If anything Fukuda could at least say that he'd improved his Korean in these two months.

Three if he stayed here through August. Four if he stayed here through September. Five if he stayed through October…it probably wouldn't be that long. Suzuki's strategic retreats never lasted that long. At some point he was going to come out of whatever funk he was in and then he'd find Fukuda and beat the shit out of him….maybe he would end up killing him this time.

Not likely.

Fukuda was about as hard to kill as a Korean Drama main character. He doubted that anything could kill him…even being pushed off of a dam and into a turbine. No, that wouldn't end up ripping him apart that badly. He could regenerate pretty fast. He'd made it through Suzuki's explosions after all. The energy he gave off wasn't the only dangerous part, no, there was the shrapnel. Nobody ever mentioned the shrapnel. It was like being in the middle of an a-bomb explosion. If the epicenter didn't kill you, or the radiation, you had the shrapnel damage to worry about…

Well Fukuda didn't have to worry. Obviously he hadn't met anything that could kill him yet.

"Ridiculous." Said Fukuda. He was partially talking to the TV and partially thinking about Touichirou and how…ridiculous….this whole thing was going to be. He was going to calm down, kick Fukuda's ass, and then it was going to be business as usual. He'd be back there with the group, he wondered how Sho was doing, and then it would be back to their regularly scheduled nonsense. Shigeko would keep on being Shigeko, Suzuki would keep on being Suzuki, the others would keep on being overgrown children, and Sho…well Sho probably hated him….

Even though he had no reason to.

Sho could be pretty ridiculous sometimes…but he was just a kid. He wasn't even twelve yet, still eleven, and he had the right to be ridiculous. To be mad at Fukuda…even though Fukuda had done his best. He couldn't see past his own hurt, probably, and he didn't have the mental tools to take a step back and see the whole picture. Sure he loved his sister, and sure Fukuda had made him lie, but there was nothing else that he could have done. There was no good end to that story, there was no solution that could have made everyone happy, but Fukuda…he had done the best he could….

And it had been good enough…for a time.

"Agreed. Yo Hyuk would never do that." Said Higashio as he passed Fukuda another beer. This was how they had been passing the time for the past few months. Drinking and watching TV. There wasn't much else to do, they had to keep everything low key for Fukuda's sake. Apparently the President was gunning for him.

Only Fukuda could get himself into these kinds of messes.

"You think it's his evil twin?" asked Ootsuki as he folded another paper fan. He needed another one, he needed to keep as many as he could on hand. This was…not an advantageous situation. Fukuda was a friend, and a valuable ally, but right now he was painting a massive target right above them. The President was not a forgiving man, or a kind man, or even a sane man and Fukuda had crossed him. Ootsuki wasn't quite sure what he would have called Fukuda's relationship with the President, something more than friends but less than lovers, but he knew that the President wasn't going to just let him walk away.

If he hadn't let Fukuda go in thirty years then he wasn't going to let him go now.

"Maybe, or him from another timeline." Said Higashio. He reached over and passed a beer to Ootsuki. He took it and put it on the coffee table…without a coaster. Well that would be discussed later…much later. He was making a lot of those fans. He was on red alert, had been for a while, even though he had nothing to be afraid of. President Suzuki was terrifying, nobody would argue that, but right now he had too many problems at home to do anything about Fukuda now. He was in Japan, uncomfortably close for his taste, but he was too busy patching things up with his children to go and look for Fukuda.

Also he hated Korean so they were fine….for at least a little longer. Long enough to finish the latest drama Netflix had suggested for them.

"Maybe they're in the bad timeline right now and then they'll jump over to the good one in the next season." Said Ootsuki with a shrug. Too much TV…they had been watching way too much TV. They needed to do…something…but there was nothing to do. His work was mostly putting out fires…and it had been a wet summer. No insurrections, no uprisings, no coups, nothing. Even though the President had been having some very public family troubles nothing had popped up. Nobody had taken their shot yet.

Not that he was complaining, no, calmness was good…except for when it came before a storm.

"Oh God, what show was that in again?" asked Higashio

"The American one…the man in the castle or something." Said Ootsuki

"The man in the high castle. We watched it last week, remember?" asked Fukuda with a sigh. He had no idea how he had managed to watch as much TV as he had…he had seen enough to give Sho a run for his money. There wasn't much else to do but watch TV and wait. Wait to live, wait to die, wait for an absolution that may never come…

He had seen Titanic thrice. That was way too much Titanic.

