There was a Starbucks in every country.

They were a comfort, really, when it came to it. The coffee was mediocre at best but at least it was equally mediocre wherever they went. It was one of their few comforts in this crazy, mixed up world….and other such overly dramatic declarations. They had no idea why they were being so overly dramatic or who they were even making their declarations to. Minegishi doubted, if they opened their mouth to speak, that they could be heard over the canned music, oppressive chatter, and general insanity of the people around them.

"Toshi, what've they got? I can't read." Said Ryou. He leaned down to speak to them. He could tell better than everyone else that it was loud in here. Way too loud. New York City in the winter right before New Year's Ever. The tourists….the never ending waves of tourists…..and the locals…and just…

Maybe next year they could wait out the New Year in one of the Claw bunkers that nobody ever used.

It would have been better than this. A group outing to soothe the soul. That was what this was called, what Ryou had declared it, or maybe Shibata. They didn't know. All they knew was that they needed to leave the tiny space that was the apartment, Mob liked Starbucks, and then Ryou had invited himself along…and then Sho had invited himself along because he was pretty much Ryou's shadow….and then Shibata had wanted to come because he liked hanging out with the kids…and then Hatori had wanted to leave the tiny but somehow exorbitantly expensive space of the apartment because he had some game thing to visit or whatever….and then Serizawa had almost come but Mob had, thoughtfully, decided to leave him with her dad...somehow Suzuki was on babysitting duty…but Minegishi strongly suspected that she had only done that to keep Fukuda near her dad.

Even Mob was picking up on the jealousy vibes that guy was giving off.

"Hey! I can read for you! I know how to read!" said Sho. He jumped up and pulled Ryou by the arm. Really. Minegishi had always assumed that Sho had gotten the jealousy thing from his dad. Suzuki seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't have wanted whatever poor woman who had been in his life from interacting with the male half of the population in any way. Suzuki still seemed like he would have been the jealous type, not that Minegishi would ever have to know that firsthand thank God, but Sho seemed to have been getting his…well this issue…from someone else. Minegishi didn't know, honestly, whether to laugh or to cry.

Or to bang their head against the wall until they passed out.

It was winter. Winter was that special time of year when the world decided to screw them over. No plant life…well very little of it. There were plants in here. Houseplants. Nearly dead ferns. Limp and lifeless. Or maybe that was them. Maybe they were the one draining the life from them. Or maybe they were the ones doing the life draining. Maybe it was like a circular chain of life draining. One organism feeding off of the one that was feeding off of it. Maybe an endless chain of-

A hand in theirs.

"Are you alright, Minegishi?" asked Mob. Minegishi opened their eyes and nodded. They hadn't even realized that they'd closed them. It hadn't helped. It was still too cold out, too loud, and there was still so little plant life around that they were about to…well either scream or faint or something. They really weren't sure. They just knew that…well as hellish as this was it was still better than hanging out in that tiny apartment with everyone pressing in on them from all directions.

Another hand in theirs.

"Hey Toshi? You need to sit down?" asked Ryou quietly. He was close now. They let themselves lean down onto him just a little. They could stand on their own, it wasn't like they were going to faint or anything, but it was just nice to be near him…this near to him. They forgot, sometimes, how much bigger he was than them…and how much stronger…and how it just felt better to be near to him. Even now when they were trapped in this crowded hell scape…he was there….and he made everything better.

God, they loved Shimazaki Ryou so fucking much.

"I'm fine. It's just…winter shit, you know how it is." Said Minegishi. Mob gave her hand a squeeze and let her aura wrap around theirs. They let her aura…huh. They felt a little better. Like they were under a sun lamp or something. Mob tended to have that effect on people. She was a little ray of sunshine after all.

Her brother on the other hand.

"Shimazaki, come on! They have a lot of chocolate stuff and I know that it's your favorite!" said Sho. He was tugging on Ryou's other arm now…and Minegishi had scruples about hitting kids but…well they weren't going to reach down and pop him one over the head but they sure as hell were going to think about it. Ryou should have handled this…before they got another Fukuda on their hands. Sho spent way too much time with that guy and he was picking up the very worst of him…like this jealousy thing….and unlike with Fukuda and Suzuki there was no way that they could just fuck and get it over with.

No now or later, when Sho got older, thank God. Ryou had been clear about that and they were going to believe him.

"Come on, Sho, you're next." Said Shibata. He reached down and picked Sho up under his armpits like he was a toddler…which he sort of was. He was such a toddler when it came to this…but he was eleven so he had an excuse. He was an eleven year old boy who had no idea how to deal with his feelings. So Minegishi could use what little compassion they had inside of themselves and let Shibata carry him away without telling him Ryou didn't like him that, would never like him like that, and maybe he should have been focused instead on the little girl he was planning on getting child married to and not the grown man who would never see him as anything other than the son he would never have.

Or something. They were too tired to deal with this.

"But-" said Sho as he was carried over everyone's heads. A drop of disgusting city snow, melted into disgusting city water, hit them on the head. Thank God they hadn't washed their hair in a while. It just ran off with the grease that had accumulated…maybe they needed to wash their hair when they got home…and they needed to cut it again too…but even the thought of getting in the shower was too much for them right now…

Maybe they'd feel better when they got some mediocre coffee in them.

