Minegishi always got the inside of the bed.

They preferred the outside of the bed but they always got the inside. Ryou got the outside of the bed. It was easier to wake up in the middle of the night squished between the wall and Ryou than it was to deal with the nightmares that Ryou had every time he had to sleep in the inner part of their bed. They had a vague idea as to what he dreamt about…most likely the same things that they dreamt about, but it wasn't like they were going to ask. Ryou…well he was an open book…but that didn't mean that opening that book was always good for him.

Sometimes it was best to leave some things alone.

It wasn't like they hated sleeping on the inside of the bed. They didn't hate it…they didn't love it but they didn't hate it. It could have been worse. They could have had to share a room with one of the others…nope. If it came to that then they were sleeping in their garden no matter what the temperature was. Not that it would ever come to that….unless Mob made another friend….no, she had learned her lesson from the whole Serizawa thing. Mob knew better than to bring another person into this house...so it didn't look like they were going to have be tripling up in these beds anytime soon.

Thank God.

It was just them and Ryou for now….well just them. Ryou was out, some mission thing for Suzuki. God only knew if he'd be coming back tonight. Berlin was a fun town, the kind of fun that Ryou liked to have, and they fully expected to wake up to an empty bed. The thought…there's a tightness in their chest at the thought of it. Waking up without him…love. God, love made them into such an idiot. They'd slept alone before. They'd slept alone on the floor of their room, in gardens, in the woods, playgrounds, the supply closet at the group home…they could sleep alone in this bed. They didn't need to be pressed up between Ryou and the wall to fall asleep.

But…having him there did help.

"Hey Toshi, how's it going?" said Ryou as he teleported into their room. He had a sixth sense, or maybe a seventh, or a fifth…he could sense when they were thinking of him. They knew that he was like Bloody Mary, you just said his name and he appeared, and they would not have been surprised if the same went for when you thought about him too. How else could they have explained him suddenly teleporting into the room like that?

Well…he did live here after all…so where else would he go?

"Could be worse. You?" Said Minegishi. They dog eared the book that they'd been reading and put it down in their lap. They'd get back to it later. It wasn't anything special, anyway, trite is anything. The sort of paint by numbers romance that Mob would have loved. Woman meets man, woman and man fall in love, destiny keeps them apart, and then they fuck at the end. Tale as old as time and all of that. Simple things, substance-less, junk food for the heart.

"Could be better. God, you would not believe the night I had." Said Ryou as he took his coat off and draped it over the desk chair. There was blood on his hands, they could see, and some on the front of his shirt too. The maroon couldn't hide it.

"Try me." Said Minegishi. They put their book on the floor and watched him. He unbuttoned his pants and threw them into the dirty hamper. Good. He remembered which was which. They weren't used to this level of organization…not yet, anyway. Maybe once it had been a year they'd be used to everything having a place in their space….their and Ryou's space…

It was his space too.

They were past the point at being amazed at how easily he made his way around. They had been amazed, well amused, at first. When they'd first met. When they'd taken that walk…he'd jumped from stone to stone then. Limboed under tree branches. He'd even done handstands on the edge of this brick wall…and it had been impressive. Then. Now…well now they were used to it. How he moved through the world….

They still watched him, though, through the corner of their eye.

"Guess." Said Ryou as he dug a pair of sleep shorts out of his drawer. Black, like most of his clothes. For the sake of simplicity. It was easier to shop for him that way. He could always buy, well steal, his own clothes but even if Minegishi looked past the fact that he had no idea what color was they could not ignore the fact that he just…could not dress. Not on his own. Not as well….God. They sounded just like Mob…or maybe Mob's unpleasant little friend….

They really needed to stop hanging out with twelve year olds.

"You've either been on a mission, in a fight, or you've been petting stray dogs again." said Minegishi as Ryou pulled his shirt up over his head. Blood on his neck. A splatter pattern. Not his, though, they could tell that he wasn't nursing any wounds. Good. They didn't want to have to spend the night putting him back together.

"We have a winner." Said Ryou as he tossed his shirt into the dirty clothes pile. He didn't quite make it far enough. Minegishi wasn't sure if he 'saw' it fall. Cloth was one of those things that was difficult for him to see. They decided to be helpful for once in their life. They reached over with a spider plant vine and put it in the hamper. Ryou didn't say anything if he noticed. He was rotting through his drawer, now, looking for something.

That something turned out to be a pipe.

A new one. Theirs was purple. This one was yellow and black, bumblebee pattered, something that he had picked out himself. They rolled their eyes. He had better have not been planning on going on and on about his old dragon pipe. They had gotten it for him and it had lasted a little over a week. It wasn't their fault that he wasn't always the most careful guy in the world…or a careful guy at all.

