At least it was better than selling water coolers.
"Ma'am, as much as I'm sure you love your cat-" said Reigen
"Mr. Fluffykins the fifth." Said Noya Tsukiko as she held her cat, the aforementioned Mr. Fluffykins the fifth, in her lap. Her eyes were brimming with pain and hope. The cat just looked bored. Reigen wondered if Ritsu had been a cat in another life. He looked just as bored at that cat, maybe even more so, as he sat there at his desk flipping through something on his phone. Reigen used to have a rule about being on phones when clients were there, it ruined the atmosphere he had tried to cultivate at Spirits and Such, but lately he had been letting it slide.
Mainly because there was no more Spirits and Such.
Well, there was and there wasn't. That sign had been expensive and Reigen wasn't about to waste what little money he had left getting another one. He didn't even know what he would have changed the sign to. Reigen's…ridiculous document notarization service? Reigen's massage regular ending massage parlor? Reigen's esper babysitting service? Reigen's place that he kept opened mainly so one incredibly headstrong little esper had a place to go when his parents were at work so he didn't get into trouble?
Reigen honestly had no idea and he didn't have the mental space to figure it out right now.
"I have to tell you, again, that a cat cannot legally inherit anything-" said Reigen
"Oh yes they can. I saw it last night on Super Murder Detective. A man took out a hit on his mother's cat because she made it the beneficiary of her will and it stood to inherit the entire company. I don't have anything as big as a company to leave to Mr. Fluffykins, just an inn, so I don't see what the problem is." Said Noya Tsukiko. The cat said nothing. It just yawned in her lap. If it could have rolled it's eyes it would have. Hell, it could have taken some pointers from Ritsu. He was back there rolling his eyes so hard Reigen wondered if they were going to fall out. He wouldn't have been surprised if that was possible. He'd seen stranger things in his line of work…
His old line of work.
"Well they tend to stretch the truth on TV-" said Reigen. He wished, he almost wished, that an evil spirit would come crashing through the roof. That was a big almost. He wasn't going to have anything else to do with that world, he couldn't, not with Claw out there. He and Ritsu had gotten really, really, REALLY lucky. They were lucky to be alive. They were lucky to have been able to escape. They were lucky that Ritsu had found a kid willing to help him. They were lucky to have gotten home. They were lucky to have been able to sit there, bored, listening to what was somehow simultaneously boring and insane.
It didn't feel like it but they were damn lucky.
"Are you saying that Mr. Fluffykins isn't good enough to run my inn? I'll have you know that this is the most incredible cat in the world. He's intelligent, he can read, he can-" said Noya Tsukiko. Reigen wanted a cigarette more at that moment than he had ever wanted one in his life. He had been smoking since, well since he had been way too young to be smoking, and the cravings had hit before…but never this hard. He hadn't had a cigarette since the thing with Claw. He had been trying to quit for years…but this time he was serious. Life was short, and fragile, and there was no sense in shortening his life just because he had wanted to look cool in high school. Also it set a bad example for Ritsu. If anyone needed a cigarette it was that kid. He had always been high strung but now…well now it was worse. Now, after the Claw incident, after everything that he had been saying about the evil organization had been validated, he was downright squirrely. Not now, no, but Reigen had seen the notebooks. Ritsu had so many notebooks with notes and plans and charts and diagrams...Ritsu was planning something but Reigen didn't know what.
He just knew that he had to keep Ritsu busy, fill up his days, so he didn't go out and do anything stupid.
"You know what? He looks like a perfectly intelligent cat. How about I notarize this and then you and your cat can head out before it gets any hotter. How about that?" asked Reigen. He just needed to get this over with. What did he care? He got his money whether or not people recognized this will or not. It wasn't like he could go to prison for this. He, at worst, could have to refund the client…which would suck…but right now he had to think about keeping the lights on. He had to keep the lights on, food in the fridge, incense in the burners, and he had to pay Ritsu too. That was technically, why he was here. Technically he wasn't babysitting...if he had been then maybe the Kageyama's could have been paying him instead of the other way around.
Not that he was going to complain.
No. He liked having Ritsu around. He needed to keep Ritsu around, for his own safety, but it was nice having him around. He broke up the monotony of the day…and it needed breaking up. There were a surprising number of people trying to leave things to their cats. Notarizing wills got really boring really fast even if he was willing things to cats.
