Minegishi didn't always want to think.
Sometimes they just wanted to sit down with a good book. Something long and old and slow. Something that took forever to get going but when it did it was a hell of a ride and when it was done you were left with this vague sense of…loss…that it was over. Like really good sex. A good book was like very good, very slow, sex. The kind that happened when you were just…feeling it. The kind that started with a kiss and ended with you facing the love of your life with your throat raw from screaming his name, your eyes like sandpaper from crying in a good way, and your skin glistening with a mixture of your sweat and his. When you came down, when it was just…over, when all that you had was him and you and your breathing and his…when you felt so away from him…
When you were right next to him…but so away from him…but so close….but also you were as close as you could be to someone…and then you were so far…
Yeah, sex was like a good book. Or at least sex with Ryou was like a good book. Not that they were always up for sex with Ryou. Not when he got like….this. Clingy. Clingy but also someone…someone he had managed to perfect the art of pushing them away with one hand and pulling them close with the other…but it was whatever. He could come in at two in the morning to wake them up and tell them that he wasn't needy…and then he could ask to make love…and then he could hold them all night…and then he could fuck off and come back and fuck off and come back….he could do whatever he wanted to do…and they could do whatever they wanted to do.
And what they wanted to do now was watch some trash TV.
"For the love of God….say no to the dress….for the sake of humanity." Muttered Minegishi as they watched some poor woman come out of the changing room in a truly horrendous dress that somehow cost the entire GDP of a small country. It was some puffy, shiny, bedazzled thing…the kind of thing that Mob would probably end up wearing to her wedding. Mob would have told them that she loved it. She probably would have had one made for herself but in blue, so she could wear it during the day. She probably would have offered to have one made for Minegishi, too, if she had been there….
But she wasn't there.
She was outside. It was too bright, too muggy, and too hot for Minegishi. Noon. Once it got later, once the sun wasn't up so high, then they would go outside and see what Mob was up to. Right now…they needed rest. They reached down and picked up their glass. One half orange soda, one half vodka, for one complete and total hypocrite. Sugar was poison and alcohol was poison so maybe they just needed to put themselves in the ground already. Just put them in the ground and see what grew. Maybe a tree…one of those trees nobody liked. Like a durian tree. How people could eat those terrible things was beyond them….
Or maybe they would just rot.
They had turned people into fertilizer before. Bodies rotted. Bodies rotted deep in the ground…and they nourished…whatever the hell Minegishi needed them to nourish. Trees, mostly, they liked trees. Trees were useful. They gave the world sunlight, fruit, and a place to read on a hot day. There weren't any trees in the back garden. Not at this house…but if there had been trees then maybe they would have gone outside to see what Mob and the little vomit machines mother were doing out there. Not that they wanted to spend time with the woman, she had her nose turned so far up in the air that they were inclined to assume that she may have been some kind of distant relation to Fukuda. It was nice not having her posted up on the table hovering over everything and everyone…or just her kid. She really should have been hovering over her kid.
Since Sho…he may not have been the best baby sitter.
"New game! New game now, Sho!" shouted the little vomit machine. Minegishi turned the volume up. She and Sho were hanging out in Serizawa's room most likely destroying his priceless collection of videogames and videogame memorabilia. If those figures he was always building were memorabilia. They knew fuck all about videogames besides the fact that arcades were great places to hang out when it was too hot or too cold outside. The candy games were good for getting lunch. Just stuck a vine through the slot and then, wow, instant breakfast or dinner or whatever meal you missed.
They took another sip of their drink.
"Ask Serizawa, they're his games." Said Sho. Minegishi wondered if the shouting was entirely necessary. Mob never shouted. She was a quiet kid most of the time, that was good and bad. That was good because it had always been a good time with her, she had been pretty unobtrusive when she'd been young, but also…well she tended to internalize. Minegishi had no idea what to do when she externalized…but at least they had some idea as to what was going on in Mob's head when she externalized.
She wasn't doing well.
She was doing the worst when she acted like she was at her best. Her constant insistence that she had this…when she so obviously didn't. She didn't even HAVE to have this. The kid's mom, not her bio mom but her mom was here now. Mob was, for once, free of a burden. Even her brother needed less hovering…mainly because he was sticking to Ryou like glue now…and calling him Ryou….this thing was going in the wrong direction…
Not that there was anything that they could do…not without dropping a bomb on the entire….whatever this group was.