They still loved him, though, even if he had gotten broken glass in the rug and now they had to be careful where they stepped.

"What'd I win?" asked Minegishi. The energy around them shifted as Ryou disappeared out of existence. It didn't take long, less than a second, for him to reappear. He was on his side of the bed, the edge, and Minegishi scooted over. They were pressed against the wall now…and they didn't much care for being boxed in like this. There was a feeling that came from being boxed in like this, physically they felt it in the backs of their arms and the tops of their shoulder, a feeling like they needed to move…like they needed to get out of there and just…move. There was no place for them to go if…there was no more if. They were almost twenty nine years old, there was no more if, and if someone tried to start something with them then they would end the life of someone who had the NERVE to try…anything. They could protect themselves….

And Ryou was there…and he would never have let anything happen to them…not that he needed to protect them.

"Greens." Said Ryou as he handed them the pipe and the lighter. He scooted more towards the end of the bed. Minegishi took the pipe from him and scooted closer. It helped, somewhat, being near him. Even though they didn't need any protection…and there was nothing that could hurt them here anyway. They were amongst friends…or at least close co-workers. Besides, anything that was coming for them would have had to go through Mob…

And God have mercy on the moron who dared to cross Mob.

"I'm honored. Wow, greens on something that I grew myself…and with my very own lighter too." Said Minegishi

"Hey, that's my lighter." Said Ryou

"No, it's mine. It's purple. I know that means nothing to you but I'm looking at it and this lighter is purple. Lavender, to be exact." Said Minegishi

"What's lavender?" asked Ryou

"My hair." Said Minegishi. Well they preferred it to be lavender. It had faded to something closer to lilac at the ends and the roots…well their roots were starting to show again. They needed a haircut….later. After Mob's birthday. Mob had been saying for years and years that she wanted to braid their hair and it was starting to get long enough for all of Mob's dreams to come true…and her birthday was coming up…later. They'd cut it later, after Mob had enjoyed it…

And Ryou, too.

He reached over and tucked their hair behind their ears. He let a few strands twist between his fingers. He was close enough that they could smell him. Sweat, blood, gunpowder, and….dogs? So he had been petting stray dogs again after all…well of course he had been. He didn't lie to them. He knew how to lie, he did it all the time, but never to them.

One of their rules.

"Well then it's my favorite color." Said Ryou. Minegishi rolled their eyes and took a hit off of the pipe. The whole time Ryou kept on playing with their hair. It was going to break off if he was planning on keeping that up. They needed to at least trim their split ends…later. After Mob had braided it and whatever else she was planning on doing in her game of made stylist.

"You've said that before." Said Minegishi as they exhaled. He held out his hand. They took one more hit before passing it over to them. They weren't Mob, they weren't going to hog it all night, even though they were the one who had grown it…a thought. Mob also had that same sort of extra sense that Ryou had, it felt like sometimes, and they expected her to knock on their door asking to come and share with them. God knew that she needed it. With her little monster of a brother gone and her father being, well, her father…yeah, she needed it…

In moderation.

"I don't remember saying that." Said Ryou as he took the pipe from them. They leaned down and rested their head on his arm. He smelled….not the best…but not bad, either. If Mob decided to show up then they were sending her home with a thin joint at worst. They loved Mob, they really did, but….well these sorts of times couldn't come if Mob was there. She was eleven…twelve…almost twelve and the shippening had only gotten worse over the years…

They had caught her, on more than one occasion, Googling 'how to throw a surprise wedding' and the like.

"Maybe lay off on the smoking, in that case." Said Minegishi

"Eh, I think that I'll live with the memory problems. You can remember things for me." Said Shimazaki

"You're really going to trust me with that kind of power?" asked Minegishi

"Of fucking, Toshi, you know I'd trust you with my life." Said Ryou. He had trusted them with his life, before, back before…all of this. Back when they went on missions together. Back when every so often their paths would cross, mainly because people kept on crossing Suzuki, and they'd work together…but now those times were over with.

That wasn't his blood…and they shouldn't have cared if it was.

They took the pipe back from him and inhaled. They inhaled deep and long, long enough that they saw spots in their vision, before exhaling. They couldn't see the blood, there, on his hands and neck for a moment. Just a moment. The smoke dissipated quickly. They could see…it didn't matter what they could see. That was not his blood.

And even if it was then…well his missions were his own business.

