Sho had never been a big fan of tea.

Sure he'd drink it if there was nothing else available to him, it was better than water at least, but there were other drinks available to him here so he was not going to be drinking any tea. Not that he was sure why Shimazaki even had brought thermos full of tea with him. They had a million drinks at this party already. There was beer and champagne, both the sort of gross thing that he liked, and also chocolate milk and soda, which everyone liked and were very good, and also there was a bunch of other stuff that made you drunk and was full of chocolate….but for some strange reason he had brought a thermos full of tea tucked away in his coat….

Shimazaki could be sort of weird sometimes….but Sho wasn't going to say anything.

"That stuff smells bad, why are you going to drink it?" asked Sho as he licked the frosting off of a cupcake. Chocolate with a spider made of black twizzlers and black jellybeans on top. He had picked those off and put them on Shimazaki's plate, he didn't like the black ones either but he didn't know what color they were so Sho was safe for the time being, and now he was licking the frosting off like an ice cream cone. Big sis hated it when he did this but she was off with Minegishi. It was just him and Shimazaki.

It was perfect.

There weren't any kids his own age here, he'd checked, just a bunch of Awakened and HQ guys and Division guys and stuff. No other kids. No girls to try and kiss him in closets. No boys for him to want to kiss…well there was one boy he wanted to kiss…but that was never going to happen. He and Shimazaki were not going to go and find a coatroom and kiss in it…that would have been awesome but also not because of a lot of reasons….they were going to sit here and eat junk food until they felt like throwing up and then they were going to go to the bouncy house and jump until they did throw up and then after they threw up they were going to fill their stomachs again.

It was going to be awesome.

"Because it's going to be awesome." Said Shimazaki between bites of something sugary and smooth and chocolatey. He had no idea what it was that he was eating, and it didn't matter, he was going to eat at least one of everything until he was full and then he was going to drink the mushroom tea he had made and then he was going to enjoy the rest of the night with one foot in reality and one foot in either heaven or hell…and he might have been running the risk of throwing up since shrooms were disgusting….but that was a risk that he was willing to take.

Him, not Sho.

"But it's tea." Sid Sho

"It's not just tea." Said Shimazaki

"Then what it is?" asked Sho

"Mushroom tea….and you can't have any. You are in no way, shape, or form ready for this. Trust me. You are not at all in the right headspace for it. When you're older, alright? When you're older and less…well the less I say about that the better….and take whatever this liquorish is off my plate. Is that black liquorish? I fucking hate black liquorish...everyone does." Said Shimazaki wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He could feel the kid reaching out towards him holding….that sounded like paper. Oh, a napkin. He took the napkin and wiped his face. He could sense the kid moving….and he could feel the kid putting more on his plate, not taking any away.

He picked up a piece of liquorish and tossed it onto Sho's head.

"Hey! What was that for?" asked Sho as he took a red Twizzler off of his head. Now he had frosting in his hair and big sis would probably make him take a bath when he got home…and also Shimazaki liked the red ones. He'd seen Shimazaki eat the red ones before.

"I said get rid of the liquorish, not give me more." Said Shimazaki

"That was a red one, you like the red ones….and also these are Twizzlers, not liquorish. I told big sis that you liked Twizzlers best and that's what she got." Said Sho

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. I should have smelled them or something…but to be fair everything smells like chocolate and frosting and I have no idea what color is." Said Shimazaki

"Sorry…I forgot." Said Sho

"No, you remembered that I liked red so thanks." Said Shimazaki. He leaned over and patted Sho on the head. His hair felt really stiff. He pushed it down and it just jumped right back up. He was lucky. His stood up on it's own. Shimazaki reached up and felt his hair. Still looking good. He had been told, before, that he looked good this way and he knew that he hadn't been lied to. Not that he cared how he looked…well alright he did to a degree…but not as much as some people. Not that he was obsessed or anything. Not that he asked Toshi every single morning how he looked or anything like that.

Just some mornings.

Toshi always told him, honestly, how he looked. They always told him if he looked good or if he needed to change or if he had missed a spot shaving or something like that. They were honest like that. They weren't all 'Ryou, you're so hot' or whatever when he was wearing something that was, apparently, all stained and stuff…that had been his favorite shirt….but Toshi had been right to tell him that he looked stupid. He could always trust Toshi.

He loved them.

