Daughter was a very good parent.
She wasn't a parent yet, not really, but she was very good at caring for Son. Suzuki was the only child of two only children, he'd never had a sibling or a cousin, but he knew that if he'd had to care for a sibling or cousin at Daughter's age he would….not have done well. He would not have had the patience for it, the same patience that Daughter seemed to have a bottomless well of, and he would not have done a good job. He didn't even do a good job….well he did and did not do a good job….as a father. He provided for his family and he raised the children as best as he could. Daughter didn't need much raising, sometimes it seemed as though she had come into the world a fully formed person, but Son….Son needed a lot of raising…and a very firm hand…
Or at least he had always thought.
It wasn't that he enjoyed punishing Son, there were many people that he enjoyed inflicting violence on and Son was not one of them, it was just something that he'd had to do. It was the only way to get through to him. He had always been defiant, tiresome, and quarrelsome. Even as a baby. He would be small and he would just carry on and on and on all night….and day…and there was half a year when the crying just….wouldn't stop. He had even cried in his sleep…and Masami…she had cried too…and Son just wouldn't stop…..he just would not stop….even after all that he had put Masami through being born he just…would not stop…
And he still did not stop.
He fought with his sister. He cursed constantly, and Suzuki did know what went on in this house despite his lack of presence, and he just…was a very tiresome little boy. He never stopped. He was always up to something or getting into something or just making his sister's life worse just like he had made Masami's life worse. The crying could have been forgiven because he had been a baby and hadn't even had the ability to speak but…but the way he carried on as he got older. The screaming, the fighting, the breaking things, the throwing things, everything that he put Masami through…that could not be forgiven. He did the same to Daughter. He put her through so much, he was always fighting with her about something, and Daughter…
She was handling him.
She had told him to his face that she did not need his help with Son. Masami had never told him that she didn't need help. On the contrary, she told him to intervene, but when he intervened she became upset with him…and he didn't understand why. He got Son to stop. What had she been so upset about? It wasn't as though he would do permanent damage to his own child. Son was his firstborn and his only heir. There was nothing good that could have come from permanently damaging him and Suzuki had always been careful not matter how badly Son had been carrying on…but that hadn't been enough for Masami…and he was grateful that Daughter never asked him to intervene.
She was a good parent like that.
She would do very well when she finally had her own children….he knows that day is coming and he doesn't want it to come but he knows that it is coming…..and he is…happy that his grandchildren will be very well behaved. They will be clean and courteous and quiet and intelligent and just smaller versions of her. That would be wonderful. They would be her…well half of her and half of whatever man she picked as her most perfect person…but it was the half of her that he cared about. They would be smaller versions of her and they would be perfect and she would take good care of her children just as she took good care of Son…
She took very good care of Son.
He didn't understand it, what she did, but he knew that it was working…somewhat. She had gotten him to bathe again and he would spend the rest of his life grateful to her for that. She had managed to do it without holding him under the water until he was clean, which was good, because he knew that she would have been distressed if it had come to that. He never wanted her to be distressed and he would have intervened if she had asked but she had not asked. She could take care of her little brother on her own. She could do a lot of things on her own.
Like make breakfast.
Breakfast was one of her many household duties. She didn't make him breakfast every single day, sometimes he got up too early and he couldn't bring himself to wake her, but she made breakfasts on most days. This should have been one of those days. This should have been one of those days when he got up, got dressed, and then went to the kitchen to find breakfast either on the table in front of him or on the stove being cooked….but this was not one of those mornings. The kitchen was devoid of Daughter. She was….he focused….still in bed. She was sleeping and he wanted breakfast…but he also wanted to let her sleep…and he didn't know what to do.
Wait for her?
This wasn't one of those days where he would be pulled in ten different directions every ten seconds. This was an administrative day. A lot of meetings and decisions. He could wait to go to work…but then he would have to wait…well he could wait in his room…but he wanted Daughter to get right to it when she woke up…so he would have to wait for her in the kitchen…but the kitchen was not empty. Had the kitchen been empty he would have answered some emails or read something interesting or tried to understand those internet joke pictures Hatori kept on trying to show him. Had the kitchen been empty he wouldn't have been wearing of sitting it waiting for Daughter to wake up…
But the kitchen was not empty.