"Oh yeah, I remember. What in the hell was that?" asked Higashio

"I told you to put the subtitles on." Said Ootsuki

"I speak better English than you and you know it." Said Higashio

"No, you just have a different accent than I do." Said Ootsuki

"I think that whole show was just incomprehensible, honestly." Said Fukuda

"True art is incomprehensible. Like those paintings, the splatter ones. You've seen them." Said Higashio

"I hate those, too busy." Said Oostuki

"They lack substance…well Sho thinks that they do, anyway. I took him to the Guggenheim once, since he likes art, but he was just bored out of his mind…and also I think just a little offended. Sho's got a lot of technical skill so when he saw just a bunch of splatters…oh God. He prides himself on it, you know, how well he draws. Not that he lacks creativity, he's got more than enough creativity for three artists. Like this one time he drew…" said Fukuda. He had been more animated in that moment than he had been in a while. He hadn't seen Sho in so long, let alone one of his drawings, and…and he would see Sho again…he just didn't know when…or if Sho even wanted to see him anymore…

He was spending a lot of time with Shigeko after all.

Shigeko was a fan of posting the minutia of her life on the internet…for anyone to see. Including him…well Higashio since Fukuda was staying off his phone and Ootsuki had made a big production out of distancing himself from his. Unless it had something to do with work he was not going to pick it up. Shigeko would have benefited from some of his life advice. She posted about everything. The meals she ate, the clothes she wore, the latest coat of paint on her nails, whatever nonsense she was doing overseas, anything and everything that she could tell the world about she did. Fukuda had no interest in what she did, contrary to her belief he did not want to look at her in any way, what he did have an interest in was Sho.

He was in the background of all of her photos.

Sometimes he was the subject, she liked to post pictures of the two of them having 'fun', but most of the time he was off in the background. Sometimes he was drawing, sometimes he was sleeping, sometimes he was playing with the baby….but none of the times did he look happy. That was normal for him, he was a little boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders and nobody to help ease the burden. Fukuda should have been there for him…but he needed to give Suzuki time to cool down and collect him. He was the only one who could control Shigeko, the only person she listened to, and she had made it pretty clear that she did not want him around….

But Suzuki probably still did so it was alright.

"Hey, it's ok. We both know how attached you are to the President's Son. I mean you did practically raise him after all." said Higashio as he took one of Fukuda's hands in his. He had never gotten attached to a kid, Ootsuki didn't want to have any and he wasn't feeling particularly baby crazy, but he did know what it was like to lose someone….well this was Claw everyone had some kind of loss in their past. Well he knew, sort of, what it was that Fukuda was going through. Losing someone was hard, especially someone who you'd helped raise…but at least this wasn't a permanent break up. He and the President never broke up permanently, sometimes they took long breaks but they never broke up, so soon they'd be back together and Fukuda could be with Sho again….

And hopefully the President wouldn't punish him and Ootsuki for harboring a traitor.

"Leader is a good kid. It's only natural that you'd miss him." said Ootsuki. He really was a good boy…well considering who his father was. He had a lot of anger issues but he was young, there was still time to grow out of them. Fukuda had been doing well with him…and it must have been painful to have to be away from him for so long…but really he was acting a little overly dramatic. He knew that he was going to end up right back at the President's side…and he was going to bring hell down upon everyone else when it happened.

Oostuki had seen what the President did to people who talked during meetings. He knew that he did worse to people who harbored traitors.

Not that Fukuda was a traitor, no, he hadn't done anything to betray Claw. If anything he had taken steps to ensure it's survival. He had secured the President's bloodline for another generation at least. That poor little baby…she was defenseless in the world. Fukuda had done his best. True it must have been difficult for the children to lose their sister but if the President was going to do nothing but neglect and resent his child like Fukuda had said then there had been no other choice. He'd done what was best…and the children were too young to see it…and the President, for a man as powerful as he was, often let emotion guide his decision making.

Sho's reign as President would definitely be something worth looking forward too.

"It's not just that I miss him….it's that he needs me. He's alone with his sister, his older sister, and the rest of them too…he needs me to take care of him. Who knows what she's teaching him." said Fukuda with a shake of his head. Shigeko was…Shigeko. She got up to things that no little girl should have gotten up to…things that Sho had no business getting up to. She had already gotten her little friend, the obnoxious purple haired girl, into the things that she enjoyed….there were too many pictures on the internet of those two smoking and drinking….and Sho did not need to be involved in that. He was a good kid….and Fukuda wanted to keep it that way.

But Fukuda wasn't around anymore…now was he?

