Sho kicked in his sleep.
This wasn't news to Mob. She had known him for his entire life and for the entirety of his life he'd kicked in his sleep. That was why they never shared a bed…well they hadn't in a while. When she had been really little, and Sho had first moved from his crib into his real bed, he used to crawl into bed with her and she'd wake up to him kicking her. It took him a while to sleep in his very own real bed. It had taken dad throwing him into his bed and telling him not to get out unless he wanted to put through a wall…and…well that had been mean and Mob would never have spoken like that to her own little brother…or to anyone…but especially not to Sho.
Even though he'd been kicking her all night.
"Sho…please stop." Said Mob softly. She knew that he was awake, she knew that he couldn't hear her, and she knew that if he could hear her then he would have woken up…and she knew that it would have been wrong to wake her little brother up…but he had been kicking her ALL NIGHT.
It was almost midnight.
He had gone to bed at nine and she had gone to bed with him. They were staying in a hotel and the only rooms that were next to each other all had only one bed in them. At least it was a bed that was big enough for two people…even though they were maybe too big to share a bed. Mob remembered that when they were little they used to be able to fit in a twin bed…and now this was a two person bed and they barely fit.
But maybe that was because Sho spread out when he slept.
When Mob slept she curled up and pulled the blanket over her head. Dad slept curled up too, but he curled up around her. Sho tossed and turned and spread out and kicked…the kicking was the worst. Mob needed sleep. She needed to sleep so she could wake up and take Mukai back to Disney World, she really liked it there. Mob was happy that her sister was having fun…some of those tears had been tears of joy….but also she wanted to have fun and there was no way for her to have fun if she was half asleep because her brother had been kicking her all night.
Like now.
Another kick, this one to her ankle. She wasn't going to kick him back, even if dad had told her to kick Sho back when she'd been little, she was just going to lay down very still and hope that he stopped moving. She had been doing that all night…and it had to work sometime…right? She laid very still….the stillest that she could…and Sho kicked her again. His whole body twitched and he kicked her…not very hard but hard enough to be annoying…not that she was annoyed! She loved her little brother and when you loved someone you were never annoyed with them.
You just…sometimes thought that you wished that you were in your own bed in your own room in an actual house.
"…think so…" muttered Sho. She knew that he wasn't talking to her. He was just dreaming. Dad did the same thing. He talked to mom in his sleep, he dreamt about her, and sometimes he thought that Mob was mom. He held her really close and rubbed her stomach and kissed the back of her head and her shoulders and the back of her neck sometimes. It was annoying, and she didn't like being woken up in the middle of the night to dad telling dream mom that he loved her, but she never woke him up. Every time she woke him up he told her to make him middle of the night dinner…and she didn't like getting up at three in the morning to make him dinner he hardly even touched. She didn't know why he wouldn't just say that he was sorry for waking her up and that he just missed mom a lot…
Though how much could he have missed her, really, if he had cheated on her?
No. She was not going to think about this for one more second. She had been thinking about this all summer, it felt like, and she just…she didn't want to think about her dad cheating on her mom and…and she was happy that Mukai was here, of course….well not right here. She was in her own room with her mom. Mob loved Mukai…but also she woke people up in the middle of the night by slapping them in the face and Mob didn't like being woken up at four in the morning by being slapped in the face because Mukai wanted to play or have soda or something. She was happy that she had a little sister even though sometimes she could be…a lot….she just…because of what dad did he and mom would never get back together and….and she didn't….
Mob didn't know if she even wanted that.
She didn't know what she would have done if she had seen mom again. Mom had left her. She had left Sho, too, which was worse. Mob at least had dad but Sho had been mom's and…and then she was gone and it had been so hard on him….harder than it had been on anyone else and….and Mob didn't know if she could forgive her mom about that. She didn't know if she could forgive mom for leaving her, too, even though…even though it was selfish of her to think about herself. She had to think about everyone else. She had to put them all first and…and she just….she didn't want to see mom again…not unless mom was going to say sorry for leaving…
But Mob was never going to make her mom say sorry…that would have been mean…and Mob was not a mean person.
"…cool too…think you're cool…." Said Sho. Mob was glad that he was having a nice dream. She was glad that he was happy. She was glad that he was with her. She was glad that her little brother would never leave her. She was glad that no matter what happened she would always be there with her brother…no matter what country they were in they would always be together…no matter how old they got they would always be together. Their family may have been cut in half…but at least this half of their family was together…
Or maybe their three fifths of a family was together…since Mukai was there.