"What do you want, dad?" asked Son. He was sitting at the kitchen table. That was normal for him. He did his best work at the kitchen table. Maybe the lighting or something. He didn't know about art. He didn't know about anything that Son was doing. If he had been drawing then Suzuki at least would have been able to understand, but he was not drawing, he was covering various objects with packing wrap. Suzuki had always hated packing wrap. It had always been so loud and annoying…
And the children had loved it.
They used to wake him up jumping on it and making it explode and laughing…mostly Son. He could recall Daughter doing that too, back when she had been a child, but that had always been Son' way of playing. He hoped that Son wasn't about to start making a racket…but it didn't seem that he was. No. Son had stopped what he was doing and now he was staring at Suzuki…and Suzuki found himself with nothing else to do but stare back. It had always amazed Suzuki how much of himself was in that child. His eyes, his hair, his freckles…and he'd had more when he'd been a child. His aura, too, red just like Son's. There was some Masami there, too, in the shape of his face and the length of his fingers. The shape of his eyes, too, those were Masami's.
Though she had never looked at him like that.
"Breakfast." Said Suzuki. He got the feeling that Son didn't want him there. Based on the look on his face, in his eyes, and his aura. His aura was the most reliable way of reading him…and he had no idea what his Son thought that he was doing. What he thought gave him the right to not want Suzuki there. This was his house, they were all his houses, and he could go where he wanted to go. Besides, it wasn't like Suzuki even wanted to be there in the kitchen without Daughter. No, he didn't want to spend any more time with Son than was necessary. Maybe he would become more tolerable than he was now when he grew up. Suzuki didn't know.
He just knew, now, that Son….was generally an annoying person.
"Big sis is still asleep and I don't know how to make breakfast. Sorry." said Son. Well obviously he didn't know how to make breakfast, he was a child, and obviously his sister was still asleep. If she had been awake then she would have been in the kitchen making breakfast. But she was not making breakfast…and he should have gone….but also he wanted to be there when she woke up….so he just…
He sat down at the table.
Son's eyes and aura stayed on him as he crossed the kitchen and sat down. He sat down on the other end of the table as far away from Son and…whatever he was doing…as possible. There were packing tape and packing materials all over the table…and also there were books and candies and…he didn't even know what…all over the table. He could not even begin to understand what Son was even playing at there….but then again he had never been able to understand Son at the best of times. The things he did, the games he played, the way he carried on…
The way he was carrying on now.
"Don't watch me. Get back to playing…whatever it is that you're playing." Said Suzuki. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The children's generation had come up with the greatest invention known to man. When he had been young and he'd wanted to avoid interacting with others he would pull out a book…until mother snatched it away and told him that he was being rude. A phone…well he didn't care if he was being rude since this was his own Son…but a phone was easier to pull out than a book and had much more information in them….
Huh. There was an island of cats….Daughter would like that.
He and Daughter could go to the island of cats on their next day together. She would love that. Suzuki…he hated animals and they hated him…but Daughter liked animals. She was a lot like Masami in that way. Yes. Daughter would be so happy. She would smile and pet the cats and….and she would just be so happy…and that was a good thought. A warming though. Daughter being happy. Her little face lighting up. Her aura. Her smiling at him and taking his hand…she was so wonderful…and he so badly wanted to see her…
Her. Not her brother.
"I'm not playing." Said Son even though he was clearly. Playing. What he was playing at Suzuki did not know but he could clearly see that his Son was playing.
"Get back to whatever you're doing, then, until your sister wakes up." Said Suzuki. He did not want to deal with the Boy right now. He never wanted to deal with the Boy…and Daughter usually dealt with him….but Daughter was not there. She was asleep and she had left him alone with her brother…and he wanted to wake her up….but she was very small and needed her sleep.
"I don't know when she's going to get up. You might end up waiting all day…but if you're hungry then I bed Shibata would make you something….or Fukuda. He knows how to make food too. Or maybe someone else." Said Son. Suzuki wanted to reach over and slap him on the back of the head…but then Daughter would have been very angry with him…and he didn't want that. Daughter hated it when he struck Son….but he needed it. Suzuki did not like to be questioned let alone by his own Son…and also he had been indirectly insulting his sister, too. She was obviously much better in the kitchen than Fukuda or Shibata or anyone else on the planet.
