Toshi did this sometimes.
They got all upset and then ran away and lied in the woods for a little bit or something. They hadn't done this since before the kids, true, but this wasn't so out of character for them that Mob had to decide, without asking anyone, that they were all going back to Japan right fucking now…not that he was mad at Mob, no, he could never be mad at her.
She was Mob.
He watched her walk around the plane. She was tucking everyone in…she did that sometimes. When they were on long flights like this….and it would be a long flight. It was going to take almost seventeen hours. That was almost a whole day. Long enough for everyone to pass out, even Sho, and maybe Shimazaki should have gotten up and laid him down in his seat the right way. It would have been easy. He could have just put the candle down, stood up, and walked over. He didn't trust himself to teleport right now. Not when he was sailing…sky sailing…flying! Not when he was flying through the air at thousands of kilometers an hour. He didn't think that he could predict where he would be…not when he was going that fast. Toshi hated it when he teleported on a plane…or at least onto the wing of the plane…or maybe all together. He didn't know…he could ask Toshi…he had a phone…but Toshi hadn't picked up in so long…but maybe this time.
He stayed where he was.
"Oh Sho…" said Mob. He watched her. He watched the way she reached out with one hand. He listened to her. He listened to her as she told her little brother how much she loved him. He even felt her. He could feel her aura as she reached out and laid her brother down the right way, across two seats. That was the good thing about missing so many people, there was room to lay down. Even Shibata had room to sit down…though his feet were hanging over the side…but he liked it that way. Shimazaki could have laid down, too, but…but then his feet would have been in Toshi's seat…and then Toshi would have been pissed at him.
He kept on chewing.
There had always been something special about the way his teeth sank into the wax. Not like biting into a gummy, no, it was like biting into…well into a dinner candle. One of those long ones that they used in fancy restaurants…like the one he and Toshi dined and dashed in. The one in that resort they snuck into when they went to Cabo…well when their work took them to Cabo. Before the kids. Before their relationship. Before some of the kids even existed! Well…before Mukai had been invented…been born. Years ago…that had been the point. Years ago when he had been young and his heart had been an open book…
Live and let die.
Live and let dine and dash. Live and let get drunk, eat at a table on the fucking beach, and try to hear Toshi over the roar of the ocean. He didn't trust it, the ocean, it was too loud to hear someone…too alive to see people in, and too deep that if you went in and it dragged you under then nobody would ever find your body. Sharks would eat it, maybe, like in that movie…duuuunnnn duun... duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn! Like how sharks ate people and shit…but he wouldn't have let that happen to Toshi…even if the two of them hadn't been a couple yet. Back when they had been young…when you were young….and sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live….when you were young….
If Toshi had been there then he would have told them, asked them, to add that to the playlist.
Their playlist was just…their playlist. A playlist of the greatest songs that they had ever heard, the two of them, it was kind of like their baby…or something. Not that Toshi wanted to have a baby…and not that he wanted to have a baby. A kid, yes, or even a Mukai…whatever the hell people Mukai's age were called…toddler! He would have even wanted a toddler…but not a baby…because he didn't like changing diapers…and the crying was a lot…but then maybe not a toddler…
It didn't matter. Toshi didn't want anything.
Toshi didn't want anything to do with him. Toshi had left him. Toshi had someone better…there was always someone better. He as himself and no matter what he did…Toshi loved him. Toshi loved him and he loved Toshi and...and he was going to see them again. it wasn't like he was going to get up one day and they'd be gone and he'd be alone in the world and…and he was fine and Toshi was fine and-
Oh. Mob was here.
"Here….maybe you should chew on this. It's food." Said Mob as she pressed something round into his hand. He felt around with his hands…he knew what this was. This was…he finally found out how to pop it open. Either it was a baby Pacman or it was gum.
It was gum.
"Thanks." Said Shimazaki as he tore off some bubble tape. She took the candle from his hand and put it on the seat next to him. Toshi's seat. Toshi was supposed to sit next to him….and Sho had tried to claim it…but even Sho couldn't take Toshi's place. Nobody could take Toshi's place. Not on this plane and not in his head or his heart…even someone who brought him bubble tape…he picked some wax out of his teeth…
Yeah, maybe it was best that he switched to gum.
"Fuck. Hey Mob, get me something to drink." Said Shimazaki as he scraped the wax out of his teeth with his nails. Too long. He needed to cut them. Toshi hated it when he let his nails grow out…and he hated it when Toshi hated things about him…maybe if they hated enough of the little things about him then they would hate everything else about him…and then they would leave…
Something cold and glass was pressed into his hand.
"Here. It's a tiny bottle of chilled wine…well it says ice wine…but I don't know what ice wine is so I hope that its good." Said Mob. Shimazaki felt the top…oh. She'd opened it for him too. He hadn't even heard her. He had been too wrapped up in his own head…he needed to get back to the real world…or whatever this was. Maybe this was like that book where nothing was real…the novelization of the movie…all the best movies got turned into books.
Fuck this was good wine!
