Bored.

A word which could have been applied to Minegishi Toshiki. Bored. Not having anything to do. Bored. That certainly fit. They had nothing to do after all. The house was quiet and nearly empty. Everyone was of doing God only knew what. They had vague memories of having been invited out, something about a big doll store, but they of course declined. They had been too tire. They had needed their sleep, and they'd had thier sleep, and now all that was left was…more sleep.

They were bored.

They yawned and stretched and tried to come to life. Maybe the third time would be the charm…or maybe this was how they would be spending the rest of their day. Yawning and stretching, stretching and yawning, trying to get some life into their body. They felt like a beany baby, under stuffed but also impossibly heavy. Their limbs especially. They managed to stretch for a moment before rolling over to Ryou's side of the bed.

It smelled like him.

The cologne he wore, the pomade he put in his hair, his soap, his shampoo, and that smell that couldn't be called anything other than 'Shimazaki Ryou'. This whole side of the bed smelled like him. The side of the bed that touched the wall. Neither of them liked sleeping near the wall, for their own reasons, but he always took it. 'I can just teleport away if shit goes down' he had said…not that shit ever went down. No, their lives were a nonstop vacation. A permanent holiday. Today New York City and tomorrow…wherever the hell Mob felt like going. She had said something about Disney World…so they were going to Disney World.

They did not want to go to Disney World.

They did not want to go anywhere that wasn't this bed. They pressed their face into Ryou's pillow. Him…him and not him. He was off someplace enjoying their permanent vacation, probably raising hell with the closest thing that he would ever have to a son. Or maybe the closest thing he had to a son that talked to him. He could have had kids out there, he had always been very open about that, which was why they had been so careful about him at first. Someone who jumped from person to person like he did, recklessly, would not have been good for them…they had thought. They had taken one look at him and decided that he was going to be trouble.

He was.

He was the kind of trouble that they loved. They rolled over and faced the ceiling. The smell of him wasn't enough. They needed to be with him. Their phone was right there…if they reached out to their dresser they could have picked it up. They could have picked it up and told him to get his ass back here and hold them…or fuck them. That was more of what they were…what they had been together. Two people who not only worked well together but also found each other incredibly attractive. Friends with benefits…not even friends. More like coworkers with benefits. They had been nothing more than two people who fucked every so often, and partied, and committed grisly murders on behalf of a megalomaniac….but now they were…this. They were two people in not only a relationship but a serious one…on his part. He wanted a life with them, he wanted kids, he wanted a dog, he wanted to be there with them for the rest of time. He wanted to promise them a lot of things…things that they had no clue if they even wanted. When they had been younger…when they had been younger they had wanted nothing more than to be on their own. To be free of people who thought that they had the right to hurt them, to control them, to tell them that they were crazy, to tell them that they were disgusting, to tell them that every single fiber of their being was wrong in some way…

And then they got that.

As soon as they got that, their freedom, their hard won freedom they had wanted…wanted to be less alone. To have actual company. Not just plants, which weren't good company to begin with, but to have someone who looked at them and saw…them. Not a collection of parts that was wrong. Not a terrible excuse for a human being. Not something that needed to be corrected and controlled like prized flowers in a walled garden. They had wanted more than anything else in the world to be seen and cared for…to have someone by their side…and they'd found it…

And then they had ruined it.

They had gotten bored. That was it. That was what they had told themselves. They had been a teenager and they had gotten bored of waking up next to the same person every single day. They had gotten bored of going to the same job every single day. They had gotten bored of coming back to the same one room apartment every single day. They had wanted more than…than they had…that was it. Boredom. Boredom had led them to breaking the one rule that they'd had…a very controlling one and one which they were not capable of following. They had been loved and loved in return…and then they had thrown that all away for what had amounted to shitty coke and a rotten lay…and that had been it.

The story of their life.

