she decided to get in the bath instead.

This was a very nice bath and Sho didn't know what he was missing. The water was warm and smelled good, she had put in a bath bomb but the kind that smelled nice and filled the water with flowers not the kind that Sho liked that turned the water green so he could pretend that he was bathing in slime, and she liked bathing in the warm flower water. It meant that she would smell good, which was good because she'd noticed that she had been very sweaty this summer…though it might have had to do with the sweater she wore all the time….not that she needed the sweater. It wasn't cold, and Minegishi said that she was normal and that she shouldn't feel gross….

But she did feel sort of gross.

Not as bad as before, because Minegishi would never lie to her, but still she just felt….a little bit gross. Taking a bath didn't help. If there had been some way to take a bath with her clothes on then she would have. That would have been a terrible idea, though, because then her clothes would have gotten all wet and she would have had to wash and dry them and that would have been a lot of work, a whole lot of work, and she just….she'd had enough work to do today…and she hadn't even gone to work….

And the work never stopped.

She could feel Sho's aura getting closer. She could hear his footsteps. She knew that he wasn't coming to talk to her because he changed his mind and now, all of a sudden, he loved to take baths. No. She figured that he needed something…and she was happy to help her little brother with whatever he needed…but also she needed to take a bath. She could rush this. She could rush through the shampoo and conditioner, and she knew that washing her hair in the tub was gross but that was just how she had always done it since she had been little, and she could have gotten out of this perfect feeling and perfect smelling bath and helped Sho with whatever he needed….

And she should have wanted to, too, because that was what big sisters did…they took care of their little brothers….so that was what she was going to do.

"Hi Sho. What's wrong?" asked Mob through the door. She could see Sho's feet under the crack in the door…and she knew that he couldn't see her….but she still felt vaguely embarrassed for being all naked and stuff…even though she was in the tub and in the tub you were supposed to be naked.

"Nothing's wrong. Why do you always ask if something's wrong? I didn't do anything. What's wrong with you? How do you like it?" asked Sho. Mob was bad at talking but she knew that he wasn't happy…and she had no idea why. He had gone with Shimazaki to see the guy who did his tattoos and even got to pick one out. He had been so happy when he left that morning and then he had just come home in the worst mood….and Mob didn't think that it had much of anything to do with bath time…but then again it might have. She didn't know. Sho could be a very complicated person to understand sometimes.

"I didn't mean that anything was wrong with you. You just don't usually come and talk to me while I'm in the bath unless something is wrong or you need something." Said Mob

"Big sis, nothing's wrong, so stop it. I do need something, though. Ok, don't be mad but I'm drinking a soda." Said Sho through the door. Mob sat up and crossed her arms over her chest and crossed her legs, too. She knew that Sho wouldn't come in and bother her, at some point they had come to an unspoken agreement that they took all of their baths alone, but she still didn't want to be seen. She didn't want her little brother to see her like this, he was the last person she wanted to see her like this, and she didn't want to answer any questions that he might have asked either…because she didn't know any answers. She knew that there were a couple of things that he was bound to notice and she knew that he would ask her and she just…had no answers beyond this had happened to her. This was a thing that had happened to her and now she looked like this and now this was what her life was now…and stuff.

"What time is it?" asked Mob. He knew the rules and he knew how to tell time…and she didn't have her phone with her but she got the feeling that it was too later for soda.

"It's not eight yet." Said Sho. He said that sometimes when it was close to eight and he still wanted a soda. She didn't know why he liked soda so much. It was alright but they had a whole fridge full of strawberry milk, or the regular kind too since he liked that better, but it didn't matter either way since he knew that he wasn't supposed to have liquids after eight…or when it got close to eight.

"But what time is it exactly?" asked Mob. She knew that it was late. She also knew that he knew that he would probably wet the bed if he drank soda this late…and also he would be up all night from the caffeine…and he knew the rules and he knew what the reasons for these rules were…but he still tried to bend and break them…and she had no clue why.