He needed to find something else to do.
A curse would have been nice, or a séance, or even blessing something. He didn't want another evil spirit attack, no, that would have been terrible…he just…wanted something to happen. But that was selfish and immature. He had felt the same way when he had quit his job to start this place….and that same feeling had led him to quit law school…and that same feeling had led him to go to law school in the first place. He maybe made rash decisions sometimes…but he couldn't do that anymore. Not when he had a kid to take care of.
Well…sort of.
Ritsu wasn't his kid…but he was pretty damn close. Ritsu was his responsibility. Reigen kind of owed him one for the whole 'building a business on his psychic powers' thing. Reigen was the one who pulled him into….well kept him in….Reigen was not the reason that Ritsu went after Claw but he sure as hell enabled him. He hadn't known that he had been enabling Ritsu but that didn't change the fact that…well…he shouldn't have played along for all of those years…and he shouldn't have put Ritsu in danger.
Well at least they were done with all of that.
"I am so glad we're done with all of that." Said Reigen as he closed the door behind the client. He knew that closed doors were unfriendly and bad for business but right now he didn't really care. He needed a minute. He closed the door and leaned against it. He just…needed a minute. That was all. He never would have thought that dealing with people could be so…draining. He was good with people, he always had been, and he had always been good at customer service…but maybe he wasn't as good as he thought he was. He hadn't been able to keep that cat from inheriting an inn it wasn't going to be able to run…or the cat before him from inheriting a restaurant…or the cat before that from inheriting a half-eaten sandwich….
This heat was making people crazy. That was the only explanation.
"The heat's making people crazy." Muttered Ritsu as he typed something into his phone. He looked as intense as ever…actually more so. Reigen hoped that he wasn't on that espers of Japan forum again…or the Claw watch one…or any of the other ones that Ritsu spent his time on. Reigen had made it perfectly clear that they were not going to be retaliating against Claw….and Ritsu had agreed….
But he was eleven and eleven year old boys were not known for their self-restraint and reasoning skills.
"You think?" asked Reigen. He tried to lean over just enough to see what Ritsu was doing. He did not want to have another long talk about how he was not going to let Ritsu get himself killed, and how he didn't much feel like dying anytime soon either, right now. Ritsu…well he could be very stubborn sometimes…but Reigen was going to take it one day at a time. One step at a time.
One step too many.
Reigen took one step forward. Just one. That was enough for Ritsu to pull his phone close to his chest. Huh. That was new. He'd been doing that a lot lately…and not because of Reigen's incessant lecturing. No, the reason Ritsu had been so secretive lately was a twelve year old blond kid by the name of Hanazawa Teruki, otherwise known as Teru.
Otherwise known as Ritsu's boyfriend.
"What?" asked Ritsu as he held his phone close to his chest.
"How's Teru doing?" asked Reigen. He teased Ritsu a little, just a little, not that much. It was so cute…that was the word he was going to go with. If Ritsu had been going out with that girl who was always following him around then it would have been cute…so it was the same now that he was going out with Teru. Cute…even though the last time Reigen had seen Ritsu express interest in another boy it had been anything but cute.
Awkward.
That had been it. Standing there while Ritsu kissed that redheaded kid…that had been awkward as hell. Kids that age were NOT supposed to kiss like that…and he didn't want to ever see Ritsu kiss anyone ever again. He'd known him since he was ten…and he was only eleven. He was way too young for all of that…in Reigen's opinion. Though he wanted Ritsu to be happy and he was glad that Ritsu had something to fill his time aside from plotting against Claw, though Teru was an esper too and on the run from that same evil organization, and…well this was good for him. Having someone to care about. Having someone who cared about him right back. It was…a good thing for Ritsu…
But still kind of really awkward.
"Fine." Said Ritsu
"Tell him I said hi." Said Reigen as he made his way back to his desk. Ritsu was being cagey. Embarrassed. It was nice to see him acting his age for once. Not like…well Ritsu had thought that he was going to die…or maybe that had just been Reigen. He didn't know and he wasn't going to ask. It was good that he was getting over the redheaded kid he'd been in love with before, Ritsu's own words, maybe he would get back to being a normal kid….or as normal as Ritsu could be.