She was their family, their little sister, even if she had a different mom and a different family name. She was Sagami Mukai, not Suzuki Mukai….even though she looked more like a Suzuki than Mob did. She looked like dad and Sho looked like dad….and she looked like nobody….so maybe it was more like half he family was together plus her…since she didn't even look like them…or maybe it was some other fraction thing that Tsuchiya hadn't taught her yet. Fractions were hard and she didn't know why she needed to know them or why Tsuchiya wouldn't let her so much as go to the pool, let alone Disney World, until her homeschool work was done. Mob was the boss, she knew that she was the boss, and she knew that she could have told Tsuchiya that they were going to leave when Mob felt like it…but that would have been mean and Mob was never going to be mean like that…even if Tsuchiya could be kind of mean. Not to her, no, but to Minegishi…not that Mob blamed her for Minegishi leaving. No, Minegishi had left because…they felt like going back to Japan…and…that was where they were. They were somewhere in Japan waiting for everyone to come back and then they could all hang out…well all of them minus Hatori….since dad was never going to let him go. He said that he had a plan and if everything went right he'd be coming back soon….but things never went the way you planned….so she didn't count on him coming back….
She wondered what fraction the group was at.
All they had left was her, Sho, Mukai, Tsuchiya, Shibata, Shimazaki, and Serizawa. They were missing two people…seven plus two was….she counted on her fingers. Nine. They had seven ninths of the group…but maybe she had counted wrong since dad and Fukuda were gone…well she had sent them away…but dad could come back whenever he wanted to! Dad could come back and…and he could say sorry…and he could take back what he said about Mukai and…and he could be her dad just like he'd been Mob and Sho's….well like he'd been Mob's dad. He hadn't been a very good dad to Sho…all the meanness and the hitting and stuff…and Mob didn't care if dad hut her but if he hurt Sho or Mukai then…then…then she would have kicked him out of the family again…or double kicked him out…or…or…
It was late. She was tired. She'd figure it out tomorrow.
"...cute…really cute…" muttered Sho. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. The talking was almost worse than the kicking….or maybe they were both equally annoying…not that she would ever have thought that her little brother was anything else than the best friend that she would ever have. Sho really was her best friend…her best friend who was her brother. Minegishi was her best friend….Minegishi was gone but they were still her best friend…but she did care about Sho more than she even had words for…
She was never going to get the words for it, too, if Sho didn't let her get some sleep.
"….boyfriend…like you…." Said Sho. She…did not want to be around when he had that kind of dream. There was no chance of her getting any sleep now. None at all. She had those kinds of dreams, the ones where she had a boyfriend…and stuff happened. Usually her boyfriend in her dreams was Teru, since she had seen him again, but sometimes it was Hatori like it had been before…she wasn't in love with him but he was incredibly cute and sweet and he smelled good. Occasionally it was someone weird like Shimazaki…because he was tall and smelled good and nice….but those were not the dreams to have about her best friend's boyfriend….or the boy that her little brother was in love with…
Even though he should NOT have been in love with Shimazaki.
She wanted to wake Sho up and tell him in every single language that they both spoke together that he didn't need a boyfriend, he already was a boyfriend, and if he wanted to have a boyfriend then he needed to break up with his girlfriend first. Mob didn't know what happened in Sho's heart, how many people he could love at once, and for all she knew he was in an open relationship like Shimazaki and Minegishi were. She wasn't going to ask, though, because that was just…not any of her business…and she knew to mind her own business when it came to Sho's love life now….
But she also kind of wanted to fix everything…even though she didn't even know if there was anything broken.
"…so cool….you're so cool…." Said Sho. He should have been saying that to his girlfriend…but he wasn't. He…well she knew that it was none of her business but….but also…also he and Emmy had the best love story ever! They had love at first sight and…and now they were getting married and…and they were going to be happy. They had to be happy. There had to be a couple that she knew, just one couple, that was happy.
Just one. That was all she was asking for.
She didn't ask for much. She only wanted everyone around her to be happy all the time and for the rest of their lives. That wasn't a lot. Dad was going to become the king of the world. That was asking a lot. Mob didn't want anything for herself. She had a good life. She had plenty of friends, she went all around the world, she had more money than she could even count, and not only did she have a little brother but also a baby sister. Sure she wanted a boyfriend…or maybe she shouldn't want that anymore. She had kissed Teru, and on her birthday even, and…and that was good enough. Sure she wanted a boyfriend…or maybe just someone to kiss…but no. She wanted everyone else to be happy more than she wanted to be loved.