"Really? You're going to wear black to a wedding?" muttered Minegishi. They didn't have much of an opinion on clothing, especially not dresses, but one did not wear black to their own wedding. It was a bad omen, unless you were Chinese or one of those other cultures where white was a funeral color. Still seemed like a bad omen, though, if those existed. Weddings were supposed to be about love and togetherness and bankrupting your family so you could show everyone how prosperous you were.
Why would anyone have wanted one of those?
Why would anyone have wanted to spend money they didn't have on uncomfortable clothes, terrible food, and a long night of stressful social obligations? There were so many better things that a person could have done with their time and money…and what was even the point? So two people could decide that they belonged to one another? Why? Why would one person want to give up so much of themselves, their lives, and their freedom for someone else? They hated how it was framed as romantic to just…take one person and decide that you were theirs…and just give up any and all agency that you had in your life. They had no idea why anyone would have wanted that…they had no idea why Ryou wanted that…
They did know why they put so many of these wedding shows on TV, though, they made for good entertainment.
"If you two idiots can't decide on a budget for the dress then maybe, just maybe, this doesn't bode well for your marriage." Muttered Minegishi. They took another sip of their drink. They needed something better than vodka and orange soda…not even orange juice, orange soda. They couldn't have orange juice in the house or Sho would die…how anyone could have developed a citrus allergy of all things they would never know. Vodka and orange juice sounded pretty great right about now…but they didn't want to get up and go to a store…or ask Ryou to steal them some. He was off doing Ryou things…and they wouldn't bother him. They didn't feel like bothering him…or being bothered…
Maybe they should have invested in a sign.
Like the sorts of 'do not disturb' signs they had in hotels. They had no idea where they would hang it. They hated these modern houses. This was as open of a floorplan as a house could have without breaking the earthquake codes. The house that they grew up in may have been a dump but there had been plenty of walls…and places to hide. Not that they wanted to hide, they were Minegishi Toshiki they hid from nothing, and especially not from Shibata of all people. The room shook as he walked over to his chair. They didn't want to hide from him, they just didn't want to be bothered.
But it felt a lot like they were about to be bothered.
"Say yes to the dress?" asked Shibata as he sat down. Minegishi nodded.
"Yup. Want me to turn the subs on?" asked Minegishi
"No, my English is good enough that I get the gist of it. I mean….there's not much to it. She either likes the dress or she doesn't like it." Said Shibata
"You'd think that it would be that simple. No, she's got to discuss the dress with her mother, her wedding party, her third cousin twice removed, her mailman's gardener, and her optometrist's brother's roommate's dog's veterinarian. Then, and only then, can she decide if she'll say yes to the dress." Said Minegishi with a laugh that they didn't feel…but then again they didn't feel most of their laughs so maybe this was normal. That was just…how they sounded.
Alright then.
"American's are weird." Said Shibata. Whether he took them seriously or not they did not know…and they did not feel like getting into it with him right then. They downed some more of their drink and put their glass down at the floor by their feet. They could feel Shibata's eyes on them.
"It's orange soda and Japanese vodka." Said Minegishi
"What?" asked Shibata
"My drink. It's orange soda and vodka. You were staring, I assume you want one." said Minegishi. If he wanted one then he knew where the drinking glasses were. They were in no way up for playing bartender right now. They weren't up for anything…well maybe watching more junk food TV after this. The Americans had perfected this. Junk food TV and actual junk food…which they could have gone for right about now. Something greasy and fried that would shorten their life significantly in the long run. The sort of thing that they ate until they felt sick. Calorically dense. Good for when people tried to starve the crazy out of you.
Not that they ever had to worry about that ever again…being a grown adult and a self-made orphan after all.
"Oh no, it's not that. Just…well it's on the floor." Said Shibata
"What? Are you worried about Sho drinking it? Because he's old enough to deal with the consequences of his actions. He's eleven and should know by now not to go and drink things he finds on the floor…besides, this is orange soda. I doubt that there has ever been anything even close to an orange in this." said Minegishi
"No I meant….well I just spend the past hour getting red Kool-Aide out of the bathmat…at least I hope it was red Kool-Aid…" said Shibata as he motioned towards the rug. Oh. Minegishi picked up their glass and held it in their hand like a normal, functional, human being…or at least their best impression of one.