"Tell him yourself. He's almost here." Said Ritsu as he pulled is phone away from his chest and held it at a normal distance. He only did that once Reigen was a safe distance away. A nice preview of his teenage years, Reigen was sure. God…that was coming. One day Ritsu would be a teenager and he'd been all 'leave me alone' and 'everything you do is embarrassing'….Reigen had the sudden urge to call his mother and apologize.
He didn't, of course, since he did NOT want to go into his latest career based failing.
"Well I hope he doesn't plan on getting paid." Said Reigen as he got comfortable at his desk. The client had paid by check…he really preferred cash. At least cash couldn't be taxed. Well it didn't matter. With this check he could afford to keep the lights on…and maybe turn the air conditioning up. Low wasn't enough, not late July.
"He doesn't need the money, his parents send him his allowance today. He'd going to waste it all at some skincare store or something." Said Ritsu
"Oh yeah, I heard about that. They're opening a new one of those…it starts with an 'L' sound…in the mall." Said Reigen. His…well not girlfriend…a woman who he'd been seeing had invited him to go with her. Thankfully he had to work. Also that was kind of a boyfriend thing and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that. Not with everything he had to do…and he had to think about Ritsu too. He couldn't just go dragging a new person into his life like that…
Huh. Somehow Reigen had become a single father despite not having any kids.
"Lush." Said Ritsu. He was giving Reigen one of his 'Ritsu' looks now.
"What?" asked Reigen
"It's called Lush and they make lotion and soap and bath bombs and stuff. Teru stuff." Said Ritsu
"Oh, yeah. That was it." Said Reigen
"I don't know why he wants me to go with him. He knows that I don't care about that stuff…and I don't see what's wrong with the lotion my mom gets me from Costco." Said Ritsu
"What is your family's obsession with Costco?" asked Reigen
"They have everything there. You don't have to go to a bunch of different stores. Also they have grilled pork samples." Said Ritsu
"Ok, I'll give you that. Who can possibly say no to free samples?" asked Reigen
"Teru. He says that I need to watch what I eat because I'm ruining my skin and I'm going to get fat…and I have no idea why I'm supposed to care about any of that." Said Ritsu
"Well because, Ritsu, Teru cares about it and since you care about him…well I assume that you do since you're dating-" said Reigen
"Don't say 'dating'. Nobody but my parents says 'dating'." Said Ritsu
"Alright, fine, how about 'seeing each other'?" asked Reigen
"That's better." Said Ritsu
"Alright. Well then since you two are seeing each other now he just wants to share the things that are important to him with you and I bet that you've been sharing the things that are important to you with him….but hopefully not everything." Said Reigen. Ritsu knew what he was talking about. Reigen had warned him, before, not to drag Teru into his one man war with Claw. Reigen didn't think that they'd get saved a second time and he wasn't about to test their luck. No, Ritsu needed to worry about normal stuff. Making the most of his summer break, getting good grades once school was back in session, spending time with friends, pretty much anything other than picking a fight with the biggest cult in Japan.
Ritsu wasn't looking at him.
He had better not have been dragging Teru into whatever it was that he was planning…and he was planning something. Reigen knew Ritsu, he didn't just let things go. He was planning on making war with Claw, planning on stopping them, even though there was nothing that he or anyone else could do. These people…Reigen hadn't even had to do much research to figure out that these people had deep pockets and spies everywhere. The internet was full of firsthand accounts of what these people did. Of course normal people, people who weren't aware of the fact that espers were real, thought that all of that was just people being crazy on the internet. Well Reigen knew the truth…and he knew better than to pick a fight with these people.
Bad things happened to people who picked fights with Claw…very bad things.
"Ritsu, you haven't been telling Teru about-" said Reigen
"Do you have a girlfriend?" asked Ritsu suddenly. Well that sure was changing the subject. Reigen tugged at his collar and then turned the air conditioning up. He…was not going to get into this with Ritsu. The various nuances of adult relationships. Ritsu was eleven. When you liked someone and they liked you then, congratulations, you were together. Things were different when you were an adult. He wasn't even sure if he was ready for all of that yet….and Ritsu did not need to know about his love life, his terminal case of indecision, and the commitment issues that he may or may not have had.