Anything good in their life they ruined. They didn't get to have nice things. They were their own worst enemy. This should have been it, happily ever after, roll credits, leave the door open for a sequel. They had Ryou, Ryou had them, and now they were together. This should have been the perfect relationship. They were free to be with whoever they wanted to be with just so long as they always came back to Ryou…and the same went for him…even though they really didn't care who he slept with. They didn't care who he slept with or who he loved…just so long as he loved them…and they had no idea how long he would love them for!

Love wasn't permanent.

The only things in this world that were permanent were death, mutilation, and the destruction of the environment. Also Twinkies, those lasted forever thanks to all the sugar and preservative. Love had no such fortifications. Love was a fickle feeling based mostly on physical attraction. Sure Ryou oved them now but what happened when he decided that he didn't? What happened when he decided that he was bored of this and he needed to move onto something else? That was what had drawn them to him. He was never dull, never complacent, and always moving. He compensated for them in a lot of ways. The Yin to their Yang. The sugar to their coffee. The Ringo to their rest of the Beatles….and he was the weakest member. Best was the best drummer, fuck Ringo…Ryou would have had a heart attack if he knew what they were thinking…

"Fuck Ringo Starr." Said Minegishi to the ceiling. Ryou wasn't there. Sometimes he appeared if you said his name enough times. They doubted that he was going to pop right back into their bedroom just to tell them that they were wrong about…actually that was something that he would do. Never mess with the one thing that kept Ryou sane through his disturbingly abusive childhood. That was a good lesson for anyone…and one that they had learned a while ago.

"Fuck Ringo Starr, Pete Best was the best drummer and I will fight anyone who disagrees with me." Said Minegishi. If this had been an anime there would have been cricket sounds…or cicadas since it was summer. All they got was silence…well the sound of the air conditioner. Even their plants didn't have an opinion on that…though mostly they just wanted water. They needed to water their plants…and feed the ones that needed feeding…and they had to feed themselves too while they were at it. They sat up.

The room swam.

They had been laying down for way too long again. They needed to move more…and eat more…and drink less. They swung their legs over the side of the bed and kicked a plastic bottle out of the way….a plastic vodka bottle…so they had been drinking bottom shelf shit like a kid. God, how they had fallen…though to fall you actually had to have been something in the first place. Minegishi didn't feel like they were anything at all…anything other than hungry….hungry and bored.

But that was normal for them.

They had always been bored when they weren't trying to survive. They had read, back when they had been trying to understand themselves, that people who had been in difficult circumstances where their needs weren't met in childhood often ended up living on survival mode. That was a load of shit. They had always had their needs met, since the day they had learned to grow and eat their own food their needs had been met. They did not feel bored when they weren't on the cusp of dying. They felt bored all the time because life was boring. Even Ryou agreed with them and his life had been shittier than theirs. Life was to live.

Not to live in bed.

They stood up…and braced themselves against their headboard. They took a minute so that the vertigo could pass. Too much blood pooling in their head. That was why people were supposed to use pillows and not just curl up in a ball in the middle of the bed. People were also meant to eat food, not drink their calories, as well as not sleep for twenty hours a day….well newborns were but Minegishi was not a newborn. They were a grown adult and they needed to get the hell out of bed.

And they needed to change, too, while they were at it.

They pulled their shirt up over their head and tossed it into the dirty clothes pile. At some point that shirt had smelled like Ryou, it was his after all, but now it just smelled like them…and they did not need a reminder of how long it had been since their last shower. There wasn't enough time in the day to shower, not when they had to share a bathroom with everyone else, and even when everyone else was gone they still had to worry about when they'd come back. Minegishi also didn't need a little two year old sticking her little hands under the door trying to claw her way in. There was no sense of privacy when there was a kid that young around…why Ryou wanted one they did not know….and they weren't about to ask him.

They needed to find a new shirt.

They opened their dresser and pulled out the first shirt they touched. A black one that said 'bored' on the front in big, white, English characters. Heh. Maybe that was fate….or maybe they just owned way too many snarky graphic tees. They were such a kid sometimes…Mob didn't even dress like they did. No, Mob had discovered the amazing world of crop tops and short skits…she was growing up. Maybe one day she and Minegishi would be the same age, mentally…

And then one day she would eclipse them.