"You know that I plan on abusing that power, right?" asked Minegishi as they passed the pipe back. Their hand brushed against Ryou's as they handed it to him. That should not have sent a shiver down their spine, pleasant or otherwise. They were acting like they were the one who was turning twelve, not Mob.

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way….now abuse that power and remind me what my favorite song is." Said Ryou. He reached over to the desk and grabbed his phone with telekinesis…and sent it flying into the bed. He didn't have the best control over that…or maybe they were just too used to Mob. What did they know about telekinesis?

Nothing.

But they did know Ryou. He was hitting the pipe…but not like he was trying to forget. Not like something had gone wrong. Not like he was trying to forget that his pseudo son was on the other side of the world hopefully getting over him. Not like he was trying to…well to smoke for the litany of painful reasons Ryou smoked for. Reasons that they were not going to get into. They took his hand and pressed his fingerprint to the reader on his phone. They navigated it by touch, they could navigate it by voice but they didn't really feel like it. They went over to his music folder and scrolled down. They knew what kind of mood he was in, a good mood, the kind of good mood that they wanted to add to. A calm short of good mood. Not manic like his normal good moods…well the sorts of good moods that he showed other people. This was his calm good mood….and he needed something calming.

This was going to be a calm night.

"Here comes the sun…" sang Ryou as he leaned back. He rested his head on Minegishi's and passed them the pipe. He turned his head to the side and kissed them. Right there, on the crown of their head, right in the worst of the black. The worst of their roots…but he couldn't see them…and even if he could he wouldn't have minded. They didn't seem him being a visual person even if he had been able to see. No, he was too much of the touchy feely type…

And not out of necessity.

He reached out and ran his fingers over their hand, the one that was resting near his. The other hand held the pipe. They'd hit it…later. Right now…either they had outdone themselves or in the pursuit of teaching Mob moderation they had lowered their tolerance. Either that or they were just really into the feel of Ryou's skin. Maybe they had some kind of serial killer like obsession with skin. After all, they didn't mind the blood on his hands. They didn't mind that he had someone else's blood on his hands, in fact they only would have cared if it had been his blood, so maybe they had deeper problems than they had ever imagined.

Whatever. They were what they were.

"It's dark out, right?" asked Ryou, his face still buried in their hair.

"Yeah, it's night out. It's pretty late, actually. Suzuki really had you running around tonight, didn't he?" asked Minegishi

"Like you would not believe. This guy just would not go down. I mean it's join or die…and he picked die…so the least he could do was go down quickly." Said Ryou. Minegishi rolled their eyes. They rolled them so hard that they were sure that he could feel it. Ryou and work. They had never in their entire life met someone so blasé about what he did for a living….what the two of them did for a living. Minegishi had never been all soul search-y about it, what they did, and honestly it had never bothered them. It was a means to an end. There wasn't even any feeling behind it. They were told to kill someone, that person died, and then they got on with their life. The only time they had ever felt something was with their parents…but they had been dreaming about that since they had been old enough to understand the concepts of life and death and what the act of murder entailed.

Ryou was much the same.

He hadn't killed his parents, and would maim and/or seriously injure anyone who dared to say otherwise, but he had much the same outlook on their job as they did. That was one of the first things they had noticed about him…well after the hair, the pants, and the coat…the way that he just…did what he had to do. He did what he had to do and then he went back to living his life. He lived it to the fullest, which was smart since his fullest shortened his life considerably, and that had just been…refreshing was a word for it. New. Interesting.

Ryou. That was a good word for him. Ryou.

"Did he?" asked Minegishi

"No, he lived. They all give up eventually…and now at least we have a new…wherever Suzuki is planning on putting him…which is worse! I mean I do what I do, and I'm not like a serial killer or something, but just…don't waste my time! My time is valuable, Toshi." Said Ryou

"Well you're worth about ten million yen a year so that's like…a lot of money an hour." Said Minegishi

"How much an hour?" asked Ryou

"I don't know. Did I change my name to Suzuki? Am I next door at the nerd party?" asked Minegishi

"No, but you're pretty smart. You're the smartest person I know." Said Ryou. He leaned down and kissed the side of their neck. They leaned into him before pulling back.

"I'm flattered." Said Minegishi. Well why not just compare them to a dog in the park? No…that wasn't far to Mob. She was pretty smart…aside from the fact that they had seen her use her fingers to add…which was so weird. She had spawned from Suzuki and, supposedly, he was some kind of math genius if Hatori was to be believed….but then again he hadn't been to school since the age of fifteen.

Still, though, not much of a compliment…so then why were they so warm all of a sudden?

