Even if it wasn't real seeing Sho with Emmy was pretty damn heartwarming.

"Careful, booger! You're going to make the roof cave in!"

Fukuda could hear them playing from the kitchen. They had made some kind of fort in the living room, one which he was forbidden from entering because he was an adult, and one which he wouldn't have been able to enter anyway because it had been built with two eleven year olds in mind. He didn't want to go in there anyway, he didn't want to disturb them. Sho needed this. He needed this kind of normalcy in his life. He needed to have someone his own age to play with. He needed someone his own age to build a fort with.

Someone other than Shimazaki Ryou.

Sho needed friends his own age. Sho needed to spend time with people who were also eleven, who he had things in common with, and who he could just be a normal kid with. Someone who he could just be….himself….with. Well most of himself. There were two things that Emmy could never know about Sho. The first being the obvious, that he was an esper, and the second being that their entire relationship with a sham and Sho could never return her feelings….poor girl. He felt for her a bit but…well she was going to be fine. Sho treated her well and did his best to make her happy.

Which was more than what his father had ever been capable of.

He and Suzuki had been distant for the years that he'd been married to Masami. They'd been distant, actually, since Suzuki took his long walk around the world. He'd taken shorter ones before, during university but the long walk had been…well….long. Long enough for him to get used to not seeing Suzuki Touichirou every time he turned around. Long enough for him to have made something of a life for himself. It was a life spent helping build up Claw but it had still been a life. He had even made some friends…friends he never saw these days….once Masami had left the Touichirou was back to keeping him close. He liked to talk about how he didn't need anyone, how he was a complete person all on his own, but he could be pretty damn clingy. He needed someone to at least be there near him, someone to remind him that he wasn't alone, because it was such an easy thing to feel alone when you were like they were…

Sho would never feel like that.

Sho had this girl now. She loved him, he'd heard her telling Sho that she loved him, and Sho would take good care of her. He had always wanted something to take care of. When he'd been small he'd always begged Masami to let him have a pet. A cat or a dog or a bird or a hamster, he really loved hamsters, but Masami had always said no. Touichirou had never been a fan of animals. Even when they were kids Touichirou had never liked them, especially rodents, actually he was terrified of rodents…which was why the hamster thing was always a hard 'no' and always would be. A 'no' to getting a hamster but a 'yes' to his eleven year old son getting himself a fiancée to take care of for the rest of his life.

Even if they were together another thirty years he would never understand how Touichirou's mind worked.

He had worked a few things out but there were recesses there that Fukuda had never even poked around in. Like Shigeko. Fukuda was against, fully against, acquiring children. Children were not assets and if she hadn't been an orphan, well abandoned anyway, then he would have done his best to keep her away from Claw and Suzuki…and maybe he should have. She was not good for Suzuki. She brought out a side of him that, honestly, Fukuda…well he hadn't ever seen it before and he wanted it gone. He had seen Touichirou possessive before, protective too, but he had never seen him willingly give up his power like that. He had even distanced himself from Masami in an effort not to give up any power he had….and now….

Now there was an eleven year old girl running the show.

This distance would be good for Sho. He had been picking up some bad habits from Suzuki, first of all, and second of all he had completely stopped fighting with Shigeko. He just let her run his life. She was a year older than him…not even…and he prayed to God that neither of them ever sat down and did some basic math…..and yet Sho let her run his life. Fukuda had the babysitting manual she had written on the table, now with eleven year old Sho update. He got two poptarts after his baths now and his bedtime could be moved to ten if he was good but no later than that because he got grumpy….and as loathe as he was to listen to her there was wisdom in that book…and there shouldn't have been…

She never should have been the one in charge.

Suzuki had left her in charge of his household and, not only that, but a large portion of Claw as well. She had consolidated the most powerful espers Claw had into her own personal entourage and she had worked her father into the group too and her brother and….and he had no idea what she was planning on doing with this power now that she had it…and he didn't even want to think about it. She had been like this since the debacle with the baby. Two years. She was almost twelve…and he didn't want to even think about what her teenage years were going to be like…he dreaded them almost as much as he dreaded Sho's….

Teenagers. They were going to be teenagers.

"…love you, booger."

Sho was already….well he was just doing what he thought that he had to do. He was getting a little bit ahead of himself, a lot ahead of himself actually, but he was just doing what he thought that he had to do. Well what he had to do but…not now. He was eleven and he was already planning out his entire future…something that he got from Suzuki. Fukuda could remember it like it was yesterday. They had been sitting in Suzuki's living room seeing what channels the satellite dish was picking up that day and Suzuki had turned to him and said 'Fukuda, I've decided that I'm going to take over the world. Now go make popcorn' and he had said 'make it yourself, Suzuki, it's your house' and then he'd said….well it didn't matter what he'd said. Fukuda had ended up making the popcorn, and getting the bowl thrown at him because he'd made it wrong….which meant not swimming in butter with a bowl of ketchup on the side…and he'd ended up helping to take over the world anyway….