She was already on that path. She was already a hell of a lot more responsible than they had ever been. She kept this shit show on the road, didn't she? She made sure that everyone got through another day. She was pretty much the only one raising that brother of hers, their exalted leader had more important things to do with his time than raise his offspring, and she had tried her best to take over raising her little sister too. Hell, the only reason that Minegishi had clean clothes in their dresser was thanks to Mob. Ryou hadn't done their laundry, he didn't fold things like this, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to fold their t-shirts so the pictures and words all faced outwards. God…what had they done to deserve Mob?

Certainly not any of the murders.

They hadn't done a damn thing in their life to deserve someone like Mob. To think that years ago they had been annoyed with her, with their new posting, but now…now they had no idea what they could ever do without her. They felt the bracelet on their wrist…and wished that they could tuck it in…but their hoodie was nowhere to be found….they had taken it off somewhere but they didn't know where. They needed it. It was cold as hell in here…or maybe they had just been losing weight again…they couldn't remember the last real meal that they'd had….which would actually explain the vertigo. They kicked off their pajama pants and grabbed some new ones, Ryou's, before making their way to their door. With the way that Shibata had been cooking there was bound to be something left over for them to eat. Mob might have even left them a plate in the microwave…

Or a piece of paper on the ground.

They opened the door to find a piece of paper there under their feet. A long rectangle, a folded up piece of computer paper, with purple flowers drawn on the front…so either Sho was losing his touch or Mukai also had untapped artistic genius that someone really should have been nurturing. This wasn't Mob's doing, she couldn't draw for shit…and she didn't draw flowers. She drew characters from her movies and shows but never flowers…and if she had taken it upon themselves to draw them some flowers she would have drawn something that they liked…like Venus flytraps or purple pitcher plants…or something…not…whatever these were.

They looked kind of like dahlias.

They had never seen dahlias so purple…but obvious the artist had not been going for scientific accuracy. Purple dahlias…they could tell by the petals…what did that mean in flower language again? Right, kindness, service, feminine beauty, and grace…and also royalty….whoever had drawn this and left it under their door had the wrong address. Minegishi picked the drawing up. If this was one of the kid's drawings then they couldn't throw it out, no, Mob would have been upset. They took the drawing and carried it over to the kitchen. They braced themselves against the walls as they walked…they really needed something to eat…and also they needed another Xanax. There was a tremor in both of their hands….not a good sign. They needed to taper off of this shit before it got to the point that they were having withdrawals…worse ones than this. They did not want to have a seizure…well nobody wanted to have a seizure, obviously, but they especially did not want to go through that. Not again. Mob didn't need to see them like that…and also as much of an asshole as he was maybe she shouldn't have banished the only healer in all of Claw….no, no, Minegishi could taper on their own. They had done it before and they would do it again.

But first, breakfast time.

They put the drawing up on the fridge and then opened it…yup. There in the middle, next to the orange juice and the sunny delight, was a plate of waffles with a bowl of fruit next to it. That must have been for them…and if it wasn't then people needed to start labeling their stuff. They sat down at the table and didn't even bother to heat any of it up. They didn't have time to waste making their food warm, it was just going to get eaten anyway. Besides, if they wanted hot food then they should have gotten up for breakfast.

We aren't going to hold off on breakfast just because you're too lazy to get up, Toshiki.

Then the laughed followed…it always followed. They had been younger, then, a lot younger. Too young to have been able to do something about it. They had always been able to make plants grow but it had taken until their mid-teens for them to be able to make them into a threat…and until their early twenties for them to be able to kill someone with them. They had been twenty…almost twenty one when they had killed their parents…and they swished that they had done it sooner. Their parents and everyone else who had ever hurt them…and they would have razed that group home to the ground if they could have…but by the time that it had all been behind them, the mocking of their name and the constant need to control every aspect of their life down to the way they dressed, so there had been no point to it. Everyone who they had been incarcerated, and that was the word for it, with had grown up and been kicked out of the government's cold and unfeeling embrace.