"Seven forty three….and that's not eight yet!" said Sho. Mob knew that there was a seventeen minute difference between seven forty three and eight…and she also knew that seventeen minutes was not enough of a difference to keep him from wetting the bed.

"Sho….no. It's too close to eight o'clock." Said Mob. He knew that there was a seventeen minute difference between seven forty three and eight and she knew that he knew that seventeen minutes was not enough. Sho…she loved him so much…but sometimes he could make her head hurt a little bit. Sometimes she wished that he would just listen to her. Sometimes she wished that mom was still around, that way someone else could have made sure Sho followed the rules….and stuff…but mom was gone and Mob…she was the closest thing that Sho had to a mom now.

Well they still had dad.

But she did NOT want dad to be involved with this. Dad…he was a nice person…but also a very mean one. She knew that he had put her in charge because she knew how to be nice. She knew how to get Sho to do stuff without hitting him or yelling at him or making him feel terrible about himself…and she knew that if dad were to be involved with this then he would have said something mean to Sho or done something mean to him…and she could not let that happen. Like the other night when he told her that she should just hold Sho under the water if he didn't want to take a bath…even though he was afraid of getting water anywhere above his chest and that was why he didn't like baths…and because dad was the reason Sho didn't like water anymore….and stuff….

And Mob would not be involving dad in any part of taking care of Sho. Ever.

"But you said no liquids after eight and it's not after eight. If I can't have liquids before eight and I can't have liquids after eight then when can I have liquids? Am I just supposed to die of dehydration? Am I just supposed to shrivel up like a raisin? Is that what you want to happen to me? Me, Sho, your only brother? I thought you love me! I thought you wanted-" said Sho. Mob shook her head. She loved Shi, she loved him so much, and she just….she knew that this was a bad idea…but he was making her head hurt. Sometimes the people you loved made your head hurt…but that was ok. Because you still loved them even though they gave you headaches….and stuff.

"Sho, ok. You can have ONE soda…and you have to finish it before eight….and it has to be the caffeine free kind…and you have to go to the bathroom before bedtime….and I'm going to wake you up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom….ok?" asked Mob. There. Maybe that would help. She didn't know. All she knew was that she was getting sort of a headache and that she wanted to just taker her bath already…and those were maybe mean sorts of thoughts to have. She loved Sho so much….but she also just…she wished that he would just listen to her when she told him to do stuff…and she wished that he would just listen to the rules that she had put down….

But he was her little brother and she loved him so that was ok….letting him have a soda….and him asking her for one…well telling her that he was going to drink one…even though he knew the rules….

"Hell yeah!" shouted Sho. Mob could hear him running away and she could see his aura getting farther away…and she got the feeling that he hadn't been listening at all. Well that was…ok. Sho had a lot on his mind…and stuff….and also she got the feeling that she would have to do some middle of the night laundry at some point…but that was ok. Some people wet the bed and Sho was one of those people. That was why you were never supposed to drink and take Xanax, well also because you would die, but Shimazaki said that you had greater odds of wetting the bed and Mob didn't want to wet the bed…or die….so she was never going to do that…not that Sho wet the bed for that reason….

She didn't know why Sho wet the bed.

She knew that he had bad dreams but he had never…well when they had been little…but it had gotten a lot worse after he had been in the Awakening machine. Sho never talked about what happened in there, and Mob doesn't remember what she saw exactly, but she knew that it had left him with scars all over his body and nightmares in his head…so maybe it was ok for him to skip his bath sometimes…but not all the times…and she wished that she knew what had happened so then that way she could have fixed it…

Because Sho really needed a bath.