"It's Kool-Aide, by the way. Sho gave some to his little sister in an actual cup…and you can see how well that went." Said Minegishi
"Oh…well that's good to know. With Shimazaki coming in as late as he did I thought that he might have been up to something shady again." said Shibata
"When isn't Ryou up to something shady?" asked Minegishi. He had been out with Mob…and taking a twelve year old girl out on the town was pretty damn shady. They thanked God that Mob was way too smart for Ryou because she was coming up on the lower limits of his age range…and they did not want to have to actually sit down with their boyfriend and tell him that hooking up with their teenage best friend and the daughter of a man who killed people for looking in his sacred virgin of a daughter's direction for too long was a bad idea.
"That's true…this is Shimazaki I'm talking about." Said Shibata
"Yeah, and maybe stop talking about him before he senses that he's the subject of conversation and comes popping into this room." Said Minegishi
"Wait…he can actually sense that?" asked Shibata
"I…think so? I have no idea how his powers work, only what he's told me, and he says that he gets a feeling when people talk about him. How that feeling works I do not know. Anyway he's busy today so don't bother him." said Minegishi
"Busy? With what?" asked Shibata
"Are you always this nosy?" asked Minegishi. God, it was like talking to a three meter tall and much less endearing version of Mob. She at least had an excuse for being nosy. She was just a kid and that was normal for kids, right? To be full of a million and one questions? They really had no idea. They hadn't exactly been a normal kid after all.
"I'm not being nosy. I'm just…curious…as to what he could possibly be busy with. President Suzuki hasn't given us a real mission in forever….though he has been pretty busy. Hatori says that he's been on a warpath lately….for him, not for a regular person." Said Shibata
"Well, yeah. His twelve year old daughter-wife threw him out of the house. Who wouldn't be a little pissed off about that?" asked Minegishi
"Please don't say daughter-wife." Said Shibata with a groan. He was visibly cringing now. Minegishi…it was funny…but they couldn't even smile. Too tired, much too tired today.
"Why not? She cooks his meals, she keeps his house, she irons his clothes, and she's raising his son. Suzuki has an, objectively, fucked up relationship with Mob. Not so fucked up that I have to try and kill the bastard but an objectively fucked up one." said Minegishi
"He just…really loves her. He's not…like that. I mean I don't like to assume that about people. He's close with her…and she does have a lot of responsibility…but so did I when I was her age. When my mom got sick I pretty much took over for her." said Shibata
"Yeah, well, Suzuki is alive and well and I know that there are dozens of Awakened that would give their left nuts to wait hand and foot on the Suzuki family in their own home. That's what…well Mob should be out there fucking around like every other twelve year old on the planet. Not like…well whatever she does. I don't know." Said Minegishi. They leaned back and took another sip of their drink. Mob…God. That wasn't even their daughter…but at this point she might as well have been. She was the one who they worried over and took care of. They had been there for so many of her firsts…the big ones. They were the one who had helped her with all of those puberty firsts like shaving and periods…and bra shopping would be in order soon when Mob decided that she wanted to wear one…all the things a mother was supposed to do….at least all the things that Minegishi assumed that a mother was supposed to do.
They didn't really know. By the time all of this puberty stuff had come up they were being raised in the group home.
"What's wrong?" asked Shibata
"Nothing." Said Minegishi
"Come on, I know you. At least I like to think that I know your tells…and something's wrong. What is it? Maybe I can help." Said Shibata. Minegishi…if they hadn't had to work with this man….well at the very least they would have thrown their drink in his face and strangled him with the spider plant that was growing behind him….but they did have to work with him so they kept their simmering rage in check.
"What? You're the house shrink now too? Isn't being our den mother enough?" asked Minegishi
"I'm a concerned friend, ok? You're day drinking…a lot more than usual. I'm worried…and I know that Mob is going to worry too and I hate it when she worries…and Shimazaki might worry and I hate it when he worries…but for a whole different reason." said Shibata
"Yeah, Ryou is insufferable sometimes…but don't worry about me. I'm twenty nine years old. I can handle myself…and before you say anything the answer is no. I do not want a party. I did not want one last year and I do not want one this year. I want to quietly celebrating my having beat the reaper for another year in the way that I see fit….which is by day drinking and watching trashy TV while the world turns around me." Said Minegishi. Their birthday wasn't any cause for celebration. People celebrated kids' birthdays because back before modern medicine and sanitation it wasn't a given that they would make it to adulthood. They weren't a child, they were a twenty nine year old adult, and they could handle themselves.