They were the love of his life…and maybe he should have kept that one to himself. He said it because he felt it and he felt it because, well, Toshi was Toshi. Toshi was Toshi and Toshi was the love of his life….and….yeah. They were the love of his life and he was ready to say it but they weren't…and he didn't need them to say it…but everything was alright. Toshi wasn't ignoring him. Toshi was just making sure that Mob didn't pound them back too fast. He could feel them both over at the bar. Toshi was there by Mob…and he could feel the others, too. There were so many auras here but he could pick out the people he knew…and everyone was here….but he mostly just cared about Toshi….

But that didn't mean that he didn't care about Sho.

He gave him a one arms hug. Quick, very quick, quick enough for Sho to not…well now his aura was doing that thing again…and Shimazaki could not wait until this crush was over. He wished that there had been some guys here Sho's own age. Then Shimazaki could have played wingman, apparently Sho and his little girlfriend were in one of those long distance arrangements or something, and then Sho could have found some kid his own age and hook up in a closet like he had last year…and then things between him and Sho could get back to normal and they could move on from this crush without Sho's little heart getting torn out and shown to him like in that game he talked about a lot.

But wishes didn't always come true….they rarely ever did actualy….so this was something that he was going to have to live with for a while.

"Y-you're welcome…um….yeah. I know that you like red and…um….I don't like mushrooms so I don't want any of that tea anyway." Said Sho. He could see big sis coming over here. Good. That was very good. The best thing that could have happened. He…he knew that Shimazaki didn't like him…and he knew that he should have just…just been like hat but there, in his stomach, was a goldfish and it did it's own thing no matter what his brain wanted.

Stupid goldfish.

He pulled his shirt up and licked some frosting off. His shirt was the same as Shimazaki's…well mostly….both were orange and both said stuff and…well he wanted to match him even though they weren't matching and…and he needed to focus on something else, anything else, besides his stupid feelings. Maybe it would get better once big sis got back…or maybe it would get better once she left again…or maybe it would get better by the time he was eleven. He didn't know.

He didn't even know if he really wanted it to get better.

"Even if you did then you wouldn't want any of this tea." Said Shimazaki. He followed Toshi's aura with his. It was lick he stuck to them like glue or something….like that time he and the kid had found that superglue and tried to glue Hatori to the floor….only not because this was Toshi and not Sho…and he loved Toshi in a totally different way than Sho…and stuff and…

He set his liquorish to the side.

Toshi loved black liquorish. He loved liquorish, only the red kind, and he knew that Toshi loved the black kind…and he also knew that Toshi would never take any of their own because of this thing that they had about sugar…but they loved black liquorish. They loved it for reasons that he could never understand…but he didn't have to understand. Love was weird sometimes. Love was weird and incompressible…incomprehensible…and…

And he needed to get into a better headspace. Right now.

"I didn't know that you wanted tea. If I had known that you wanted tea then I would have ordered you some….but I got you a pudding cocktail….if you want that." Said Mob as she sat down. She put the drinks she had been carrying with her powers down on the table. She left a can of soda in front of Sho and pushed all of the fun stuff away from him. He was too little and he didn't need all of that stuff. She did, though, because it had been a very stressful evening.

But Minegishi was trying to make her use moderation again.

"Cocktail me." Said Shimazaki. He held out his hand and felt Mob passing him something in a glass….and it smelled like chocolate…and there was no better smell than chocolate…well vinyl…but you wouldn't eat a record. You could eat chocolate and nothing smelled better than chocolate…well Toshi. He could smell Toshi…or maybe he was just imaging that he was smelling Toshi since he could feel them getting closer….

"Next year for your birthday we'll get you a new pancreas." Said Minegishi as they sat down beside Mob. They reached over and took the majority of the mixed drinks away from her. She had said before, that it had been a stressful evening and Minegishi believed that…but also they knew how she tended to overdo it and, frankly, they did not need a drunken child on their hands. Not every single party that was thrown needed to end in drunken children stumbling around and such….

Or whatever it was that Ryou had in mind.

"Shimazaki doesn't want that. He wants….something else like…like a bunch of dogs…or a box of candles…or something." Said Sho as he glared at Minegishi. They glared right back. Sho tried not to laugh. He had no idea what their costume was but they looked hilarious. They had painted like a sun or something under one of their eyes and they had on one of Shimazaki's white shirts and an old timey black hat. That was the dumbest costume he had ever seen…and there were a bunch of Awakened walking around wrapped up in toilet paper like mummies.

"Well then we can worry about that next year, can't we?" asked Minegishi. This was not horrorshow at all. This kid was putting them in the mood for a bit of the old ultraviolence and they were not going to do ultraviolence to a kid. No, they were going to sit there and enjoy their korova without any chepooka from anyone they knew….

Ok. They'd stop now.