So maybe there was something to be said about planning your life when you were a kid.

Sho…well he was getting ahead of himself…but at least this was wholesome and adorable. Fukuda didn't have to worry about Sho getting up to anything that he was too young to get up to, not like with Shigeko, and he never would have to worry about half the stuff that Shigeko got up to happening to Sho. He was a good boy, Fukuda had seen to it, and he just wished that he could have done more for Shigeko…but there were two kids and only one of him and he had done his best with one of them and he could kick himself about Shigeko later. Right now he had Sho to worry about. Sho was finally playing with someone his own age. He was finally making friends his own age. He had finally done something right, in Touichirou's eyes, and now Sho could rest easy…well easier than normal. He had made his father proud…

And now maybe Touichirou would get off of his back for once.

He left Sho this house without a second thought. Sho was a better man than he was, those were his words, he was proud of the man that Sho was becoming…and he should have been. Despite the shit show that had been Sho's life he was still a better man at the age of eleven than his father was at the age of forty five…well almost…their birthdays hadn't passed yet. Still. Suzuki had been right when he had said that about Sho. Sho was….well he had a lot of the same sort of violent impulses that Suzuki had…but he had been good about those lately. He had the same propensity for obsession the Suzuki did too…if the three and a half sketchbooks fill of pictures of Shimazaki were anything to go off of….but Sho was still a better man at eleven than his father was at forty four.

And not just because he was loyal to his girlfriend.

"We should build an extension, I think, in case we have to torture prisoners."

"In case? Sho, you know we have to torture the prisoners. We've got to set an example."

Those two. God. Fukuda knew that Sho didn't like her like she liked him but still. She was…well she was a strange little girl…but she was good for Sho. Just…hearing him playing like that…she was good for Sho…and he knew it. Unlike his father he knew what he had there. Fukuda…well if he had been in Sho's position then he wouldn't have been nearly as loyal. There would have been no point to it. She loved him but Sho didn't, and couldn't, return her feelings so if Sho wanted to find a boy, a boy his own age, to be with then there would have been nothing wrong with that. What his girlfriend didn't know couldn't hurt her and Sho was entitled to his happiness. He didn't have to be as loyal to her as he was. He was a good kid like that.

Of course he was a good kid, he was Sho.

He could be a little…much…sometimes but he was a good kid. The world, and his own genetics, were doing their best to turn him into another version of his father but he was a good kid. Masami won out there. She had been such a good person…and she was, wherever she had wound up in this world, and if Sho ever found out what had happened and thought that his mother was a bad person…well Fukuda would do his best to set Sho straight on that. Masami had done what she had to do and he…well he hadn't done what he had to do. He had raised Sho as best as he could but Shigeko…well he had been there for Sho as best as he could and one out of two wasn't bad. He hadn't brought her Sho….but he had no idea where she was. It would have been easy now, to bring her Sho, since Suzuki pretty much solely cared about Shigeko now…and he had asked for her whereabouts before….but it didn't matter now. Sho…well he was alright where he was….

Though Fukuda would have given anything to see Masami just one more time.

"Bloody hell! Look at the time! I've got to go!"

Heavy footsteps could be heard followed by some shuffling and then the slamming of the front door. Well a goodbye would have been nice…and also he would have called a ride for her if she had wanted one….and also it would have been nice to know that she wasn't going to be staying for dinner….God, he sounded like his mother. 'Where's your little friend run off to, Tadashi' and 'don't slam doors, Tadashi' and 'your friend needs to learn to tell a person when he's staying for dinner, Tadashi' and whatever else his mother had complained to him about.

He hadn't visited mom and dad in a while…and he wouldn't have minded it if they had somehow found a way to complain to him even now…oh the things that they would say.

Why don't you have any kids, Tadashi, would be a popular one. Also something along the lines of, when are you getting a real job, Tadashi, and the like. There would be a word about how he was still friends with Suzuki after all this time…dad had never liked him and mom had gotten sick of him after a while…and it would have been even worse if they had been alive to see that he was raising Suzuki's son for him….he didn't want to think about this. He didn't want to think about…well…anything right now.

But he had to think about something. He had to think about getting dinner on the table.