Also they knew that a stack of twenty nine pancakes was coming to them…and they did not want to see if they could eat twenty nine pancakes.
"Alright, alright, but if you change your mind then you know where to find me." Said Shibata
"Stuck in the kitchen because an eleven year old boy asked you to make him poptarts from scratch and you just can't say no to him?" asked Minegishi
"…he's a growing boy and he needs food." Said Shibata
"Food yes, more sugar, no. Sugar is the last thing that kid needs. Him and his little sister." Said Minegishi. They turned to face the TV…oh. She had gone for the black. Well then when the inevitable catastrophe occurred she could turn it into a mourning dress. They leaned back and crossed their legs. Another episode was coming up…and it looked like Shibata didn't feel like talking anymore. Good. Now they could enjoy today in peace.
As much peace as there was to be had in this house.
Footsteps, heavy ones. Not the kind that Shibata made, the kind that tested how well this house would have been able to survive an earthquake. No, this was the heavy footsteps of a man who, Minegishi got the feeling, didn't know his own size. There were smaller, more rapid, footsteps too. Little feet trying to keep up with long strides. The other two Suzuki kids, the ones who's paternity could not be subject to debate, were coming.
Great. Just great.
Minegishi sat as still as they could. Maybe this was like Jurassic Park. Maybe the kid's vision was based on movement and they were functionally invisible now. They felt it. Serizawa and Sho walked right past them. Something about a dead Wii-remote and the need for emergency batteries…something about taking them out of the smoke detector if there weren't any in the junk drawer…
The future leader of Claw and ruler of the world, ladies and gentlemen.
"What are the odds of a fire, really?" Said Sho. His voice carried…still high and grating…or maybe Minegishi just had a headache coming on. Maybe they needed a nap….they had just taken a nap….well maybe they needed another one.
"I-I don't know….Sho…but maybe we should just…leave the smoke detector alone." Said Serizawa, stuttering his way to being the voice of reason. Grating…more grating than listening to Sho. They knew that he'd gone fifteen years without human contact or whatever but with all the talking he did with Mob he could have dropped the stutter by now. Really. He'd been with them since late fall. How he wasn't used to talking to them yet Minegishi would never know.
"There are batteries in the second junk drawer! Please don't touch the smoke detector…or the carbon monoxide detector!" shouted Shibata
"You forgot the radon detector." Said Minegishi
"Right! Or the…do we even have a radon detector?" asked Shibata
"Well I should hope so, otherwise we're all about to die of radon poisoning." Said Minegishi
"I…can't tell if you're being serious or not right now…." Said Shibata
"Radon is a very serious thing." Said Minegishi. There, now they were smiling a little bit. Just a little. There was something to be said about stirring the shit, Ryou could occasionally have the right idea. Though they wouldn't go so far as to drug Hatori for shits and giggles…setting off his anxiety was never fun. God…they did not envy him. With Fukuda banished he was Suzuki's new best friend/possible crush. Poor…poor….poor Hatori….and they meant that.
"….leave the radon detector alone too!" shouted Shibata after a moment's visible hesitation.
"What the hell is a radon detector?! What the hell even is radon!?" asked Sho. Well he shouted….he had some set of lungs on him. All the better for giving his boring presidential speeches when the time came. Suzuki did only have the one son after all…unless there were more little vomit machines out there that he was responsible for. Sho was going to be their next ruler…or at least President since world domination was the stupidest and most generic goal they had ever heard of…they almost prayed to God that Claw collapsed before Suzuki's hopes and dreams could come true….Sho at the helm of the world…
What the hell.
"What the hell!? What the hell!?" said Mukai. Another very high and very grating voice. God…the house was too loud today…the world was too loud. Mukai's little footsteps sounded like an elephant was practicing it's clog dancing…and doing a very poor job of it. They took another sip of their drink.
And then the saw another hand going for their glass.