They took a sip of their milk, Mob had somehow invented the white Russian all on her own, and stopped making references in their mind. It was pointless. Unless there was a telepath around to listen in and tell them how clever they were then forcing in all of those Clockwork Orange references was about as pointless and Mob's little brother's constant glaring. What, did he think that if he glared hard enough they'd get scared and run away so he could have Ryou all to himself or something?

Yeah, probably. Sho wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer…though it looked like he was about get up to go and find it. Wonderful.

"I'll worry about what I want to worry about. You got a problem with that?" asked Sho. Minegishi just shrugged and drank their fancy milk thing. Big sis was shaking her head.

"Sho, no, no more fighting. I don't want to have to worry about any more fighting tonight." Said Mob. She reached past Minegishi, got out one of the cholate milk cocktails, which meant a bunch of different kinds of drinks put together and went bottoms up. She could feel Minegishi looking at her. She could feel Shibata and Hatori coming too. She pulled more of the drinks closer to her…so she didn't tempt Hatori…and also so she could reach them. She understand that Minegishi was only looking out for her when they warned her about moderation and stuff but…well she also understood that she was stressed out from her fight with dad and also that she was old enough to know her own limits. She was almost twelve after all, eleven and a half was almost twelve, and she wasn't a little kid anymore. She had started drinking when she had been eight. She knew her limits and she knew how to drink. She wasn't Hatori. He still didn't know how to drink and he was twenty. She knew her limits and she wasn't a little kid anymore…and she wished that Minegishi could look at her without seeing a little kid…and stuff.

"What are we fighting about this time?" asked Shibata with a groan as he sat down. They had just gotten there and already there was fighting. Shimazaki was more of a kid than the actual kids sometimes…though he did have that brain thing where unless people were paying attention to him he forgot that he existed….so maybe he could get a little leeway. Like a centimeter of wiggle room maybe. Half a centimeter. Some obscure until of measurement that scientists needed special equipment to measure with.

"We're fighting? Please don't tell me that we're fighting…we just got here. I don't want to fight…not this early at least." said Hatori. They had just gotten here, he had just sat down with the others, and now they were fighting. He almost wanted to go and hang out with Suzuki. He may have been kind of an asshole but at least he never started fights for the sake of starting fights.

"No, no, no. We're not fighting. We're all just sitting down here to a nice cup of tea." Said Shimazaki. He poured some tea into the cup top of his thermos. He could feel Toshi's aura leaning down onto him…and he could feel their disproval. They used to trip with him all the time…but they had been younger back then. They were older now. They were twenty eight and he was thirty one. Maybe they were too old to do shit like this. Maybe it was time that they got onto those responsible adult lives that they were supposed to have been living….

Nah, that sounded boring as fuck.

"Pass. I know what kind of tea that is and, no, it is not the time for mushroom tea Ryou. Mob passes too." Said Minegishi. They pushed that bright red cup away. That was a kid's thermos. Maybe that was something poetic or something, mushroom tea in an Ultraman thermos…or maybe they were just feeling deep and poetic because of this costume. Either way they were not going to sit there and trip in the middle of a work Halloween party surrounded by people they knew and even more people that they did not know….yeah. That was going to be a recipe for disaster…

For the both of them.

Ryou…they were not going to babysit him. They were busy babysitting Mob, she wouldn't call it that but that was what they were doing, and they didn't need to add to their ever growing list of responsibilities. He was a grown man, hell this party was partially to celebrate the fact that he was thirty one now, and he didn't need a babysitter. They were his partner, not his minder, and if he wanted to spiral down into a bad trip, probably ego death since he was never in the headspace for that shit, then he was free to get on with it.

They had enough to deal with when it came to Mob.

"Mushroom tea? Gross. No offense. I just don't like mushrooms." Said Mob as Minegishi took one of the glasses away from her. She let them. She didn't want to fight with them. She didn't want to fight with anyone. She wanted….well she wanted everyone to get along. Her and her friends. Her friends with each other. Her and her dad. Her dad and Sho. Everyone else in Claw. Everyone else in the entire world. This was a Claw party and the mission of Claw was to bring all the espers in the world together and then to bring all the normal people together with the espers so everyone could get along, and dad could rule the world, but how could the whole world get along if her friends couldn't even get along? If her family couldn't get along?

She didn't know. She needed a drink.