"You did good, Mob, you did really good." Said Shimazaki. He reached over with his telekinesis and picked her up. Picking her up was the easy part, holding her in place was something else. He wasn't good at fine movements like this…and he wasn't sure why he picked her up. Maybe because she had moved like she had been about to leave…even though this was a plane and there was nothing that she could do to leave that wouldn't end up killing her…and he couldn't let anything happen to her.
He put her down.
Well he dropped her, down, onto Toshi's seat…because nobody had been there but his candle….which had broken in half. Mob reached under herself and took the candle out. Shimazaki took it from her hand and tossed it onto the floor, not loud enough to wake anyone thank God, but long enough that Mob tensed up. Whenever she tensed up it started in her shoulders. Her shoulders tensed up, and then her forearms, and then her stomach and thighs…she had nice legs actually. Nice legs, nice tits, kind of a nice ass but not really. Not like Toshi…God...Toshi's tits were something else. Their tits were like someone had shoved two shaved kiwis down under their skin…and their nipples were like two gumdrops…and the space between their tits was like…he didn't know. Something nice that sweat got trapped in when they fucked…or even just when it was hot out….he loved Toshi when it was hot out….the way they smelled….
Not like bubblegum.
"Wine and gum taste weird together." Whispered Mob. He felt her aura dart over to where Mukai was sleeping. She was the little bomb on the plane. When she got up in the middle of the night, and sometimes in the mornings too, she cried like she was being skinned alive. He had no idea why she didn't just go back to sleep if she was so tired…but he knew jack shit about kids. Just like Toshi had said. He didn't know shit about kids and they weren't ever going to have any…and he needed to stop wanting it, stop thinking about it, and stop imaging how great it would have been if he and Toshi had been parents.
It was hard.
"I think they complement each other. Sweet and sweet….and this is some sweet ass wine. Toshi would have hated it, of course, but Toshi isn't here…." Said Shimazaki. His voice fell towards the end. Mob hung her head low. He watched her. She had stopped chewing her gum…but he was still chewing his. Just to have something to do, maybe, since sleep was out of the question. Not without help, anyway, but he had no idea if he even wanted to sleep in the first place. If he slept and then they landed and he missed Toshi….not that Toshi would have been waiting for him, of course not, that was crazier than Sho's idea to take all of these pets everywhere they went.
Hamsters were nocturnal…and now he was nocturnal too…and Toshi wasn't around to tell him how ridiculous he was being.
"No….but we're going to see them and then…well and then we're all going to be there together." Said Mob
"And where's 'there?" asked Shimazaki. He could hear them flying, they weren't going to be landing any time soon, and when they landed…well he didn't know where they would be. Tokyo…Japan…home. If home was even a thing anymore. When they got Toshi back then they needed to go somewhere Toshi would like…like a garden…island…like that sex garden in Korea…or the secret garden…wait…if there was a secret garden then how did people know about it?
"We're going to Tokyo, remember? It's ok if you're too drunk or too high." Said Mob
"I wish. I am sober as a judge…a judge from that show you and Toshi watch…the ones where they have to eat gross shit for prizes…unless Sho's full of lies." Said Shimazaki. Toshi was the most reliable narrator when it came to shows without narration. Sho was…unreliable. Apparently Frozen did not end in a double murder….fucking lying…kid…he'd insult Sho later when he got up.
"That's one of the shows that you and Sho watch. Minegishi and I watch shows about people falling in love…or trying to fall in love…or completing for the chance to fall in love…or the one where these brides have to pick out dresses and the dresses are so pretty but their friends get to vote on the best one and sometimes they end up with a dress that wasn't their first choice but that's ok because everyone looks pretty anyway." Said Mob
"You and Toshi have the worst taste in TV, you know that?" asked Shimazaki
"No we don't…and that's kind of mean. I don't make fun of you for the stuff that you like to watch…I mean listen to with narration…and anyway you have good taste in stuff. Everyone does…even dad…maybe….even though he just kind of watches the same thing over and over again." said Mob
"He still watch that space train show?" asked Shimazaki with a laugh. His gum almost went into his sinuses, which was good because it stopped the wine from coming out of his nose. He was cute when that happened, Toshi said so, and they had been sober when they said it…but Toshi wasn't there to think that he was cute and Mob…well Mob would have called him cute no matter what if he asked her to.
"I don't know…maybe? I haven't seen or spoken to him in a while…and it doesn't matter. Dad doesn't want to be here so I don't want him here." Said Mob
"I thought you kicked him out, you know, because of the adultery and cuckery and secret love children resulting from such adulterous cuckery." Said Shimazaki
"What's cuckery?" asked Mob
"When you cuck someone." Said Shimazaki with a wave of his hand. Some wine fell from the bottle. He watched it fall. It hit him on the chest…and now he was sticky…but no stickier than he would have been if Toshi had been asleep on his chest right now. They drooled, not that they would ever admit it, but they drooled in their sleep and it was the cutest fucking thing in the world.