Honestly.
"I'm aware that other people can cook. Your sister cooks the best out of anyone. Don't insult her like that. She does a lot for you, you know, more than you deserve." Said Suzuki. Son was holding his wrist with his other hand…and his aura spoke more than words and gestures ever could. Honestly. Suzuki knew that if Son ever tried to strike him that he would not hold back. He could not hold back. If Son wanted to be a Scar then, fine, he could become a Scar.
"Dad….fu-forget about it. Just let me work." Said Son. Well then. That was….refreshing. Daughter had taught him some self-control. That was just…she had done the impossible. Masami hadn't even been able to control him like that. She had begged and pleaded and bribed to no avail but Daughter….she had managed to get her brother to listen. She was a born mother, he decided, she had already tamed the untamable. She would do so well with their children when she grew up…with her children. Her children which they would be raising together when she grew up….not that they would need his help. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
Daughter really was perfect.
She was wonderful. She was perfect. She was his child. She had managed to fix…or at least improve, his child. She knew what she was doing. He would have to listen to her…he had been listening to her. If he had struck Son when he had felt like then they would have been in the middle of a fight right now. He didn't want to fight with Son…and he wasn't…and she was so intelligent, his Daughter, she was so very intelligent and….and he loved her so much….and he would listen to her in all things. She knew about these things, he didn't, and he would do what she said.
All the things that she had said.
"What are you working on?" asked Suzuki. Daughter had told him, on more than one occasion, that he needed to have more positive, or at least neutral, interactions with Son. He didn't much want to interact with Son more than was strictly necessary, he was a Boy he didn't need all the attention that his sister needed, and also he was an annoying little Boy…but also….also he was doing something that Suzuki was curious about. He had said, before, that he hadn't been playing. He claimed to be working on something. More art? Did he build things, too, now? He hoped that Son had taken up building things. Suzuki had enjoyed building things in his youth…and he still did. His, well his and Hatori's and occasionally Daughter's, was full of buildings that he had designed…for Claw purposes, of course, always for Claw purposes…and he wondered…what sort of buildings Son could come up with. He was more creative than Suzuki had ever been. He was an artist. Suzuki had managed to make an artist…and he had no idea how. He had always hated art class. He had never been able to draw along the Z axis…and he still couldn't…but Son…he was good at that.
There were some things that Son was good at. He could admit as much.
"Do you even care?" asked Son. Suzuki had to think for a moment. Whatever Son was doing had no bearing on his life…unless he had been the one who had been sending all of those bombs…but no, Son didn't have the patience to plant a bomb or the ability to betray Claw. Claw was everything and even the Boy knew that. Son…he was doing something…and that something had no bearing on Suzuki's life….but he was curious. He knew how his mind worked when he was curious. It just would not stop…and he didn't want to have anything on his mind today. Well aside from Daughter…so, yes, he did care.
"I care. I'm curious. Is that an art piece that you're working on?" asked Suzuki. Son shook his head. His aura was still hostile…but he had always been a hostile little person. Even when he had been a baby. Suzuki had no idea what he had done to Son, he had only shouted at him once and dropped him twice…and caught him before he hit the ground…and also it had been Son's fault for trying to get free when he knew that he was two meters off the ground, almost….and also he hadn't had any reason to be hostile then and he didn't have any reason to be hostile now. Suzuki wasn't being hostile, Son hadn't given him any reason to be hostile, so he wouldn't be hostile towards him in the future…unless he did something to deserve that.
"No….it's presents for my girlfriend." Said Son. Suzuki blinked. There was something to the way that he had said the word 'girlfriend' but that may have just been the fact that Suzuki could not even imagine Son ever having had said the word 'girlfriend' before…well he hadn't had one before. He had one now. A girlfriend. A female human being who was his most perfect person….and who considered Son to be her most perfect person…and he was curious as to who would even consider Son to be a most perfect person. He knew that Son would have met someone eventually, after the world had been conquered and Son was the second most powerful man living in it, but he was not the second most powerful man on Earth. He wasn't even a man. He was a little boy.
A little boy who was more romantically successful now than Suzuki had been when he had been ten years old.