He was here, sitting on his friends' couch in Seoul, waiting for Suzuki to come to his senses and drag him home. Waiting for his life to get back to it's regularly scheduled nonsense. He should…if he had been a braver man then he would have gotten on a plane to wherever they were now, probably still Disney World, and told Shigeko that he was thirty four years older than her and he was not going to be pushed around…but he wasn't a brave man…and nothing good ever came from pushing Shigeko like that…so here he was. Sitting here on the couch that had also served as bed with his two non-Suzuki friends watching hours upon hours of mind rotting TV while Sho got up to God only knew what.

This was his life...this was where his forty five, nearly forty six, years on this earth had gotten him.

"How to make the perfect strawberry milkshake?" asked Higashio as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. That was the latest in the Vice President's series of…well he didn't know what to call them. Posts? Maybe that was it. She liked to take pictures and make little videos about her life. They were kind of cute, actually. She was a really cute kid. All of the President's kids were…even though they had come from President Suzuki…

Though he wondered if Shigeko had been switched at birth.

She didn't look a thing like her siblings, or her father, and it seemed like President Suzuki's kids took after him…not that Higashio was about to walk up to the President and tell him that he needed a blood test for his oldest, and favorite, child. No, he was going to get into enough trouble for letting Fukuda stay here. Though if Fukuda didn't get off of this…whatever it was that he had against Vice President Suzuki...

Higashio wasn't about to go out tie a blue ribbon around his neck…but he would never understand what he had against that little girl.

"I thought she was at Disney World…not that I've been following her travels." Said Ootsuki. They really were adorable children...though he didn't exactly approve of the blatant nepotism. He didn't think that it was a good move putting a twelve year old girl in charge like that…and she had been younger when she had been promoted…though he wasn't going to go up to the President and air his grievances. No, that would not have gone over well for anyone.

"They're in Disney World but she's also making shakes. She and her siblings…oh! The littlest one did the cutest thing today. She-" said Higashio

"I don't care what Shigeko's getting up to." Said Fukuda. There was a change in the energy round him. Higashio and Ootsuki exchanged looks and their auras met for a moment. What? They knew…well they didn't know. Shigeko was very invested in showing the world the idea of her, a cute little girl who did cute little girl things, very few people actually knew her. She was like Suzuki, ambitious, but in some ways a hell of a lot smarter than him. She didn't rule through fear, no, she just got people to love her….and it was incredibly easy to love her….

When you didn't know her.

"What?" asked Fukuda

"Nothing." Said Higashio. He wasn't going to get into it with him. There was no point to it. He didn't know Shigeko like Fukuda did, true, but also…well also Shigeko was only twelve years old. Twelve year old girls liked makeup and stickers and…um…pop stars? He wasn't sure, he had never been a twelve year old girl, but he did know that they didn't plan coups and revolutions…or any of that long term stuff Fukuda seemed to think that she was planning.

She was twelve. They didn't know the meaning of the word 'planning'…but he wasn't going to argue with Fukuda about this.

"I didn't say anything." Said Ootsuki. He had things to say but, unlike some people, he knew when to keep things to himself. Fukuda didn't like Vice President Suzuki, that was his right, but he also had a tendency to rant about her. At length. It was little better than listening to his various relationship problems…he had no idea how President Suzuki put up with him sometimes…or how he put up with President Suzuki. They were made for each other, those two, maybe they would stop this on again and off again thing they had been in for the past three decades and Fukuda could move out of his house.

Or at least off of his couch.

"Whatever. Come on, let's watch something else." Said Fukuda. He knew that they both had something to say…and he had no interest in hearing it. They didn't know Shigeko. They didn't know how she could be…how she was…they had never seen her at her worst. He had lived through her explosion at the Eighth Division, seen her stumbling around drunk, and even been berated and insulted by her…the period remark had been uncalled for, he knew Shigeko. He knew how she could be.

How terrifying she could be.

At the end of the day that was the only word that could be used to describe her. Terrifying. She was Suzuki but without the crippling social and emotional problems. She was smart enough to make her own little cult within their cult…and she had the most powerful espers in the world as he close friends…and she had power over all of them, including her father….and she disliked…she disliked him. She disliked him and…and he would be coming back to her soon. Suzuki always came back to him, they'd had worse falling outs than this, and…and he just…he could only wait. He could only wait for the inevitable…wait in fear…but not of Suzuki. No, of Shigeko and…and he just…he went back to watching TV. That was all he could do, wait and watch TV, day in and day out…

At least his Korean had improved.