And so did she. She needed one and she wanted one and so she would take one. She would take her bath and…and that was what she would do. Even though her head sort of hurt now…and also even though she felt a little weird now, too. She knew that feeling weird made no sense. She knew that Sho hadn't been able to see her, and she knew that they had taken hundreds or maybe even thousands of baths together since they had been little…but she still felt weird. Maybe because she was…like this…now. She didn't know. She knew that he would never make fun of her but…but she also got the feeling that maybe she was too old to take baths with her little brother…and stuff. She was eleven now after all….

And being eleven sort of sucked.

She had only been eleven for a few months and so far it had sucked…and she could think that it sucked because it was her life and also Sho had no idea what she thought that word so he couldn't be able to pick it up and use it. She could use it, anyway, because being eleven really sucked. It really f-wording sucked. None of her costume dresses fit anymore, and they didn't make any in her size, and she had to cut her legs up every day because they were all werewolfy…..and she couldn't go swimming anymore because she didn't want to risk cutting up her underarms and…other places…and also she didn't want people to see her that naked anyway.

She wished that she could have been ten again…or maybe that she could have skipped right over to being twelve.

Being twelve was a good age, Minori had said, because then you officially weren't a kid anymore. Mob…she wanted to be a kid…but she also wanted to be an adult…but mostly she was just done with being eleven. When you were twelve middle school boys liked you….and Minori said that middle school boys liking you was a good thing….and Mob…she just wanted any boy to like her. Well she did and she didn't. She didn't know any boys her own age, the only boy close to her age was Hatori, and her feelings had gotten really weird towards him since being eleven. He was a nice person and she liked him….but she didn't know how she liked him…

And she was going to stop thinking about him.

The way she felt about him, the way she felt when she thought about him, also sucked. She was used to the doki doki feeling, and it sometimes came back, but there was a whole new feeling and it felt gross….well Minegishi said that it was normal to feel the way she felt about him…but also she felt sort of…gross still. Physically and emotionally…and physically it was gross…what happened when she thought about him for too long. When she thought about what it would be like to kiss him and stuff. To have him tell her that he loved her and stuff. It was gross and…and she had no idea if that part was normal or not….

And she would not be asking Minegishi about that…ever.

She would just…stop thinking about him. She would stop thinking about how soft his hair looked and how his glasses were all square and nice and how he always had the nicest sweaters on and how he was so nice to her all the time and how he smelled really good now and how his skin looked a lot better these days and how he hadn't done anything weird or gross or embarrassing in a while…and she knew that she had to stop thinking about him…but she wanted to think about him. As weird as these feelings were, and as gross as they were, she wanted to think about Hatori because….because the whole thing…her feelings and…and other stuff….felt good when she thought about him….

Was she in love with him again?

Or did she just think that he was attractive. Minegishi said that she just thought that he was attractive…and maybe that was it. Maybe she just thought that he was….was attractive…but also…also she thought about kissing him a lot. She wasn't one of those girls who played catch and kiss, that game always seemed mean to her, so she wasn't just going to kiss him for the sake of kissing him. She wanted…she wanted to be his girlfriend….but maybe so she could kiss him…and other stuff. That stuff that Minori had told her about.

She uncrossed her arms.

Boys REALLY liked breasts…and she didn't understand it. She knew what they were for, feeding babies, and boys were not babies…but they still liked them. They stared at them, she had seen boys staring at girls and men staring at women, and the whole thing seemed sort of….rude. Staring at people like that. Rude and also…she didn't understand it one bit. Wanting to touch them. They were there and they were round…well cone shaped….and they were what they were. She didn't understand boys but she knew that they liked breasts…and she sort of had some….not really but sort of….and maybe it would have been ok if…well maybe if….

She didn't know if it was ok to think about.

Minori talked about stuff like that. She had been felt up before…and she said that you did that because boys liked it…and stuff. She hadn't explained WHY boys liked it, though. Boys weren't babies, it would have made sense for babies to like them because babies drank milk, but boys liked beasts even more than babies….and maybe….maybe Hatori would like….Mob didn't want to think about that. She wasn't Minori. She wasn't as brave as Minori. She couldn't just think about what…what it would be like…if Hatori touched her on her….