When Suzuki had been ten he had thought that he had met his most perfect person. Her name had been Mari and he had known that he had loved her when she had given him her bread after he had dropped him. School lunch was terrible back then, they might have still been, and the bread had been the best part. Well the bread and the rice…and when they had gotten both in the same day when there had been ketchup….but there had just been bread and milk and soup and plums that day…and the bread had been the best part…and he had dropped his. He had dropped his without noticing and the feeling of looking over from his book, and that was the day he learned why mother had told him never to eat and read at the same time, the feeling had been almost enough to….but then the girl who had beside him had given him her bread…and that had been enough, back then, to make her his most perfect person…and it hadn't worked out, obviously, since he had married Masami…but Son had met his most perfect person and it had all worked out for him….
And that was…it made Suzuki feel…good. Good that his Son had done something right.
"Oh. What have you gotten her?" asked Suzuki. He wondered what this little girl could have been like if she and Son had chosen each other….and at the age of ten, too. She was…he knew nothing aside from the fact that she was Son's age and she was British…and why he couldn't meet a Japanese girl Suzuki didn't know….but he was grateful that Son had chosen a girl. He had been worried, very worried, that Son was a homosexual. That would have certainly put a wrench in his plans for the Suzuki family dynasty. But he wasn't. He was normal and Suzuki knew that he should have been happy with normal….but he also wanted to know just…anything about this girl.
About his future Daughter in law.
"Nothing, just some candy and stuff. She likes candy." Said Son. He held up a gallon bag full of various treats made of sugar, disgusting sugar, before putting it in the box. That was a good gift for a girl. They liked gifts of food because that showed them that you were a good provider. You had to be a good provider because otherwise they would want nothing to do with you. His father had told him that and he had told Son that and then Son would tell his Son that….
And the thought of Son having children is just…odd.
He thought about Daughter and their children….her children….often. How wonderful they would be, like smaller versions of her, and how much he would enjoy helping her raise them. Son's children….they had always been more….abstract. He knew that Son would have them, he knew that they would share his blood, and he knew that Son's first born Son would be his heir…and aside from that, how they would be useful for him and Claw and the world, he just…he no other idea of who they would ever….be….
One day Son would grow up and have children….and that was that.
"What else does she enjoy? I'm curious." Said Suzuki. What was this girl like? If he knew what she was like then he would know what Son's children would be like…and also….well he has always known that Son would take a wife, that was the way of the world, but he had never thought about Son's wife and as…as his future Daughter…but she would be. She would be a female human being who would be called Suzuki and who Son would bring into their family and who would bear Son's children, Suzuki's grandchildren, and it had always been something in the far future….but the future was coming…
"Why?" asked Son. He watched him with something that may have been…suspicion? Why? What did he have to worry about? It wasn't as though Suzuki was going to do something terrible like…what could Son even worry about when it came to this little girl? That he wouldn't approve because she wasn't an esper. He was a pragmatist. He knew that there were very few female espers in the world. He was more perturbed over the fact that she wasn't Japanese than anything else…and he so would have loved to have seen him with someone Japanese….but this was what it was. It was his fault for not keeping the Boy in Japan…but to be fair he hadn't even been aware that his Son had been interested in the opposite sex…but he was at that age. He was at the age for…a lot of things….things that maybe he should have warned Son about. The fact that he would have to bathe at least once a day now. The fact that he would start growing very quickly and it could be painful. The fact that he would start….Suzuki had been about eleven or twelve when he had started, to have constant intrusive sexual thoughts about any female human that came with in a hundred meters of him….
But he didn't want to get into all of that.
Because that was just…not something that he wanted to talk about. Besides, Son lived in the information age. He would just ask Google when he couldn't understand something. That was all. He didn't need to tell Son about all of that because then, eventually, he would have to warn Son about what he would spend at least thirty seven percent of his day, well Suzuki had calculated it at thirty seven percent, what he would do about the constant and intrusive sexual thoughts…and he didn't feel like talking about that with Son. With either of his children….but Daughter wasn't like that. She didn't have sexual thoughts. She didn't even know what sex was. He wasn't stupid, he knew that women thought about sex, but that must have been just a once in a long while sort of thing…and Daughter didn't have the time or the inclination to think about sex….because she was Daughter….
He didn't have to worry about her….and Son could figure it out on his own.