"Well that's a…why do you ask?" asked Reigen
"How did you know about the lotion and stuff store opening? That's something a girlfriend would know…or Teru. He's like a girlfriend but also a guy." Said Ritsu
"So like a boyfriend?" asked Reigen. Ritsu just glared at him. Honestly it was pretty cute. He was such a kid sometimes…that was good. He still acted like the eleven year old that he was. He could be kind of…himself…sometimes but he was still eleven and still didn't like being teased…and maybe Reigen needed to ease off just a little bit. This was a big thing for Ritsu. Not only was this his first relationship but he was dating another boy too. Reigen knew how cruel people could be when they saw something that they didn't understand. What Ritsu was doing took guts, guts that Reigen never would have had at Ritu's age, and the least he could do was ease off the teasing as good natured as it was.
"So you do have a girlfriend then?" asked Ritsu
"Not….exactly." said Reigen rubbing the back of his head. Ritsu got a look in his eye...a bad one.
"A boyfriend then?" asked Ritsu
"What?! No! I mean, um, not that there's anything wrong with that." Said Reigen. Damn it, he'd fucked up. Ritsu…he knew that Reigen accepted him. He had to have known. Reigen had told him about a hundred times that he accepted Ritsu for who he was. Reigen…well he could have handled that better…but in his defense he got enough of that from his mother.
Just because he wasn't married to a nice from a good family with twenty grandkids to being home to mom's house for the summer did not mean that he was gay!
"I know that there isn't." said Ritsu. It was impossible to get a read on him then…but that was normal. Impassive, that was a good word for him. Cold was another…and standoffish. Ritsu got that a lot. Reigen…well he could see why people said that about him…but he would never say that about Ritsu. He was the way he was…and this had only gotten worse since Claw….and that was largely Reigen's fault for not getting him out of there before they were captured.
"Oh, well, you know…you just hear stuff. Anyway why are you here and not carrying stuff for your boyfriend? That is what we're there for, you know, we make the perfect pack mules." Said Reigen with a laugh. He actually wasn't sure how it worked for people in Ritsu's situation. He couldn't imagine Ritsu ever being dragged from store to store like a pack mule….but he could imagine Teru trying to drag Ritsu around. He honestly wasn't sure how their relationship went….not that he was going spend a lot of time speculating about that.
It really was none of his business.
"Teru can carry stuff on his own. He has powers too. He doesn't need me and I don't want to be there. It's bad enough when my mom makes me go shopping with her." said Ritsu
"Well that's what relationships are about, the give and take. One time I had this girlfriend who was always dragging me to-" said Reigen
"Reigen, if this is one of those lectures that's about how I'm growing up and stuff then I don't want to hear it. I get enough of those from my mom and dad." Said Ritsu
"No, no, I remember how those went when I was your age. I am never going to be on the giving end of one of those." Said Reigen with a shake of his head.
"What are you going to do when you have your own kids then?" asked Ritsu
"What do I need my own kids for? I have you." Said Reigen. Ritsu rolled his eyes. Hey! That was supposed to be big, touching moment! They were supposed to…cry…or hug…or something. The eye rolling….Ritsu was eleven going on sixteen. Kids, they grew up way too fast.
"You know if you roll your eyes hard enough they'll get stuck like that." Said Reigen
"Then I'll go to the hospital and get them fixed." Said Ritsu
"And how, exactly, and I supposed to explain that to your parents?" asked Reigen
"You can tell them that I got heatstroke…and it might not even be a lie. Can you turn it up? That crazy cat lady paid you, didn't she? Can't we afford to put the air conditioner on high?" asked Ritsu
"…medium." Said Reigen as he turned the air up. He turned it up to medium low. There, that should have been better. The dog days of summer. He couldn't wait until it was winter. Then he and Ritsu could complain that it was too cold. That is if the office was even still there by winter. That last check would carry them to next month….and then we would start the worry cycle again. Over and over again…Reigen…if he hadn't had Ritsu he would have jumped ship and tried something else…like being a private investigator….or maybe he could go back to law school…or maybe he could go back to dog grooming…
Or maybe he could head out to the store.
He needed to put some space between him and the office…so that was what he did. He was starting the worry cycle a little too early. He needed to think…and also it was hot as hell in there. He needed something cold to drink…something other than tap water. Ritsu was probably on his way to heatstroke too and he could be trusted to watch the office for five minutes…so this was alright. Normally he would have gone out for a smoke when he needed to think but he had quit, and he meant it this time, but this would work too. It wasn't like he was so broke that he couldn't afford a couple sodas.
And a calorie free sparkling mineral water, too.