"Go on, Sho, you can be first. You love to be first." Said Mob forever being the little peace keeper. Minegishi reached down and patted her on the head. They wondered, for a moment, why her hair felt like yarn before they opened their eyes and realized that they were patting the fake braid that was attached to Mob's hat…and when they got home they'd do the Elsa braid for her. She'd like that. The thought of braiding Mob's hair…well even the thought made them tired…but not nearly as tired as the thought of dealing with their own hair made them feel.

"But-" said Sho as Shibata held him in the air like a ragdoll. People were looking now…but whatever. People could look at whatever they wanted to look at. They didn't mind the attention. They had enough on their mind as it was.

"Get me whatever you're getting, alright? I know you're going to get something great. I trust you." asked Ryou. Sho looked like his father had died. One of these days they were going to have to teach that kid how to be less easy to manipulate….after they taught him not to chase after people who were unattainable and had put him firmly in the son zone.

"I-I won't let you down!" said Sho. Minegishi rolled their eyes. That kid. Another drop of filthy water had hit them on the head. Good maybe they would end up getting some kind of terrible disease and then that would bring them to Fukuda and they could somehow convince him to both sort out his shit and just fuck Suzuki already because, really, it was obvious enough that the kids were noticing it. Maybe that was all he and Suzuki needed. Maybe they were only conquering the world or whatever because they couldn't conquer the feelings that they had for each other. Maybe sharing a bed would be just the thing to get the two of them to admit how they felt and then they could put all of this insanity between them, get married in one of those countries where they could get married, and then raise Mob and Sho to have plenty to talk over with a therapist in twenty years.

Or whatever.

None of their business. That was none of their business what happened between the two biggest headaches in Mob's life…and maybe theirs too. One of those people was their boss and the other was something of a coworker to them even though they worked in totally different departments. He healed people and they injured them grievously. Complete and total opposites. Not their business…and really they had read too many trashy romance mangas anyway. Suzuki and Fukuda were never going figure themselves out like that and they had no reason to even think that they would. They were just…whatever the hell those two were.

Two middle aged men who made Minegishi's life more annoying than it had to be.

Thank God for Mob. Thank God for eleven and a half year old girls, Minegishi figured that Sho had been born premature it would have explained a lot, who were always going to be there for them. Thank God for Shimazaki Ryou, too, who held their other hand. They…well they hadn't been about to faint…and they had felt better a little since being under Mob's aura, but they weren't at one hundred percent…but they at least felt better. Having had gotten out of the apartment.

Being out with people who cared about them….and who they cared about in return.

That was…they cared about Ryou and about Mob and about the rest of them too, even Sho, even though Sho could be some kind of little demon child sometimes they still cared about him. He was…a product of his environment. He was being raised by an eleven year old girl, his insane father, and Fukuda. Ryou had his part in it too but he was more of a friend than anything. Shibata…well he didn't so much help raise the kids as enable every single thing that they did. Not that Minegishi was much better. They could smell the cigarette smoke on Mob…and that would always be one of their greatest regrets. Getting Mob into smoking. Enabling that.

Which was worse than any enabling that anyone else had ever done with these kids…even letting them order whatever the hell Sho was ordering over there.

"Fill it up half with warm milk, a quarter with caramel syrup, a quarter with chocolate syrup, and then stick a brownie in there and then cover the whole thing with whipped cream. I said that right, I know English." Said Sho. Minegishi wondered if Sho planned on living past the age of thirty. It didn't seem like he did.

"Sho…why?" asked Mob. That was all that could be said, really. They couldn't think of anything else that could be said. Why in the hell did anyone think that it would work as….well…anything other than the fast track to slow sugar death? They shook their head and tried not to smile. God….this kid.

"Why the hell not? Make it two." Said Ryou. Of course he would want that. Ryou and his issues with food and chocolate all stemming from a story that they had heard before…and one that they knew had not been embellished in the least bit. They knew what his life had been…and they almost wished that they hadn't. Not because they didn't want to hear it but…well because they wished that it had happened to someone else.

And not just because of the fact that his terrible life had made him the man that he was today.

"Or three? Yeah, three sounds good. I can handle three. I wasn't using my pancreas for anything anyway." Said Ryou. Minegishi couldn't help but smile, maybe even laugh a little, the sort of laugh that got stuck in the back of their throat. They loved him so much, even when he was being ridiculous like this, and even when they knew that later he'd taste like chocolate. He'd taste like chocolate, they liked chocolate, and he knew that they liked chocolate.

Ryou…..