"Because I'm curious about this girl who you've chosen. I have no idea who she is or what she's like or what she enjoys or why she chose you. I'm very curious." Said Suzuki. Son was still staring at him…and then he reached into the box and pulled out a folder….and then he opened it to a self-portrait. Well a portrait of himself and a little red haired girl sitting on the gun of a tank.
"That's Emmy." Said Son. Suzuki took the drawing with his powers and stared. Oh. Son had found another redhead…and that was…interesting. Had Son chosen a redhead on purpose? Was that it? And also why were they on a tank? And why did she have a Soviet army helmet on? Was she Russian and British? Or did she have bizarre political beliefs? Now he had even more questions than ever.
"Why…does she have that helmet on? Is she Russian?" asked Suzuki. Son took the drawing back and put it with the others in the folder and then he put the folder back in the box…and Suzuki…he so would have liked to have been able to see all that Son had drawn. He was quite the talented artist. Was that what this little girl had seen in Son? That he was a talented artist? Well that would have made sense. Son was very talented and women liked talent….well not his. Being able to multiply elven digit numbers in his head and remember the exact words of every single word that she had ever spoken in his presence had not made him appealing at all to girls when he had been Son's age…but Son was doing so much better than him….and he was….huh. For once in his life he was proud of the human being that he had made.
"No, I just got it for her when we were in Russia. She likes army stuff and…well stuff when people can get blown up or hurt and stuff. She likes gross stuff like that. I didn't know that girls could like gross stuff but she likes gross stuff." Said Son
"Oh. Is that what drew you to her?" asked Suzuki. He wondered if that was funny, how he said 'drew' after Son had shown him a drawing, but it probably wasn't because Son wasn't laughing…and he could laugh. Suzuki couldn't laugh. Well he could make the same sound as other people did when they found something comical but it had never been natural coming from him. He had never understood humor. Most people's humor, anyway, 3,987^12+4,365^12= 4,472^12 was hilarious.
"Um…yeah. Sort of. She's just….really cool and I like her a lot….and stuff. She likes a lot of the same stuff I like…like…I got her this Mortal Kombat poster…and I got her this horror manga…she likes horror movies too…and I got her this book about the birds that live in Tokyo…because she likes birds…" said Son. He took out the books as he mentioned them…and they were all in Japanese….but the girl didn't look Japanese….but then again he didn't look Japanese either. The girl's name was Emi after all…and he wanted to learn her family name…not that it mattered. She would be a Suzuki soon enough…whenever Son decided to marry….and he would have to marry her…or someone…because he could not just have children indiscriminately. No. That would create a crisis of inheritance and that was the last thing that the world would need. He wondered how many children Son was planning on having with this girl. He wondered if he was planning on moving her to Japan….that was a stupid thing to wonder. Of course he was moving his wife and his children to Japan. He was Japanese. So she would need to learn Japanese, then, if she didn't know it now.
"Oh. Does she read Japanese?" asked Suzuki. He wondered how much she had picked up from Son. She had to learn Japanese since she was going to be living in Japan…but then again she would be Son's wife. She would be able to make someone translate for her….he had never thought about that before. The fact that the girl who Son would marry would end up becoming the queen of the world. The title that Masami should have held…the title that Daughter would hold until Suzuki stepped down and left the world to Son.
"No….but I got her this dictionary. She's been watching a lot of movies and anime and stuff to try and learn Japanese. She wants to understand me better….and I guess I should learn English for her then…too." Said Son. Suzuki shook his head. Aside from the usual problems with 'L' and 'R'….and Suzuki had never had that problem….but mother had been a native English speaker…and he so wished that he and Masami had made more of an effort to speak English with the children….but Son's English was just fine. He could make himself understood and that was what mattered.
"Your English is fine." Said Suzuki. He wondered why Son would try and change himself for her like that…but he supposed that love made you want to do anything for the other person…even change for them. He hadn't changed for Masami…but maybe he should have. There had been something about himself that she had just…not been able to stand…and she had left…and he wished that she had just told him what it was about himself that bothered her. Then he could have changed it. Daughter wasn't like Masami. When she had a problem with something then she let him know. He hoped that Son's wife was like that.
He hoped that she never got the idea in her head to leave Son.