They were an adult now and none of that mattered.

They were Minegishi fucking Toshiki. They were in the upper echelons of Claw, not that they gave a shit about Suzuki's hopes and dreams they mostly just liked being more powerful than almost everyone else, and they could kill a person and turn them into fertilizer before they even knew what hit them. They were not afraid…and they were not…not anything….anything other than bored. They were sitting there, bored, eating their cold breakfast.

Which they did not need heated up.

"I-I could heat that up for you if you want." They jumped. The plants on the counter jumped. The person who had decided that it was a good idea to sneak up on them while they were eating jumped. The whole room shook. An aura crashed into theirs. Purple. Bright purple…and prickly, like standing in front of a faulty electrical outlet…or the time Ryou and Sho tried to see how many plugs they could fit into one outlet before the whole thing exploded.

One microwave. One popcorn maker. One waffle iron. One electric skillet. One blender. One smoothie maker. One rice cooker. And one electric heater.

Minegishi was not in the mood to deal with any explosions of any variety today. They wanted to be bored in peace. They just wanted to eat their breakfast and then find something to fill the hours until they got tired again. They did not need to deal with this and they would tell Serizawa as such…or at least they would have if they hadn't turned their head too fast.

Hair in their eyes.

And their mouth, too, stuck there with syrup. Their hair was long enough that they could pull it back…which was too damn long in their opinion…but Mob liked it. She liked to braid it and brush it and play with it…well of course she did, she was a kid, and Minegishi lived their life according to the whims of a twelve year old. They pulled their hair out of their eyes and reached for the hair tie that they kept around their wrist…it wasn't there. Not on their left or their right….great…this was another reason why they hated having long hair. There was never a hair tie around when they needed it….well Mob probably had some….they'd borrow one from Mob.

There. At least that was one problem solved.

"Don't sneak up on me while I'm eating…or ever. How someone as big as you can move so slowly I'll never know." Said Minegishi as they brushed the last of their hair out of their face. Serizawa was there at the edge of the kitchen…doing his best impression of a tomato. Was it healthy for someone to turn that red? They didn't know, they weren't a healer, but for his sake he had better not have even been thinking about dying. There was no way Mob would have been able to come back from that.

"I-I'm sorry. I just heard that you were awake and…and then you were yelling about Ringo Starr so I thought that you-you might have been talking to Shimazaki and I didn't want to talk to you while he was there for…reasons-" said Serizawa. He found a way to turn even redder…he was such a child. They'd kissed him, they hadn't torn his clothes off and taken him then and there on the living room floor like they were in the middle of a bad porno or something…God…he was such a child.

And they had kissed him which made them a creep. Maybe Ryou wanted to compare notes…that was mean…and pointless. Ryou was weirdly ok with who he was.

"Is there a point to this?" asked Minegishi

"Th-there is! I mean…I mean that I would have said good morning to you…if I had known that you were alone…and…and I'm sorry about that and how I haven't spent a lot of time with you-" said Serizawa

"I don't care." Said Minegishi. Serizawa face fell and he reached for his umbrella….that he was carrying around inside now. Minegishi wondered if they should have told him that he was inviting more bad luck with that thing and that he was only making his life worse…but that would have involved talking to him more than was strictly necessary.

"Oh….alright…" said Serizawa

"So if that was it then…good morning, I guess? I don't know. I'm trying to eat." Said Minegishi

"That…that was mostly it. I just wanted to say good morning and…and I wanted to see if you were ok. Also um….we could hang out? I mean if you want to…because….um….we haven't really hung out since…um….since…." said Serizawa

"Since I kissed you?" asked Minegishi. They raised the space where an eyebrow should have been. They had never seen a grown man get so worked up over one little kiss. He was a year younger than them, a year and half more like, he should have been passed this…but also he was a former hikikomori and his best friend was a twelve year old girl.