"Come on, don't be that way. You really are the smartest person I know. I love that about you, you know. How smart you are. Like how no matter what country we're in you always speak the language." Said Ryou. He kissed their neck again. The pipe had been long forgotten by now, and had in fact tipped over in their bed. That…was something that they would deal with later. Not now.

Now they had something else to deal with…but in the best way possible.

"My German isn't that good…don't exaggerate." Said Minegishi. They felt Ryou's hand reaching it's way under their sweatshirt and across their back. He leaned in closer to them. They were close…they were close and he was pressing them against the wall…but they didn't mind. They didn't really mind…because he was there. They were Minegishi Toshiki, they could take care of themselves, but…they knew that he would take care of them too.

Nothing was going to hurt them. Not while Ryou was around.

"Your German is great. Like….what's this mean? Ich liebe dich?" asked Ryou. Minegishi rolled their eyes as they felt Ryou's hand get even higher on their back.

"It means 'I love you' and I know that you know what it meant." Said Minegishi

"Alright, alright, I was trying to be romantic. Shoot me." Said Ryou as he pulled their sweatshirt up. They raised their arms above their head and let him pull it off. Now they were just there in their undershirt…and it was cold. Or maybe they had just gone from being overly warm….it didn't matter…

They wouldn't be cold for long.

"That'd be a waste of a bullet. It's not like it could hurt you." Said Minegishi as Ryou kissed his way across their shoulders. They were not going to sigh. They felt one coming, the airy sort of thing that made them sound like a kid, and they just…could not. Not now. Later. Just…they didn't know. This was Ryou. He would always love them…he would never think less of them. They were together…it was one of those…long term…things….

A shiver went down their spine. They didn't know what kind of shiver.

"You could shoot me. My barrier's pretty much down to nothing." Said Ryou. That was…a lot…and this was…a lot. There was the wall on one side of them and on the other…on the other side was Ryou and…and they wanted to be with Ryou…they wanted nothing more than to be with Ryou…but also…also there was just so much and…he wanted so much and…

And maybe they should have hit that pipe again.

"Suzuki would never forgive me if I killed his best hitman." Said Minegishi. They pulled away from him and felt around the bed for the pipe. They found it and repacked it as best as they could. They could feel Ryou watching them. They could feel his aura on them.

They just needed a smoke. That was all.

"He'll live, I'm almost done here anyway. Just a couple more idiots and then this kid….I think maybe the same kid as before I don't know….and then we can move along. I mean we just got here but…" said Ryou. Minegishi was not Mob. They knew what he was getting at. They exhaled and handed him the pipe.

"We're still here. We can make the most of it." Said Minegishi. There, that was all that they'd needed. They just needed to clear their head by making it a hell of a lot more….cloudy? That was a word. A word for their head, the way that it swam, the way that…they didn't know. They leaned over and kissed Ryou. They kissed him and, acting on a two second delay…not normal for him…he kissed them back. He kissed them back and…and this was good….

This was something that they understood.

"Toshi…I love you fucking much…I-" said Ryou between kisses. They had been prepared to kiss the words, whatever romantic spiel he had been about to spout, right out of his mouth…but the ringing of a phone stopped them. Not theirs. That wasn't their ringtone, Mob had changed theirs to an instrumental version of some song from Frozen, that was Ryou's…the one that came with the phone. Well that made sense…nobody ever called him…who would have called him? Everyone he knew was right-

Oh.

Oh hell no.

"Shimazaki here. Why the fuck-Sho! Hey! You're still alive!" said Ryou. Minegishi took the pipe and scooted away from him. Well now. That was…this was going to go on and on they imagined. This was…ok. Sho was calling him now. Minegishi had hoped and prayed that he would have met the boy of his dreams and forgotten all about Ryou…well these hopes weren't the kind that came true. Very few of their hopes and dreams ever came true.

They weren't lucky like that.

"I'm good, it's good here….I'm lying. It's dead as hell over here without you. Like today I…" said Ryou. Minegishi rolled their eyes. Ryou better not have been planning on starting up about them having kids together. That was NOT happening. He could keep Sho…and he could take Suzuki's other kid too. Not Mob, no, he and Mob weren't like that…and that whole area better not have been about to get as weird as Ryou had promised it would…no, they meant Suzuki's other daughter.

The one that Sho had, apparently, defected from the group to be with.

Mob had been taking this surprisingly well. Sure she had said before that she missed Sho but aside from that she hadn't said a word. Not about Sho being with their sister or having left them for the Seventh Division. It had been weird, honestly, but maybe she was just in birthday mode or something. Or maybe she was swallowing her feelings and that was what all of these group outings had been about. They didn't know.