They loved him, they loved everything about him, but they still wished…well they wished that he could have been a little…less. Not less than what he was but a little less…well excitable, maybe. Someone who just…did the things that he did. He was a good person underneath it all but sometimes….well sometimes he could be a lot…which was why he and Sho got on like a house fire. They loved him, they did, and they would never stop loving him…well not unless he did something completely heinous….but sometimes they wished that he could just…calm down for a little bit…

"That's…um…alright. That's good and…um…one for me too….I guess." Said Shibata. There was a war right there going on inside of him, it looked like, and it seemed like the enabling part of him won. Well then he could deal with the repercussions of his actions later when Sho, inevitably, ended up bouncing off the walls from the sheer amount of sugar and caffeine that would be coursing through his body soon. Yeah, Ryou and Shibata could deal with that. Not them…and not Mob either. This would be a Minegishi and Mob day, they decided, something fun and relaxing. Something that would keep them from the insanity that was, well, the world of their friends and coworkers. Yes, just them and Mob all day together.

Their phone vibrated.

They knew who it was. They did some quick math in their head. Yeah, it was about that time in Seasoning City. They would check their phone later. Ryou was right there and he could sense the way they moved and he could her the reverb when they texted and they did not want to answer any of those questions. Not now, not later, and not when it got nicer out either They would never have the energy for that The original define the relationship talk had been enough to send them to bed for what felt like a hundred years.

They'd message back later, after their Mob and Minegishi day, and when Ryou wasn't around to start asking questions.

"I don't know how you plan on drinking that…but I guess that I'll have one too. But normal coffee for Minegishi with no milk, no sugar, and no artificial sweetener." Said Mob. Minegishi patted her on the head again.

"Thanks Mob, you're great." Said Minegishi

"No Minegishi, you're great. Now come on, let's go sit down by those plants over there." said Mob as she grabbed them by the hand and led them over to the corner but the limp and lifeless plants. She sat down first and the plants came back to life. Slowly, of course, because even now Mob didn't have the best control over it. It was either way too fast or way too slow…but that was alright. Just so long as normal people didn't notice. No, they did not need that kind of headache in their lives. They had enough headaches brewing as it was.

But they'd get better, they always did.

"Do you feel better?" asked Mob

"Getting there. Thanks, Mob, for everything." Said Minegishi

"You're welcome. We can go back home after this, I can tell that you're tired. You haven't even checked your phone. I don't know who's trying to talk to you, so maybe you don't want to talk to them, but-" said Mob

"No, it's not that. It's just…shit that we don't need to deal with right now. How about after this you and I find something fun to do. Like a bookstore. How's that sound?" asked Minegishi

"Um….that sounds good but…um…my friend Minori gets up around noon and she wanted us to go shopping today-" said Mob

"The same Minori who told you to ask Hatori out?" asked Minegishi

"Minegishi! Why would you talk about that? Why would…why? That…that happened and…and I don't want to talk about that right now!" said Mob

"Alright, alright, I just meant that I didn't think that we'd have to deal with her until the show." Said Minegishi

"She wants us to get a lot of hanging out in because we never hang out….and she thinks that we're best friends and stuff. I don't know. I think that I might be her best friend because I'm the only person who isn't a b-word to her…but you're my for real best friend. Um…I think that we can be friends with other people and…well you're my only best friend even though Minori thinks that she and I are best friends….and um…maybe you can be friends with Minori too. She's not…so bad…once you get to know her." said Mob

"Mob…sure. I'll come with you. You need the moral support." Said Minegishi. What Mob needed was more friends….but Minegishi wasn't going to tell Mob how to live her life. If she wanted to be friends with this girl then so be it…even though Minegishi would have cut her out a year ago if she'd been in Mob's shoes…but they weren't in Mob's shoes. Her boots wouldn't have fit.

"What's moral support?" asked Mob

"What you need when you hang out with that little bi-girl….and you know what? You probably are her best friend and we're best friends too. You can have other best friends." Said Minegishi

"Oh…so it's a polyamorous friendship?" asked Mob. If Minegishi had gotten their coffee yet they would have spat it all over the table. They would have to settle for making the plant beside them practically grow out of it's pot. This…this was why Mob could not be left alone with that little monster. The things that she taught Mob…not that there was anything wrong with polyamory. Minegishi didn't think that Mob would ever be able to handle it but there was nothing wrong with it…but it was not the thing to apply to friendship…and also not the thing that a couple of eleven year olds needed to know about.

"Mob, polyamory is only for...well this is a big conversation that I don't feel like having right now…but yeah. We can have other friends, alright? You have friends and I have friends…now let's have coffee with our other friends and then we can go…shopping…or whatever with your other friend Minori. Alright?" asked Minegishi

"Alright…but can you try and be friends with Minori too? I think that she could use some more friends." Said Mob. That was the very last thing that Minegishi wanted….the light caught their bracelet. Right. As much as they wanted a day for just them and Mob…well they didn't get to decide these things. Mob was getting older and she needed them in ways that she hadn't before…and Minegishi would always be there for them.

"Mob…I'll try. For you I'll try." Said Minegishi with a sigh. So this was their day, their life, well then that was…it was fine. Sure they were dead tired, and they needed their cup of mediocrity, and they felt a headache coming on…but this was…this was fine. They'd do it for Mob. They'd do anything for Mob…even things that they didn't want to do…and things that they knew that she shouldn't have done.

Even let her drink the cup of…crushed up brownie floating in coffee and syrup…that she had ordered.