Because there was no leaving Son. There was no leaving either of his children. Son's wife…he would have her followed for the rest of her life. Shimazaki could be good for that since he seemed to enjoy following Son around….but also he, apparently, had a lot of trouble keeping his pants on….well someone else would follow her. A lot of someone's. Then she could never leave Son. As annoying, as tiresome, and as quarrelsome as Son was he did not deserve to feel the pain of the woman he loved most out of anyone else in the entire world leaving him. Nobody needed to feel that pain. Not Son and especially not Daughter.
If another did anything to hurt Daughter then they would suffer.
They would not die, no, because death was finite. Pain and suffering…pain and suffering were infinite. If the man who Daughter chose out of all the other men in the world, hopefully not Shimazaki, tried to leave her or to do anything at all to hurt her then he would suffer. He would feel pain like no pain that he had ever felt before. He would be boiled in oil. He would have his skin flayed from his body. He would have curry powder and salt rubbed into the wounds. He would have mice poured on him. Rats. Borrowers. He would suffer every single torture that could be thought up. He would be force fed gelatin until he went insane. He would be brought back from insanity only to be driven insane again. Also whatever else Suzuki could think up.
Nobody hurt his children….but anyone who hurt his Daughter would spend every moment of his life wishing that he were dead.
"She says that I say some words weird." Said Son. Suzuki shook his head. Son was fine the way he was…well he wasn't. He was a lot of things…but his English was fine…and if anything she should have learned Japanese for him since she was the wife and he was the husband.
"Well in Japanese she probably has an accent too…so you're even. She'll probably have a terrible one since she's learning so late in life…you'll have to make sure to defend her in case people mock her. Women need to be protected and it's our job to protect them." Said Suzuki
"I know dad, you told me, and of course I would keep her safe. She's my girlfriend. I'm not going to let anyone hurt her. Anyone." Said Son. He made an odd amount of eye contact there…and Suzuki had no idea why. He hadn't meant to imply that Son would have been incompetent when it came to protecting this girl. He was a violent little boy. He doubted that anyone who so much as jeered at his wife would end up deep in the ground. He was a good Boy like that.
"Good. I'm very happy for you…and proud." Said Suzuki. The word feels odd in his mouth. Proud. He can recall very few times in which he had been proud of his Son. He had been proud when Son took his first unassisted steps. He had been proud when Son had spoken his first words. He had been proud when Son had first displayed his powers. He had been proud when Son woken up after the explosion at the eighth division….and he had been so proud of Son for having lived through that….
And now he was proud of Son again.
Maybe he was finally going to live up to at least one of the expectations that Suzuki had put down for him. Maybe now he would become at least half the man Suzuki had always planned on him growing up to be. Daughter had done a very good job with him. Daughter…he felt as though he were in her debt…but that was insane. How could he be in debt to his own Daughter? He provided for her and she hadn't done anything other than what was asked of her. She had been tasked with taking care of the house and the family and she had only been doing what she had been told…
And she had done a good job….and a reward was definitely in order.
"….what?" asked Son. He blinked and rubbed his eyes…and that could have meant disbelief or it could have meant that he had dry eyes. Suzuki would have believed either option. Son had, after all, done very little in his life that his father could have been proud of.
"I'm proud of you for having found a person at your age who you consider to be your most perfect person and who considers you to be her most perfect person in return. You're more romantically successful than I ever was at your age. I'm proud of you. You've impressed me." Said Suzuki. There. it felt odd to say, very odd, to have those words just hanging out there between them…but they were they and they could not be unsaid…and also he was supposed to say this sort of thing to Son. Daughter had said so and she knew a lot about these things. She knew a lot more about these things than he did. She was Daughter, after all, and she had learned from Masami….and she had also managed to surpass Masami as well.
"….you're just saying that because Emmy's a girl." Said Son. Suzuki nodded. Of course he was proud of his Son for finding a girlfriend. What would even be the other option? That she had been a boy? No, that would have meant that his entire plan for the future would have to be reworked…he would have to have a whole other Son…and that meant that he would have to get divorced and then remarried…and he would have to date again…and he did not want to date again…and also women his age…could they even still have children? Well he didn't even know of any woman his age who would even want to have a child with him…and he didn't know any women at all…and he didn't want to know any because the last time he had ever gotten to know a woman he had ended up….
He was thinking about nothing and worried about nothing and he was going to stop thinking and worrying right this instant.