This was not an area that they wanted to go poking around it.

There was nothing that they could do, anyway. Mob was making the best of it…even though this wasn't fair to her. She had loved that baby and…it had been hard on her when the baby had been taken away. Maybe the whole thing was just too hard for her. Going to the Seventh Division would have meant traveling with Fukuda…and Minegishi wouldn't have wished that on their worst enemy. Yeah, maybe Mob was better off there with them…even if it must have been hard on her in ways that Minegishi couldn't even begin to imagine.

Life sucked sometimes…even for Mob. Especially for Mob.

"…should be in bed. It's…Toshi, what time's it?" asked Ryou. Minegishi looked up from their pipe. They had been watching the smoke and trying to drown out the sound of Ryou making a problem that had been festering for years even worse.

"I don't know. Like…ten, maybe? I don't know, I'm not a clock." Said Minegishi with a shrug.

"Ok, Toshi says that it's ten here so…how far behind us is London?' asked Ryou

"What are you talking about?" asked Minegishi. London….they didn't know when Sho had left but they knew for a fact that Sho had been staying at the Seventh Division for weeks and weeks now. Matsuo occasionally told them what he and the baby, well toddler now, got up to. Apparently people were getting sick of Suzuki dumping his kids at that Division…

Who would have guessed? Well…of the people who knew…which…well this was starting to look more and more like a secret…one which they had been unwittingly keeping.

"I'm trying to figure out what time it is where Sho is. He should be in bed now. I mean I love talking to you Sho, you're a good FRIEND and all, but you should be in bed." Said Ryou

"London? He's in Seasoning City. It's, like, six in the morning there maybe." Said Minegishi. Ryou must have just been high…or something. He must have been…because this was…this could not have been a secret. Mob….she must have known….unless Suzuki was keeping it a secret….but then he would have told Hatori to tell the rest of them that this was a secret…if he even knew. That was always a possibility. He didn't seem to care about any of his kids, after all, unless they were Mob.

Father of the fucking year right there.

"Wait…kid, you're in-" said Ryou. He hadn't known. If he hadn't known then….then it must have been a secret. Especially if Sho had been keeping it from RYOU of all people. That was just…this was just…alright then. Alright then to all of this. This was just….

A lot for Minegishi to deal with.

"I'm not Japan!" shouted Sho. He shouted so loudly that Minegishi could hear him as clearly if he had been sitting right there…and that had been too loud for Ryou. He pulled the phone away quickly. They reached over and took his phone from him. His ears must have been ringing…theirs were on the verge of ringing…

Maybe that was just from stress, though.

"What in the…he hung up on me! What the fuck!? Can you believe it! Do you know how many people have hung up on me?!" said Ryou. Minegishi had no clue how many people had hung up on Ryou in his lifetime…and that was not the issue here. No, they had enough cluttering up their thoughts as it was. Like…this. Whatever 'this' was. This…gigantic…conspiracy? Lie? This…whatever it was. Whatever they had found themselves in the middle of.

"He's in Japan…and I guess that I'm not supposed to know about that…we're not supposed to know about that." Said Minegishi

"Japan? What the hell is he doing in Japan? And how the hell…how the hell did he go to Japan without me?! I thought he was having the time of his life with the girlfriend he may or may not care about." Said Ryou

"I don't know. Matsuo didn't tell me. I mean I assume he's there to play with his sister…his half-sister…that he never told any of us about…that Mob doesn't….oh God." Said Minegishi. This was…a shit show. This was going to be the worst shit show….Mob had to know about this. Mob…she was going to be devastated…and so close to her birthday….God…

Fucking…everything.

This was….fuck! Mob could not deal with this right now. She was already…she had enough shit on her plate as it was! She had enough shit on her plate and Minegishi was about to heap more on. They could keep it a secret but…but then that would be…that would have been the worst thing that they could have done. They were not going to betray her like that.

Mob had been betrayed badly enough as it was.

"That little liar…what the hell is he….I don't follow any of this. I'm too high….or not high enough. Where'd that pipe get to?" asked Ryou. Minegishi handed it back to him. They didn't need it…well they did…but they had to think. They had…a lot to think about right now.

"Here…and keep this to yourself. The thing about Sho. Just…let me break it to Mob. After her birthday." Said Minegishi. There. They would…tell her after her birthday. After her pancakes and her presents and the fun day she was going to have…then Minegishi would shatter her world. Not now. Now Mob…well she'd be happy…as happy as she could be…and then…and then Minegishi would tell her the truth…

Even though the truth would devastate her…but they had to do what they had to do.