But not everyone was happy.
Minegishi had been sick and tired like mom had been sick and tired…and Mob had been sick and tired of people being sick and tired. She had been selfish to want Minegishi to stop it and just…just be like they were before. She never said anything to them, that would have been mean, she just…waited for them to get better…but they hadn't gotten better. They had run away…no…they had gone home. They had gone home and Mob…Mob needed to go back to them…but Mukai liked it here and…and she wanted Mukai to be happy…and that was it. Mob wasn't scared that if she went to Minegishi, and brought everyone with her, Minegishi and Shimazaki would fight and fight and fight some more…or Minegishi would just keep on getting more and more and more tired….until they left…and then she would never be able to see her best friend again…the best friend that she'd ever had in the world…she knew that Minegishi would always be her best friend…they had bracelets that said so.
Bracelets were just jewelry.
Sure they meant something…..but also….also they could be taken off. Friendship bracelets were like wedding rings for best friends. When you chose someone to be your best friend then it was forever, like the bracelet. Their bracelets were made out of plastic and she had seen, well she and dad had seen, in a documentary that plastic lasted forever. Metal did, too, like the kind of metal in weddings rings…and engagement rings….
All kinds of jewelry.
"…love you so much…love you…" said Sho. She knew that he wasn't talking about his girlfriend…even though he had given her a ring and told her that he loved her. Maybe he did…but if he loved her then why had he been in love with Shimazaki for years? Why didn't he ever talk to his girlfriend or visit her or…she knew that this wasn't any of her business but…but she just…she didn't know. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She was his big sister. She was supposed to teach him good from bad, right from wrong, and….and she was supposed to make sure that he grew up to be a good person. She didn't care who he loved. She just didn't want him to play with people's hearts…that was what cheating was…and she didn't want him to grow up to be a cheater…
She didn't want him to grow up to be like dad.
She didn't know how she was supposed to stop him from turning out like dad. Sho had come from dad and he looked like dad…and he could even act like dad. Like when he got really into something and it took him over. Like when he worked really hard on a project and he forgot to eat and sleep and bathe…well he never bathed without her forcing him to…but still. He got really into stuff…and when he was into something it was hard to get him out of it…and that was good. It was good to have something that you cared about…but also…also Sho could be…a lot like dad at his worst.
Like the hitting…and the cheating…those weren't good things…
Mob wished that mom had told her something about helping people grow up. Well she wished that mom had told her a lot of things before but that would have been the most useful thing that mom could have taught her. Mom must have known that after she left Mob would end up taking her place. She must have been planning on leaving. She had disappeared completely. Mob knew that when people ran away from Claw, sometimes people got confused and tried to leave even though Claw was the best place in the world to be an esper, but when dad wanted someone found then they got found really fast. Dad sent the people who ran away to time out so they could think about what they'd done…and maybe mom had been scared about being put in time out…but married people didn't put each other in time out…
But married people also didn't run out on each other.
"….gonna kiss you…marry you….love you….Ritsu…love you…" said Sho. Mob rolled off of the bed and onto the floor. She didn't care if falling on the floor hurt, and she didn't care if the people under her had been woken up…well she cared a little, but she also didn't because she just…did not want to be around her brother while he had dreams like that. Nope. She had no idea who Ritsu was…which was weird because she knew everyone who he knew….well at least she thought that she did. It didn't matter. She didn't want to know about…about people he was in love with…
Nope. She didn't need to know about that at all.
His heart was his own business. She didn't want to wake him up and tell him that he had a girlfriend who loved him, that she needed him to be happy, and that she needed to know that love was real and worked and…stuff. Nope. She wasn't going to do any of that. She was going to stay there…on the floor….all night. She reached up and pulled some of the blanket off the bed. It didn't cover her that well…and the air conditioning was up really high because Sho slept in long winter pajamas year round…it wasn't so bad. She reached up and pulled her pillow down too. There. Now she could be…something close to being comfortable. This room wasn't that big, even smaller with all their stuff and souvenirs, and she didn't have a lot of space down here…but she wasn't going to move. She wasn't going to go back up there…no…this was….going to be her bed for now….
Sho kicked in his sleep, after all, so maybe it would be best if she slept on the floor.