"Neither do I." said Sho sticking out his tongue. He didn't know which was grosser, the mushroom tea or the fact that he agreed with Minegishi about something….or maybe it was good that he agreed with Minegishi about something. Maybe then Shimazaki would like him like he liked them and…he stuffed a whole cupcake in his mouth. He didn't want to think about that…about what it would have been like to be his….he didn't even want to think that word. He knew that if he let the word get to his head then he would end up throwing up all over the table and then the whole party would be ruined…and also Shimazaki would think that he was gross and stuff….

He stuffed another cupcake in his mouth.

"Sho….do you want me to mash those up for you or something?" asked Shibata. He wondered if he still remembered how CPR worked….or would the Heimlich maneuver have been better for this situation? He didn't know. He scanned the crowd for the healer…and he wasn't there…which was a good thing for the kids but a bad thing, also, for the kids in case they hurt themselves…and also the Awakened were having some kind of chair jousting tournament upstairs…and also there were the bouncy house cage matches…..

Maybe they shouldn't serve alcohol at these things anymore.

"….he's not going to die is he?" asked Hatori. Suzuki was going to kill him if he let one of his kids die…even if it was his least favorite kid. Also Sho was a great kid…sometimes…and it would have sucked if he died.

"Oh no, God forbid." Said Minegishi. They knew the Heimlich maneuver and they would use it if they needed to…and they didn't need to. Not yet, anyway. The kid needed to learn how to think his actions through, and take human sized bites, but they weren't going to let him choke to death just to teach him a much needed lesson.

"Sho! Stop that! Chew and swallow. You're not a squirrel, you can't just store food in your mouth like that." Said Mob. She hated it when he did that…but there was nothing at all that she could do to get him to stop besides asking him. Well she could take all of his cupcakes and stuff away…but then they would have a fight and she wasn't in the mood to fight….so she would let him do this…and maybe she shouldn't have told Fukuda to keep dad company. He was a fun killer, and he had stopped liking her for some reason, but he was also the only healer in all of Claw so….yeah. Maybe it was important to have him around.

"Squirrels tend to chew. I'd say that he's eating more like a duck." Said Minegishi as they reached over and took a piece of black liquorish from Ryou's plate. While they were there they wiped some frosting off of his shirt. Orange. His shirt was orange, like the kid's, and his said cheap ass Halloween costume…and they shouldn't have smiled but they did. There wasn't anything funny about it…but they were still smiling…and now they had earned themselves another glare from Sho.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

"No, I'm eating like a human being. You're the one being weird. Who the hell likes black liquorish?" said Sho as he choked down the last of his cupcake. He could feel himself being looked at. He didn't know what everyone was staring at him for. They should have been looking at the decorations and stuff…or something. Big sis had made the lunchroom look cool. There were glow in the dark streamers and pumpkin lanterns and confetti and scary stuff and…and there was a fog machine and it was all dark and spooky and Halloweeny…well it would have been more Halloweeny if there hadn't been Beatles music playing….and also if there hadn't been so many Awakened dressed up like dogs and stuff…but this…this was still a really good party and…and stuff….and it was cool in here and everyone should have been looking around the room and not at him!

"I guess a lot of people since your sister ordered it." Said Minegishi. This kid…this kid was going to turn them into an actual Droog. Really. How, exactly, was Mob related to this kid? God…Ryou had sworn up and down that he was handling this and, of course, he wasn't…and this was not their problem. They'd dealt with worse in their life than a bratty ten year old. They'd deal with worse later on in their life too…

They needed a drink.

"You know it's not that bad, really, I think that I'll just get some for the table…and a lot of other things too…and then we can just eat and talk about how good the food is and…yeah. It'll be a good time. We'll eat and then go to the haunted house or the bouncy house or the candle room and then…and then we can all just…have a good time. That's what we'll do." Said Shibata as he got up and made his way over to the snack table. Maybe everyone was just overly hungry. Maybe everyone just had low blood sugar or something…he didn't know exactly but…well they needed to calm down before they got into another fight. Sho was a good kid, he really was, he was just jealous and in love and full of other big feelings that he was too little to deal with.

So maybe some candy and cupcakes and pudding and other sugary things would help.

"Bring back cupcakes! With red Twizzlers!" shouted Sho. He didn't know what everyone as looking at him like that for. This was a party and it was ok to shout at a party…and even if it wasn't dad wasn't there and he was the only one who really cared about people being all quiet all the time and stuff.

"Sho, come on, it's a party. Please be nice." Said Mob

"I am being nice." Said Sho

"Alright…just…keep on being nice I guess." Said Mob. She reached for another drink but Minegishi put a soda in her hand. She hadn't even had that much…and she was stressed. Sho was starting fights again and she had already had to deal with the fight that she'd had with dad…..and when she ran the world….well when her family did….then she was going to get a bunch of scientists together and make them invent a way for everyone to get along all the time forever. Like something they could put in the water or the air or something and then people would have it in their bodies without knowing and then everyone would get along all the time.