"Drink please and thank you!" said Mukai as she reached for Minegishi's glass. She had on another one of those 'cute' shirts of hers. Her shirt said 'the real boss'. Presumably her mother was wearing one to match hers and it presumably declared her to be the boss. All of these things were presumed, and could only be presumed, because Mukai's mother was nowhere to be seen. They were alone in the living room, well barring Shibata, with Mukai…
Great.
"Drink! Now! Please and thank you!" said Mukai as she reached for Minegishi's glass again. Minegishi raised their glass high above their head. They were not going to get another Suzuki kid into this. They were not going to ruin another kid's life. Mob was already on her way to one of those rehab shows. Mukai….she was even younger than Mob had been when she started…and while it would have quieted her down….
Minegishi was not going to ruin her life like they had ruined her sister's.
"Mukai, no, that's a grown up drink. Do you want a soda? How about I put some soda in your sippy cup. Where did that thing get to?" asked Shibata
"Glass! Big girl now! Glass please and thank you!" said Mukai. She tried to climb onto Minegishi's lap, they twisted away. Something hit the rug…oh. Their phone. Well now they had a very difficult choice to make. Save this child from a life of substance abuse or save their phone from the sticky hands of a toddler.
They chose their drink.
"Mukai, how about we go and play somewhere else?" asked Shibata. Mukai wasn't listening to him. She had picked up Minegishi phone now…and managed to wake it up. God, kids today had tech way too soon. She had managed to get it to the lock screen, a picture of Ryou laying back with his arms folded behind his head. If she managed to figure out their pattern then she'd see their lock screen, Ryou with a bunch of cigarettes in his hair.
Mukai was trying to figure out their pattern.
She tried Mob's at first….though her pattern was simple. Three across and then three to the left. It didn't work…though a big seven wasn't that hard to figure out either. Shibata could have taken it away from her…but that would have resulted in either a dead child or a broken phone. Nobody wanted a repeat of the Wee World incident as the newspapers had called it….and Minegishi didn't want to deal with a trip to the phone store today either.
They reached for their phone.
"Give it back." Said Minegishi in their most firm, but least terrifying, voice. Mukai held it close to her chest.
"Games now please and thank you." Said Mukai as she held their phone close. Yeah….no. Their phone was already sticky with whatever mysterious substance it was that gave toddlers such sticky hands. They didn't need their case broken or their screen shattered or their apps messed with….or their pictures gone through. Mukai knew how to work a phone to a degree and they had seen her going through Mob's pictures and…yeah. There were some things on that phone that could scar her for life. She did not need to see that side of Ryou…none of the kids did.
Though her brother…getting into their pictures that they kept in the 'Mob, stay out' folder would have been the highlight of his life…all the more reason to get their phone away from Mukai.
"Sho! Can you come and get your sister? She's got Minegishi's phone!" said Shibata. Well at least he was helping in the best way that he could….no healer would have meant a dead if not smashed up Mukai…she fit right into Shibata's hand like a little chick…it would have been cute if this child hadn't been so fucking annoying.
Like little sister, like older brother.
Sho jumped, actually jumped, over the couch. Well he had used his powers but still…not the best thing to be doing. He landed next to his sister and pulled his own phone out of his coat pocket…which he did not need to be wearing since it was fucking June in Tokyo…and also Ryou never should have given him. That kid…this whole thing with Ryou was going in the wrong direction…but there was nothing that they could do about it now. Mob had already gone through enough and had enough on her plate without adding a heartbroken little brother to her list of burdens.
So Minegishi was just going to have to leave him on their very long list of burdens.
"Mukai, here, you don't want their phone. They've probably only got boring stuff on it. Here, you can have mine." Said Sho. He handed Mukai his phone….and now she had two of them. She was clutching the both of them to her chest like they were the most valuable things in the world…and to her they probably were. Well Sho was right about one thing, they didn't have anything that would interest her on their phone.
Him on the other hand…they did not like the way that he was looking at their lock screen.
"No! Games please and thank you!" said Mukai. Well at least she was minding her manners…heh. Maybe there was hope for the next generation of the Suzuki family yet…though Suzuki would be out one heir if that kid didn't get his little sister to drop their phone this instant.
"Sho. Get my phone from her. Now." Said Minegishi
"She wants it." Said Sho…like that was a valid answer to what they had just said.