She needed to stop thinking about this.

She needed to think about…about washing her hair. She had a lot of hair and it needed washing. She needed to pre shampoo and then shampoo and then rinse and then pre condition and then condition and then re condition and the leave in condition…and that was what she needed to think about. About what Minori taught her about taking care of her hair and not about….about what else Minori had taught her. About when it was ok for a boy to touch you on your….what it felt like….and stuff. She had think about her hair and…and not what it would be like if Hatori were to….not that he ever would….

Because he didn't like her like that.

He didn't even like girls, first of all, and second of all he liked people closer to his own age. Not hers. Also dad would be mad at him. Also the whole thing would be so embarrassing. She didn't want…she did and she didn't…and the whole thing was just…she knew that it was for boys to like and…and then it would be pointless and stuff….or something. She didn't know. All she knew was that this was not the thing to think about. She had….she had to wash her hair….and stuff…and she had to…

To stop thinking about what that would be like.

It probably wouldn't be like…like anything. She didn't know. She just…she had no idea….what it would be like. She had never even touched her own…well she had before because she had to take baths and stuff…and she was in the bath…and stuff. There was soap. There was soap and she was taking a bath and…and it wouldn't have been weird because….because that was her own….self. The whole thing would have been weird if she had been another person…and stuff….but it wasn't like another person would ever touch her there…because that would have been embarrassing. A boy just touching her on her…well Minori said that he had to kiss you first. You had to have been going out with him for a long time….a very long time…before it was ok for him to touch you….and a very long time meant a lot of kisses….and kisses were….she liked kisses and…and she maybe she would have liked….liked…well she did like kissing and….and kissing….was something that a boy did to you…and this was something else that a boy did to you….

And maybe it would be….nice?

She didn't know. She just….well this was a bath…and this was herself….and then maybe it would be….ok. She didn't know. She locked the bathroom door again. She locked the bathroom door again and out the hamper in front of the door…and she wondered if it would be ok to move the towel cabinet over too…but that was nailed to the wall and floor….and she was strong enough to be able to move it but…but then people would hear and notice…and it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong….

She was just taking a bath.

That was all. She was just taking a bath like normal. She had taken a million baths, maybe, in her whole lifetime. This was just another bath. She was the only one who…who was there. She was the only one who could do this…and it wasn't weird…because it was her own self….and also soap was a normal part of taking a bath…so this was ok and…and it was…not weird. This wasn't weird so why did she feel weird about this?

And why did it feel so…weird?

Good and weird at the same time…and also sort of gross. The gross feeling was there again. That stupid gross feeling that clung to her all the time…when she thought about stuff like this…and she was thinking about…not about Hatori but….well not him specifically…but if a boy….if a boy were to ever like her….to ever like her enough to…well not to get right to it because that took a lot of time but to…well to kiss her a lot…and also spend a lot of time with her and like her and love her and…and all of that other stuff. The stuff that she had never had with any boy before in her life. She had kissed one boy in her whole eleven years old life and she knew that there was no chance that she would ever see him again…and that would probably be the only kiss of her whole life…

But she could still imagine.

Not that she was imagining anything. Not that she was thinking of what it would have been like to have a boyfriend. To have someone who loved her for who she was. To have someone who cared about her, who always wanted to be with her, who could hold her hand whenever she wanted….who could kiss her whenever she wanted….who could do more than kiss her…if she had ever asked him…not that she would ask something like that of anyone….because it would just be….

Weird.

It would be weird to ask and…and to have someone actually…and just doing this right now was super weird…so she should just…stop it. Stop being weird. Stop acting weird and stop thinking weird thoughts…even though Minegishi had said that they weren't weird thoughts and that they were normal…but Mob didn't feel normal. She felt kind of weird…a good kind of weird that she did not want to think about…and thinking about it made it feel bad….but just…not thinking about it, how weird this was, but instead of…what it would be like to have someone like her enough to want to kiss her and hold her and stuff….that wasn't weird at all. That was the opposite of weird. That was…nice. This was…nice. Nice but also….also weird…

But also nice.