"Well….yes. Whatever else would she be?" asked Suzuki. Son was not a…..he was not going to ruin everything. He was not going to be selfish enough to throw a wrench in Suzuki's plans. He had a girlfriend and he would only have a girlfriend…well eventually a wife…and that was that. Son was fine. He was fine and Suzuki had nothing to worry about…so why was he still worried? He didn't understand himself sometimes….
Low blood sugar?
Maybe. Not being able to think was a sign of it. Not being able to think and also…well he was hungry. He needed food to live. Maybe he was just getting delirious with hunger. Yes, he'd believe that. He was just getting delirious with hunger and now he was thinking crazy thoughts. Son was fine. There was nothing wrong with Son. He was proud of his Son.
"If she were a boy you would have killed me." Said Son. He said this quietly, so quietly that Suzuki had some trouble hearing, or at least he figured. What in the world…that was crazy. He wouldn't have murdered his Son for being a homosexual. That would have been counterproductive. There was nothing advantageous in alienating Daughter like that…and also he would be out a Son. Well he would have had to disinherit Son and then have another child, not something he wanted to do, but he wouldn't kill the Boy. He still had his uses. He would be able to be re-inherited if he had a blood child…though a blood test would be necessary since he wasn't sure if Son's genes would win the race to the egg.
"No. I would have explained to you that by choosing a boy you would have derailed the entire bloodline…and if you didn't agree to stop what you were doing I would have punished me…but there is not point at all in discussing hypotheticals. You have a girlfriend and you care for her and she cares for you and that's the end of that." Said Suzuki. There was no point in sitting there and imagining what he would have to do, the trouble he would have to go through, if Son had been a homosexual. He wasn't. He had a girlfriend and that was the end of it. Son had a girlfriend and Suzuki had told him that he was proud of him, Daughter would be so happy about that since he had listened to her, and that was the end of that.
"Yeah….ok. I'm going to go…and see if big sis is awake yet." Said Son. There. Son thought that it was the end of it too. He was hungry, too, it seemed. He was pale. He was pale and shaky, a sign of hunger and low blood sugar, and Daughter….well she made a very good breakfast…and she was asleep. Suzuki thought so, felt so, at least…but he could have been wrong…so maybe there wasn't that much harm in letting Son check on her…for the sake of checking that is. Not to wake her up. She needed her sleep. She was small.
"If she's still asleep then don't wake her up. She needs her rest." Said Suzuki. Son would listen to him. He cared for Daughter as well. She was good to him, better than he deserved, and he was finally old enough to understand all that she did for him. She was always so good to him and he was old enough and mature enough to understand…and also….for a lot of other things. Things that he was getting up to now. Suzuki…he got up and looked through the box on the table. Candy. Disgusting. An English to Japanese and back again dictionary. Some manga…nothing he recognized. A crystal….a few crystals….a necklace that said 'I heart Toyko' where the heart was meant to be love…he wondered if he should have told Son what gifts that women liked…
Or maybe Son had this.
Son seemed to know what he was doing…though if Suzuki had been the one putting this box together he would have put more food in it and more expensive things, too, since women liked expensive things. That showed them that you were a good provider. That was something that they looked for…and he wondered if he should talk to Son again about what women looked for. At his age, or maybe a little older, his father had sat him down and explained women. They liked to feel safe and provided for and men were the ones who were meant to make them feel safe and the ones who were meant to provide for them. Men kept women alive and women kept men alive, father had said, and also he had said to always be good to them.
He had been good to Masami.
Never raise your voice to your wife, father had said, and he had never done that. Never raise a hand to your wife, father had said, and he had always done that. Always provide for her and your children no matter how hard you had to work, father had said, and Suzuki…well he was conquering the world for his family. It hadn't been enough. The world…the world had not been enough for Masami. He had done everything that his father had said but Masami had still left…and his father knew what he was talking about. He and mother had been married until the very end…and mother…she had been a very good person…and so had father….and he wondered if he even had anything to say to Son. Son was doing so much better than Suzuki ever had in his life…and he had nothing to do with that…he had nothing to do with few Son's successes….
It was all Daughter's doing. She was such a good parent. He had been right to leave her in charge of the house…..and also breakfast, if she ever got up to make it.