"I will." Said Sho. There, now she got it. Now they could all stop fighting…if big sis's friend decided to stop being a jerk. There was so much to do here and they hated sugar so why not just find something else to do? Why not just take themselves and their stupid costume and just go somewhere else and leave him and Ryou…and big sis…and everyone else all alone?

"Good. Everyone made up. Now is anyone going to drink this tea with me?" asked Shimazaki. There. The problem had solved its self. He knew what Toshi was going to say to him later. They were going to tell him that he needed to rip Sho's heart out with his bare hands and wring the blood out like sweat from a gym sock. Well he wasn't going to do that. Sho was a kid and he deserved to be happy…as happy as he could be…for as long as he could. Besides, it wasn't like he was hurting anyone in any serious way. He was just being an annoying little shit, that was all, and that wasn't hurting anyone.

"That's all you, Ryou." Said Minegishi with a wave of their hand. Ryou was such an idiot sometimes….most of the time…but he was their idiot. They knew that at some point in the night he'd teleport back to the bed, wake them up, and beg them to remind him that he was real….and that was something that they were prepared to do. They loved him and that was what you did when you were stupid enough to love them. Stupid enough to put up with someone's idiocrasy and insanity….

"Yeah, sorry…but mushrooms are gross." Said Mob. She focused on her soda and not the tea…and next time she'd have tea for him. She'd get him tea and then he'd be happy…and he would be even happier at the next party than this one…but this was a good party. Maybe. She had done the best that she could…maybe if she and dad were made up by next year then she'd be able to put in all the fun stuff that he wanted. Like the pudding swimming pool and the dogs that were free for the petting….and stuff.

"They're in the top ten grossest foods right between cucumbers and green peppers." Said Sho sticking out his tongue. He would never understand adults. When you were an adult then you could eat whatever you wanted…so why eat gross stuff? Why put yourself through that kind of stuff? Why not just have fun and eta whatever you wanted to all day? Shimazaki was usually so fun and he made so much sense…but here he was drinking mushroom tea and…and not even this was enough to make the goldfish in his stomach stop swimming. Maybe the sugar was giving it energy or something.

"How about you, Hatori? Want some tea?" asked Shimazaki as he tried to pass Hatori the cup. Hatori on shrooms…that would be even better than last year…unless he felt like confessing to Toshi again….that would suck but…well he wasn't into Toshi and he had never been upset about that because Toshi wasn't HIS…just his partner and the love of his life…and they could be into whoever they wanted to be into and…and this was a show of good faith! Yeah! And also watching Hatori trip balls would have been hilarious!

"Um….you know what? I think that I'll just stick to what I have…. I mean I've never had mushroom tea and I don't feel like-" said Hatori. He knew that Shimazaki would do whatever he could to poison him again. That was just the sort of person who Shimazaki was….and Hatori did not want to repeat last year and…and he didn't want any of that tea! He had no idea what was in it but he knew better than to trust Shimazaki!

…and he also should have known better than to think that anyone could say no to Shimazaki Ryou…

"All the better to start now. Bottoms up." Said Shimazaki before he teleported behind Hatori, dumped the cup down his throat, and then teleported back to his seat. He could hear Toshi's aura, he could feel it glaring at him, and he had no idea what they were so pissed about. Back when they had met, five or six years ago, they would have thought that this was the most hilarious thing in the world…but Toshi had gotten older maybe…he didn't know…but he did know that this wasn't good for his headspace….

He'd fix his headspace after he down a cup of this tea.

"Mob, come on, let's go check out the haunted house or something and leave these idiots to….this." said Minegishi as they got up and took Mob's hand. As hilarious as it was probably going to be, watching Hatori trip, they had to take care of Mob…and also they just did not have the energy to deal with that. Hatori was over them, halle-fucking-lujah, but they didn't want to see whatever kind of moron he'd end up making out of himself. They didn't want to deal with the fallout of whatever he would end up saying in front of Mob this time.

Maybe the haunted house would be less traumatizing.

"What? You're going? Well that suck….ok bye. See you later….or never." Said Sho as he watched Minegishi lead big sis away. Really, he was sad to see her go but, well, he was also happy to have been aloe with Shimazaki…even though he knew that he shouldn't have been…but maybe he was just…excited about that party…or something….

And even if he wasn't a big fan of tea he was a big fan of Shimazaki…and that was...what it was….