Until the bathroom flooded.

"Daughter?" She hadn't been paying attention to the world around her. She should have been paying attention to the world around her. If she had been paying attention to the world around her then she would have noticed dad's aura getting closer, dad's footsteps getting closer, dad getting closer to her while she was….in the bathtub doing bathtub stuff. Stuff that she knew that nobody had been able to see or know about….

But she still should have been paying attention to the world.

Because not the bathroom was wet. There was water everywhere. There was water on the floor and the bathmat was soaked and the walls were soaked….and she would have to dry that off…but she couldn't dry the walls off because she had pulled the towel off of the rack and covered herself with it…while she was still in the tub…which still had water in it…and now she had something else to worry about. Which was good. Now that she had something else to worry about and that was good because….because then she wouldn't have enough space in her head to think about…about what she had been thinking of…and doing…not that she had been doing anything….but she had still be thinking weird thoughts…

And she had to stop thinking about stuff.

"Yes dad?" asked Mob. She was fine, she wasn't thinking about anything, she didn't know what dad thought that she could have been thinking about because she hadn't been thinking about anything at all. She was fine and she wasn't…she hadn't been….she was fine! Dad had nothing to be suspicious of! Because she was not suspicious!

"Are you….alright? The hallway carpet is wet." Said dad. Mob wanted to know what he cared. He wasn't the one who cleaned things up. He wasn't going to clean up and that wasn't his responsibly and if he needed the bathroom then…then he should have just….just….just waited his turn!

"Dad, I'm fine. You just surprised me, that's all. Do you need the bathroom? Because I can come out if you want." Said Mob. She didn't want to come out. She wanted to live in the bathroom. She wanted this to be her new home. She needed to live here because if she came out then…then maybe dad would be able to tell…and then if he could tell she would…she would just….she would die right there.

"No. I don't need you for anything and you can have the bathroom." Said dad

"Ok….so what do you want then?" asked Mob. She knew that she had said that sort of meanly but…but she just….she just wanted some privacy, was that too much to ask? To have some privacy in the bathroom?

"I just wanted to tell you that your brother is sitting on the kitchen table drinking soda after soda, I think he's up to five now, and I thought that it would be best to tell you." Said dad. Mob sighed. She sat up, kept her towel on as she sat up, and ran a hand through her wet hair. Sho knew better. Sho knew not to drink soda after soda after soda…and also he knew not to do that after eight and since she didn't have a phone near her she didn't know the exact time but she knew that it had to be after eight…and Sho knew better…and now she had to go out there and stop him…and also clean up the water…and also do his laundry for him because he would end up wetting the bed tonight…but she wouldn't complain…because this was her job…

This was normal for her and she needed to get back to being normal.

"Dad….I'll stop him. Thanks. I'll be out in a minute." Said Mob. She felt dad walking away. She felt his aura and he heard his footsteps…and she just…she was very still until she could feel him being back in his room. She waited just a little longer before she got up out of the tub. It was half empty now, or half full now, depending on how she looked at it. But she didn't want to look at it. She didn't want to look at it and herself, too, and that was why she kept the soaking wet towel close to herself…

She didn't want to look at herself.

She knew that she should have gotten rid of that wet towel. She should have, actually, gotten back to the tub and washed her hair….and the rest of her. Really only her chest was clean…and she was not getting back into that tub. She was going to get out and dry off and…and just…take another bath tomorrow…or the next day. She didn't know. She just knew that she had a lot to do. She had a lot to clean up and she had to get Sho to stop drinking soda…or anything….and she just…she had so much to do that maybe she wouldn't even have the time to take a bath tomorrow…or the next day.

Mob didn't mind baths, not really, but she just…didn't have the time to finish tonight.