"What's for dinner?" asked Sho as he sat down at the table. He put his sketchbook down on the table and began to scribble, no, shade. Then he did that scribbling it was called shading. Fukuda leaned over and looked down at what Sho was drawing…and thank God. Not another picture of Shimazaki. Sho had several sketchbooks full of those. He didn't need a single new picture of that man.

Especially not how Sho had taken to drawing him as of late.

"Curry just the way you like it." Said Fukuda

"Spicy and without any cheese in it?" asked Sho

"Yup, no cheese whatsoever." Said Fukuda

"I don't know why big sis makes it like that. I think she tastes stuff weird like dad does." Said Sho. Fukuda…held his tongue for a moment. She was his daughter. Sho…he wasn't going to start asking any complicated questions anytime soon. He didn't seem like he was, anyway, like why his birthday and Shigeko's were so close together or why she looked nothing like the rest of her family…and why his supposed pretend little sister was the spitting image of Suzuki….

"Possibly. She is his daughter after all." said Fukuda

"If she starts putting ketchup on everything then we're going to have to talk." Said Sho

"Oh God, the ketchup thing. One of these days I'm going to have to tell your dad that other condiments exist." Said Fukuda. He laughed. Sho didn't. Sho just looked up at him and stared.

"You know he wouldn't listen to you. In every single story you've told me about you and dad being kids he never listened to you. Like the time he got mad at you for making popcorn wrong." Said Sho

"I told you about that?" asked Fukuda

"Yeah. You said that you and dad were trying to see if you could get radiation poisoning from sitting on the microwave and you made popcorn and then you gave some to dad and then he got mad because you didn't put ketchup and butter on it. I don't know why he eats stuff like that, it's gross...is dinner ready yet? Otherwise I'm going to make a poptart sandwich." Said Sho

"It's ready, I'm just keeping it warm. Want me to plate you up?" asked Fukuda

"I can do it myself." Said Sho. To prove his point he opened up the cabinet with his powers and got out his Zootopia plate. The drawer beneath the cabinet opened and the matching spoon followed. Both were beaten up and needed replacing….but he wouldn't bring it up. He didn't know what he would do if Sho said that he was too old, now, for a new Zootopia place setting….if he wasn't a baby anymore…

Fukuda knew that he wasn't a baby anymore.

He hadn't bathed in two days. It was abundantly clear that he was not a baby anymore. This was going to have to be a bath night. Sho…he wasn't a baby anymore. He wasn't a small child anymore. He was a child but one who had to start bathing every single day now…and also he'd have to teach Sho about deodorant at some point…and all of that other stuff that came with getting older…God. Time was passing so quickly. It seemed like just yesterday Sho had been tugging on his sleeve begging to play for just a little while longer….

Those were the days.

"Careful." Said Fukuda as he was almost hit in the head by a curry plate. Sho had gotten the ratio wrong again. Too much curry, not enough rice, and the rice and the curry weren't touching. He had no idea where he got that from. Touichirou had the opposite problem. He tended to mix everything together and then douse it in ketchup. Eggs and ketchup…he had grown out of the raw egg thing….so maybe he shouldn't have been complaining about Sho's eating habits. It could have been much worse.

"I am being careful. Maybe you should get out of the way." said Sho

"Fair enough." Said Fukuda as he turned and got a plate of out the cabinet. He didn't want to fight with Sho about manners right now. Something was bothering him. He was being all…like that…and he was drawing at the table too. Furiously shading. He was feeding himself with his powers and furiously shading…and Fukuda…well he wished that…he honestly wished that he had a time machine. Sho had done this, minus the powers, when he had been small. He used to scribble furiously, he had been so young he hadn't understood shading then, when something was really bothering him….

And it had been so easy to cheer him up back then.

All Fukuda had to do, back then, was ask him if he wanted to play…or just ask if he wanted to be picked up….but Sho was more into videogames than toys….and he was way too big to be picked up…so talking would have to be…well what had to be done. Even though talking to Sho about his problems, a lot of the time, was like pulling teeth…but somehow harder. He'd pulled teeth before, back when his baby teeth hadn't been falling out fast enough for his liking and dad had left some pliers within arm's reach, and somehow talking to Sho about what was eating at him was even harder than that.

His problems, much like Fukuda's baby teeth, grew back very quickly.

"So…what're you drawing there?" asked Fukuda. It was best, when it came to Sho, to start off small. To test the waters. Much like talking to Suzuki. Easier, though, because when Suzuki would explode and lose control in some way Sho would shut down. Harder too, because Suzuki was open a lot of the time after he exploded, but Sho stayed shut down and clammed up for a while.