"Here, give her my phone. She can't hold three phones at once." Said Shibata as he fished his phone out of his pocket. He had one of those life proof cases….maybe Minegishi needed to look into one of those…especially since it looked like toddlers had free reigen to mess with their phone now.
"More games! More games now!" said Mukai. Sho took Shibata's phone and dangled it in front of her.
"Look big sis, games! There's…well fun ones, probably….come on….drop Minegishi's phone." Said Sho. He didn't have any more luck. Now Mukai, clever as she was, had figured out that she could hold things by pinning them to her chest with her arm. That was some real ingenuity and Minegishi would have applauded that…if Mukai hadn't been holding onto their phone with her sticky little toddler fingers!
"Take it from her or I will." Said Minegishi
"I'm trying. I can't just take stuff out of her hands, who the fuck would do that to their little sister?!" asked Sho, conveniently forgetting the shrieking little demon child he had been when Minegishi had met him. He had done much worse than take things out of Mob's hands. Well at least he was trying to better himself…trying being the operative word. That was his sister and she pretty much only listened to him so, yeah, he needed to get on with this already because they were not going to sit here and deal with this all day.
"Maybe if you distracted her…or something…." Said Shibata. He looked like he wanted to intervene. Minegishi sure as hell wanted him too…but only so long as he knew his own strength…which wasn't all the time. Well it was either him or them…and they did not want to intervene. They had no idea how to do this without setting Mukai off….God…they did NOT like kids this age….and they had no idea why Ryou did.
"That's a good idea. Best idea that I've heard all day….Minegishi. Hey Serizawa! Did you find the batteries yet?" shouted Sho
"I'm putting the new ones in right now!" said Serizawa, thankfully without the stutter. That would have been too much right now….and they were already at their limit. Their head was pounding…they needed a nap…and their phone back.
They got it.
"Wii games! Wii games now!" shouted Mukai as she threw Minegishi's phone right into their chest and ran off. That had been….like Mob would have said if she had been there. They had gotten what they had wanted but they had lost what they'd had. Sure they had their phone now but at what cost?
The cost of a very comfortable shirt.
Their drink sloshed. The front of their shirt was ruined. Damn it…this was a white one. Mob had gotten them this one at Disneyland…not that they were a fan of Disneyland…but the gesture had been nice. Mob had gotten them this one when she'd been eight…or maybe nine. Younger than she was now. Back when she had been young and so full of…not potential, no, she had plenty of that…dreams….maybe? Not that Mob had inherited her father's grandiose dreams of ruling the world. Still….back then there had been…they didn't know. Things had been different, simpler, back then. There had just been…less going on. Mob had been more of a kid…and maybe they had been more of a kid…and things had just been a hell of a lot…simpler.
Nothing was simple now.
"That's a pretty simple stain. If you leave it on top of the washer I can get that right out." Said Shibata
"I can take care of it myself, thank you." Said Minegishi. They would spot treat this the next time they did a load of t-shirts. Between them and Ryou they both had enough t-shirts to justify doing their own load. Something else that they had to do…well Ryou could do laundry…but he couldn't spot clean for shit being blind and all. Something else that fell to them…not that they were calling him needy or anything…they could not wait until he got off this 'needy' thing.
He was needy as hell but they would never call him that to his face.
They half expected, as they made their way into their bedroom, that Ryou would be there at the desk or on their bed ready with reason number who even knew why he was not needy…even though coming up with all of these reasons was exactly what a needy person would have done. They had said somethings when they had been concussed that they would not have said otherwise….and concussed Minegishi did not speak for right mind Minegishi.
Right mind Minegishi never would have said that to him.
Even though he had been getting clingier and clingier lately. Even though he was getting weirdly jealous of Matsuo. Even though they knew for a fact that he had been watching them sleep…they never would have called him needy. They…if anything they were the needy one…with this stupid need to be beside him that led them to keeping him around even though he drove them up the wall sometimes…a lot of the time…
That was what love was…they supposed.
Love was need….so if he was needy then they were needy too…so they should have apologized…and they would have apologized if they had been in their right mind when they had said it. Ryou had said plenty of stupid stuff when he hadn't been in his right mind, they never wanted to hear the phrase 'Mob and Toshi sandwich' ever again, and they hadn't held any of it against him. Ryou was…something…sometimes. Sometimes he was something good, sometimes he was something less good, sometimes he made them feel like they were on top of the world, and other times he was clingier than a soda soaked t-shirt.