"Y-yes…but not so loud! What if…is Shimazaki comes back and hears? He can hear really well. He can even hear pudding…well Sho says that he can hear pudding. I think that maybe-" said Serizawa

"Ryou has a sixth…or seventh…or maybe fifth since he's blind…whatever. He's got an extra sense for chocolate but, yeah, he can hear like a safecracker…and I don't care if he hears. I kissed you. I've kissed more people than I can count. It's not like he owns me and it's not like I own him. He could be out there tongue stabbing everyone in this city and their mother for all I care." Said Minegishi

"Um…ok…but….um….ok." said Serizawa. He stopped stuttering but he was still standing there. Minegishi took a bite of waffle, chewed, and swallowed. They would have thought that in the time it took them to do that he would have gone back to playing videogames or whatever it was that he did all day…but of course he didn't. He just kept on lurking there in the doorway watching them.

"It's rude to lurk in doorways and it's rude to watch people eat. Either pull up a chair and eat something too or go away. I don't care where you go or what you do. I just want to be left alone." Said Minegishi

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be rude. It's just that you….you look really pretty. I mean I hadn't realized that your hair was so long! Also you look nice in that shirt…I don't know what it says…and I wasn't trying to read it! I mean the words are written right across your chest and I would never look at you like that!" said Serizawa

"Bored." Said Minegishi

"Wh-what?" asked Serizawa

"My shirt says bored. There. Now that the pressing question of what my shirt says has been answered you can move along…but thank you for not staring at my chest, I guess. Thanks for the basic courtesy." Said Minegishi

"You-you're welcome!" said Serizawa. He said it but he didn't MOVE. He was still THERE. Minegishi was just about to get up and throw him out…but then Mob would have been pissed…well not normal people pissed, obviously, the Mob version of pissed….or worse. She'd be concerned…and the last thing that they needed was Mob being any more concerned than she already was.

"Is there anything else you'd like to talk about or can I eat my breakfast in peace?" asked Minegishi

"I-I'll go. I just…um…did you like your bookmark?" asked Serizawa

"What?" asked Minegishi

"I-I made you a bookmark and I left it outside of your door. I drew purple flowers since you like flowers and purple is your favorite color…and…um…Sho let me have the paper. I didn't tell him what it was for, though, because…well this seems like a secret and also Sho's still very hurt, well kind of hurt, about what happened between him and Shimazaki so I didn't want to-" said Serizawa

"That was you that drew that?" asked Minegishi as they pointed to the drawing they had stuck to the fridge with one of the MANY 'I heart New York' magnets that covered it. Serizawa nodded. He nodded so fast that Minegishi hoped that he would end up concussing himself so that they could get some peace and quiet already.

They had no such luck.

"Y-yes…that was me." Said Serizawa

"Why in the hell are you drawing me pictures? Did you and Sho do some kind of Freaky Friday flip or something?" asked Minegishi. If they had then Sho was more likely to leave death threats under their door than picture of flowers…but they didn't say that. They didn't need this conversation to go on for longer than it had already. He wasn't that bad when he was quiet…but when he opened his mouth he as just…annoying. Annoying and boring…and smothering. It as just one piece of paper…but they were just…they were capable of marking their own books and running their own life and they didn't need their food heated up either! And they didn't need company! They needed to be left alone and….

And they needed to calm the fuck down.

"No! I mean, um, no….I'm still me. I just made that for you because I noticed that you always bent the corners of your pages to mark your place and I know that it's bed for the books when you do that so I wanted to get you a bookmark but I couldn't go outside so I borrowed a piece of paper from Sho and I made you that…do you like it?" asked Serizawa. His eyes were brimming with hope. His face was beet red. He was clutching that umbrella like it was his only lifeline to the world. They would have felt sorry for him, maybe, if they had been a nicer person.

But they weren't.