He got a look when he put his stuff down on the counter. What? He just so happened to be buying a drink for a health conscious European twelve year old. He didn't say that, though, because there was no good way that could be taken. He eyed the cigarettes behind the counter…and then went about his day. There was no good way to…well there was no good way to start again. He'd been thinking, before, that maybe if he only had one to make the cravings go away then he would be fine…but that was how he had started smoking again the last time he quit. No, he bought his stuff and walked back to the office.
In the summer sun.
Summer in Seasoning City…it was terrible. He wondered why people had ever even settled here. Obviously God did not want people to live here! July…it was only July. It was going to be hot until September at least….probably warm into October…or even November thanks to global warming….what in the hell was Reigen separating his recycling for? This was….Ritsu was right, the heat was making him crazy. Well luckily he had a way to beat the heat, and the thoughts that came with it, though maybe those also had to do with the fact that he had just quit smoking…well he could always replace one vice with another.
He wondered which was worse for him.
Which was worse? Drinking five hundred calories of pure sugar and caffeine or brining himself closer and closer to cancer with every inhale of his cigarette. Or maybe he was going to drop dead from heatstroke on his way back to the office and it would all be a moot point. He didn't know…and he didn't want to find out. No, he was planning on living for quite a while, at least another fifty or sixty years if he could manage it.
It didn't seem like a sure thing.
"Ritsu? You around?" asked Reigen as he entered the empty office. The door was opened, the lights were on, the air was going…on high…but there was no Ritsu to be seen. Reigen almost dropped the bag that he'd been carrying. He managed to keep it from slipping right out of his grip. Just two fingers held the plastic bag….had it always been this heavy? Reigen…he was fine…and Ritsu was fine…and…and he was just….he was…this was…
"Ritsu? Hey, Ritsu?" asked Reigen. He took a deep breath and…what was that? He smelled…it smelled like a perfume department had exploded…oh. He could see why. There were a couple of very large paper bags set down next to Ritsu's desk….and a bright blue messenger bag with words that Reigen couldn't read written on it. Terus' stuff…and Ritsu was nowhere to be seen.
Oh.
Reigen was an idiot. He was the biggest idiot in the world…or maybe not. Ritsu could be kind of…reckless with his own life and the lives of others….so it made sense to think that he had, in the ten minutes Reigen had been gone, run off to go and pick a fight with the people who had tried to kidnap and brainwash him. Ritsu was eleven and he did stupid things like eleven year olds tended to do. That was just part of being a kid…doing stupid things.
All kinds of things.
"Ritsu? Teru? I'm back!" said Reigen. He put the bag down on the coffee table and made his way to the storage room. This was…another thing that kids did together. They went off to make out in his storage room…or whatever Ritsu wanted to be on his own with his boyfriend to do. Reigen wasn't about to ask. Ritsu was only eleven…and Reigen hadn't been ready for any of that at eleven…but Ritsu was a different person entirely….Mr. I've kissed four people. Well it was good that he was out there finding himself and meeting people…that he'd met one person who made him happy and who he cared about….
But those two could go and care about each other somewhere that wasn't Reigen's storage room.
"Guys? I know you're in there." said Reigen as he knocked on the storage room door. He wasn't going to do that thing that his mom had done, knock and open the door at the same time, because he had no desire to embarrass Ritsu….or see what was happening in there. He had never understood why mom had done that. She knew what he was doing and she knew that she didn't want to see it…but she always opened the door.
Well Reigen had always said that he wouldn't make mom's mistakes when he had his own kids.
"We'll be right out!" said Teru in that same overly polite way he said everything.
"Five minutes!" said Ritsu with a boldness that Reigen hadn't ever dreamed of having when he had been eleven.
"…fine…but in five minutes I'm opening this door and I don't care what I see!" said Reigen
"Yes you do." Said Ritsu….he was right. Reigen wouldn't be throwing the door opened…even though at that age he doubted that they were doing more than kissing. He still didn't want to see that. Kids…they grew up when you weren't looking…and that was a good thing. Ritsu was growing up and moving on. Maybe at some point their whole ordeal would become nothing more than a bad dream….or maybe that was wishful thinking. He had been doing a lot of that lately. He sat back down at his desk and ignored the pile of second notices. He had a check to be cashed, he had more clients coming later, and he could afford to run the air conditioner. Things were good…they could have been better….
But at least this was better than selling water coolers.