"What Emmy would look like if she went through a teleporter with a hamster like in that movie about the guy who fuses with a fly." Said Sho

"It looks interesting." Said Fukuda. It did. Sho…well he had a gift. Fukuda had no idea where it came from but he had a gift. Well maybe it was a form of hyper-cognition. Suzuki had it when it came to math and other dry academic topics. Maybe the art had come from Touichirou's mom….she had been an artist…not much of one but she had tried…

Or maybe Sho's art talent was just something that happened and there was no rhyme or reason to it.

"I know it does. I'm trying to get it done for her soon." Said Sho

"She asked you to draw that for her?" asked Fukuda

"No, I just like to draw stuff for her. It makes her happy and it's my job to make her happy. I'm her boyfriend, aren't I?" asked Sho. There was a bitterness to the word boyfriend that Fukuda completely understood. Sho…he was getting older. He was getting to the point where he wanted…well a lot of things that he hadn't wanted before. That was the age where Fukuda had started to think of girls in not only a physical way but a romantic one too. He had wanted a girlfriend for all the usual reasons but also to have someone to just…love him.

Sho wanted to be loved. It was normal.

So did the bitterness he felt. Fukuda…he did not make the world the way it was and he did not tell Touichirou to be who he was. Even if Touichirou had been completely accepting of his son the rest of the world would not have been. The world…it was the way it was and either way Sho would had gotten a bad shake of it. He was a good kid and he didn't deserve to feel the way he felt…and to never know…well a lot of things….

This was too much for an eleven year old.

"You're a really good boyfriend, Sho, and I'm proud of you. I know that it might seem hard sometimes-" said Fukuda

"When are we going to see baby sis?" asked Sho. Well then that…Fukuda had been prepared to give one of his long pep talks but…well that was….alright then. Sho wanted to move along, Fukuda didn't blame him, and of course he wanted to see his little sister…

Alright then.

"We can leave soon if you want to." Said Fukuda. He…well he knew that Suzuki wouldn't notice. He was too busy chasing assets….and he hated Seasoning City and everything in it…so….alright then. He'd have to start making arrangements….he could do this.

"Yeah, I want to go soon and give baby sis her M&M's before they get stale…and eaten." Said Sho

"Right. Well let me just start figuring some things out and then we can get going….but we can stay a little longer. You know, in case you want to hang out with Emmy some more. I know that you don't feel the same way about her that she does about you but it's alright to think of her as a friend-" said Fukuda

"A friend who I have to kiss sometimes." Said Sho

"Well…yes. If you want to put it that way." said Fukuda. That was…not something that he wanted to think about. He generally did not like thinking about the more…physical…aspects of Sho's romantic life…whatever that may be in the present and future…and also he didn't want to think about what he knew for a fact went on between those two kids. Sho was too young…well Fukuda hadn't been much older…but Sho was still too young. He…it seemed like just yesterday that he had been able to carry Sho on his shoulders….

And now that time had passed.

"What way? I have to kiss her sometimes. That's more than being friends…well sometimes there are friends with benefits…but I don't think that I could ever do that…and don't tell big sis that I know what that is. She'd probably faint or something." Said Sho

"Sho….I think that I might faint." Said Fukuda. Sho…well this was what happened when you kept company with adults. He was proud of Sho for not wanting something like that, even though there would have been nothing wrong with that since he didn't even love that girl, but he was…well he did feel just a bit horrified that he even knew what that was. Well that was at least one less thing that he would have to explain to Sho as he got older….

He wondered if he was physically capable of fainting.

"If you faint try to do it in the living room. There's carpeting in there. If you faint and hit your head on the hard floor he you might get brain damage and never wake up. Emmy told me about a guy that happened to." Said Sho

"Good tip, I'll try to remember that…so…yeah. We can get a move on if you're ready to go but if you want to stay and play with your frie-girlfriend for a little longer-" said Fukuda

"I'm ready to go so let's go, ok? If we're going now then I have birthday presents to make…and don't tell me not to eat in my room. It's my house now and if I want to eat my curry in my room then I will." Said Sho as he got up and picked up his plate with his powers.

"I wouldn't dream of….it. Alright then." Said Fukuda as he found himself alone at the table. Sho went to his room like he said that he was going to go…and that was alright. He was getting older and part of getting older was moving to his bedroom for the foreseeable future. That was fine. Fukuda…well he had left his own parents to their dinners alone…so this was normal…and Sho…well he was normal. Everything about him was so painfully normal….and there was nothing that Fukuda could do about it. The passage of time. Sho getting older, growing up, and growing apart from him….that was normal…and Fukuda didn't mind…what could he do, anyway, about the growing pains? That was what these were for the both of them. What could he do? Not even mind. Minding would have been pointless…so what could he do?

As long as there were heartwarming moments between the growing pains then….it was fine.