They were Minegishi Toshiki. They were a bastard. They were a bitch. They were an asshole. They were mean as hell, blunt as fuck, and the only person who's feelings they gave a shit about was named Suzuki Shigeko. They didn't care if they ripped Serizawa's heart out and showed it to him…hell, he might have appreciated it with the whole budding videogame addiction he had going on. Fatality and all that…they didn't know…videogames gave them a headache.

Everything gave them a headache.

"I like to dog ear my books, that's why I do it and…excuse me." Said Minegishi. At the end of the day hurting Serizawa would have been the same as hurting Mob...and that was the last thing that they ever wanted to do. Even though they had ruined her life…they knew that they had ruined her life without her even saying anything. They were the ones who had gotten her into….all that she was into. They were the only reason that she was turning into a….a nicer version of them…and who knew how long that would last.

Minegishi needed space.

They got up from the table and made their way to the bathroom. Heh. Hatori must have rubbed off on them…or maybe they just…needed a hair tie. That was it. They needed a hair tie and Mob kept all of her hair stuff in the bathroom. They pushed past Serizawa without another word…which was for the best. They did not need to be an asshole to him. If they upset him then Mob would have had more work to deal with…and she did enough as it was. She did more than any twelve year old ever should have done…and then some. Mob was…Mob was the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful and genuine person that they had ever met in their life.

And here they were stealing her hair ties.

Just one, a plain black one, one that she wouldn't miss. Just a plain black hair tie. Not one of her sparkly blue ones or her ones with the bows…no. Just a plain black one…she had so many she wouldn't notice. She had so much stuff she wouldn't have noticed if Minegishi had decided to rob her blind…not that they would have done anything like that. No, Mob had enough problems as it was…and they were enough of a problem as it was…

Maybe because they had so many problems to begin with.

Like their hair! Why in the hell did they have to have so much hair?! Well…because Mob liked it. They had stopped cutting it, even their split ends, because Mob liked to mess with it. She liked to braid it and put clips in it and brush it and…and play with it…though she hadn't done a lot of that in a while. She had been busy. New additions to the house…revering from her explosion at the Seventh Division….just living her life…she didn't even have time for Minegishi…not that Minegishi cared if a twelve year old had time for them…and not that Minegishi hadn't been making themselves completely unavailable…so…so it didn't matter if they hadn't hung out with Mob in a while…

There were scissors.

There, on the counter, was a pair of kitchen scissors…Mob had cut her own bangs. Minegishi had been too busy with their own shit that they hadn't even noticed that Mob's bangs were growing out…fuck….fuck! They were…they did one thing for her…one useful thing…and…and they had been too wrapped up in their own shit…..FUCK!

Fuck it all!

Minegishi grabbed their ponytail and cut it off…and then a handful of hair from their bangs…and then…and then they were just chopping off random handfuls of hair until they wound up with something that could only be called 'a mess'. That was….they had….FUCK!

Fuck.

Just….fuck them and fuck this and fuck everything! Mob was going to be so pissed….and it was going to take years to grow their hair out to the point where Mob could play with it again…and by that time she wasn't even going to need Minegishi anymore. She would either have outgrown them or…or fallen so deep into…everything…that she was just like Minegishi was at their age…and….and that was years from now. Now she would come home and look up at Minegishi with her big, brown eyes and ask…not even why they had done this…she would ask what was wrong…and everyone else would ask…including Ryou…he loved their hair…and the more immediate problem was lovesick Serizawa….they never should have kissed him….and they just…they couldn't deal with him and with…with everything and…

And they had to get the fuck out.

They just…they had to go…home…not that they had a home. They were, essentially, a nomad. No, they had to get the fuck out of here and…and they just…they needed to go. They knew that if they left then…then Mob would have been hurt….but no matter what they did she was going to be hurt so…so they might as well just…just leave her alone. They needed to leave her alone and….and get out of her life and….and they were going back to Japan. That was where they would go…and they had no idea what they would do…but they had to go back to Japan. They had to go home…and…and if Mob asked why they had left then they would say….they couldn't tell her the truth so they would have to say…but they couldn't lie to her either…so they would just….just say….

They'd just say that they were bored.