They took off their shirt.
The cold air of the room hit their chest. Not a pleasant feeling. They didn't hate their chest, they just weren't a fan of it. It had always been too much and never enough. Back when they were in that special time in their life they had pin ponged between wishing that they stayed flat as a board and hating the fact that they had stayed flat as a board. They…lived in this body. It was theirs. It was their body but, thanks to a second X-chromosome and all that came with it, people seemed to feel that their body was public property and free to be stared at, commented upon, and even touched without even so much ask asking…
They put on a shirt.
There had been a maroon shirt on the bed. Ryou's. It smelled like him…heavy…that was it. It smelled like his cologne and just…it smelled like him. That indescribable Ryou scent…talk about needy. They….God…it wasn't even a sex thing. It would have been so much simpler if it was a sex thing, he was objectively a sexy guy, but it wasn't. It was the worst kind of thing…an intimacy thing. True he was amazing in bed but…God…they wanted the intimacy of it all. Him actually being there with them…holding them…all around them.
They let themselves fall backward onto their bed.
"Ryou….Ryou….Ryou…" they whispered. He could hear like a safe cracker. If he had been around…but he wasn't. They would have sensed him if he was. Still, they repeated his name three more times like they were trying to summon Bloody Mary. Like they were a kid standing in their bathroom with the lights off working out the courage to summon a murderous spirit…that had been easier than this. Calling out to him. They almost wished that the ceiling had been mirrored…then maybe they would have had an excuse…but the ceiling wasn't mirrored. It was just a normal ceiling.
All they could see were the cracks.
The ceiling had cracks in it…not bad ones. Just ones that were there. They didn't threaten the structural integrity of the house…not yet anyway. Maybe if they left them alone…or picked at them…then they would get worse. Yes, picking at them would make them worse. Picking at things always made everything worse. Leaving things alone….not touching them…not talking about them…taking a nap and not thinking about them…that made things better.
They reached out.
They reached out with their hand and their aura. A house plant sprouted a vine and handed them their mint tin full of fall asleep pills. Xanax, mostly, and it as fine to take them in moderation. They had been prescribed these by a doctor back when they'd first been emancipated which made them medicine which made them fine to take, in moderation, without a prescription…and with alcohol but only because they knew what they were doing…and they had no idea who they were justifying themselves too. Mob…maybe…they could hear her voice.
She was outside.
They sat up on their knees and looked out the window. There, Mob, she was out there in her yard…doing yoga? Mob was into yoga now…that wasn't so weird, she as always trying new things. What was weird was who she was doing yoga with…and also that she was wearing leggings since she hated them…though the fact that she was voluntarily spending time with Tsuchiya…letting her help her through….Minegishi could not for the life of them remember the name of that pose…but the fact that Mob was voluntarily spending time with Tsuchiya was….weird as hell….
But good…right?
That meant that Mob was over…all of that shit that she had been feeling towards Tsuchiya….which was good. It was good that Mob was making a new friend…and with a mother, too. Maybe now she could get some parenting from someone who actually knew what they were doing. God knew Mob needed it. She was…happy…she was having a good time….Minegishi decided not to disturb her.
After all, they had no reason to.
What? Were they just going to go out there and…join them? Figure out what had happened to their yoga mat, dust off their rudimentary and largely from YouTube yoga knowledge, and go outside and yoga it up with the two of them? They…didn't want to. It was too….hot…and they were too….tired…and Mob was having a good time and she was away from her brother and sister for once and if Minegishi went out there then she was just going to want to come inside with Minegishi, get drunk with them, and waste the entire day watching junk food TV...or she'd just get roped into taking care of her brother and sister…and Serizawa…and Minegishi would be left with Tsuchiya and…yeah….that didn't sound like the best time.
For anyone.
No, it was better if they just stayed inside, popped a Xanax or two…but not three….and just waited for Ryou to realize that he'd been summoned…yeah. That sounded like the best time for them…so that was what they did. They took two Xanax with a swig of…whatever Ryou kept in that flask under their bed that tasted weirdly like cotton candy….laid down….and just….drifted off to sleep…for as long as they could manage.
It wasn't the best use of their time but it was better than sitting on the couch and watching trashy junk food TV all day.