"What's cucking someone?" asked Mob
"What Toshi's doing to me right now….fuck! Sorry, sorry, they aren't cucking me any more than I'm cucking them…there is no cucking in this relationship. Zero cuckery." Said Shimazaki with another wave of his hands. More wine sloshed out….so the only solution was to tip his head back and drink his tiny bottle of wine. The whole time Mob was staring at him…and not in the good way.
"….what?" asked Mob
"There's no way to cuck someone in an open relationship. I mean, ok, Toshi can fuck whoever they want to fuck. Seriously, they can have a line of people ten blocks long for all I care….we just had this rule that neither of us could fall in love with anyone else…and I have no idea if Toshi's even in love with anyone else. I'm not either. I mean I think that you're great, and I love you, but I'm not IN LOVE with you. Like you know you're great and you're getting pretty cute, too, and you're nice and thoughtful and shit…but I'm not in love with you. Sorry." said Shimazaki
"I…know that you're not in love with me…and I'm not in love with you. You're my best friend's boyfriend and I know that I could never be in love with my best friend's boyfriend." Said Mob
"Yeah, you're a good friend. You'd never cuck Toshi or anyone." Said Shimazaki
"I don't know what that is but I think that it might be a bad thing…and I would never do anything bad to Minegishi. They're my best friend…well I said that already…but they are. We have bracelets and not anyone can wear them, they're just for best friends, and…and in my whole life I never thought that I would have a best friend. I mean I always had Sho but that's a little bit different since he's my little brother and little brothers…well you pick your best friends but you don't pick your little brother…and I picked Minegishi. They're the nicest person…sorry…that I've ever met and…and I really messed up. I don't know what I did to mess up and…and they ran away and-" said Mob
"Hey, hey, it's ok. Toshi…they do this sometimes. They're just…Toshi. Sometimes when shit gets too nice they don't know what to do so they piss all over everything and leave…not literally. I mean they could if they wanted to, who in the hell would try and stop them? They're so fucking badass…like this one time we were in Rio…and they were all like 'Ryou, you're in Ryou' and it was so funny…and then they filled this guy with seeds and a shit ton of these spikey plants grew out of this poor fuck's stomach….and then I don't remember what happened next but we fucked right there on the beach, I think it was-" said Shimazaki
"Shimazaki! Please! I don't want to know about that…and also you should only tell the truth. It's not nice to lie." Said Mob
"What? You think that I'm too good to fuck Toshi right there on the beach?" asked Shimazaki. He was not above that…even though sand got everywhere and it really ruined the whole…endeavor?
"No…I mean…I don't want to know about that. I meant the thing about Minegishi hurting people. They don't do that. They're a nice person and they don't like to hurt people….like their bodies and stuff. They hurt people with words…and that's not nice either…but Minegishi would never hurt anyone. I know them." Said Mob
"Mob…you know what Toshi and I do for a living, right? I mean…what do you think happens to people who betray Claw?" asked Shimazaki. She…really didn't know? Actually he could totally see Suzuki keeping the truth from his little daughter/wife. Mob….well of course she hadn't known, this was Mob. She felt bad when she had to step on bugs.
"Dad punishes them when they can't be given a second chance. Sometimes people just haven't had good training and that's why they do the things they do." Said Mob. She nodded, mostly to herself he figured, since she was the one lying to herself. Apparently she hadn't known the truth…well she had to know now. No putting the toothpaste back in the tube and all of that….which was true, by the way, he'd tried.
"Well, yeah, he'll send you through the Awakening process if he feels like it but most people don't live that long. Actually, yeah, never fuck with your dad unless you want your life expectancy to be DRASTICALLY shortened." Said Shimazaki. He wondered if Suzuki was going to kill him when he came back from wherever he had gone to sulk….well that wouldn't be so bad. He had no intention of passing on so maybe Toshi's new spirit tamer boyfriend would collect him in a net or whatever and then he could at least be NEAR Toshi.
"Wait…you…hurt people? And….and Minegishi does too? And…and….and my DAD makes you hurt people?" said Mob
"Yeah, pretty much." Said Shimazaki. He reached over and took a swig of her wine…which may have been the wrong thing. He felt her swallow her gum….and now she was starting to panic…even though it made no sense. People died. Some people died sooner than others. Some people were so stupid that they shortened their own lives. People knew the risks when they decided to fuck with Suzuki. What he and Toshi did to them they had brought upon themselves.
"What…what?!" asked Mob
"Hey, keep it down before you wake Mukai up. As much as I love her I don't love her when she's tired." Said Shimazaki
"I-I-I-I just…I love…I love the both of you and…and I just can't believe that my-my-my dad would make you do things like that! That's…that's terrible…" said Mob
"Don't be so dramatic. You're making this sound like some serial killer shit. We hurt the people who try to take down Claw, kill your dad, and just…you know, subterfuge and shit." Said Shimazaki
"…so….when people try and kill my dad…then you kill them?" asked Mob
"Yeah, that's one of the reasons." Said Shimazaki
"That's still…I mean I kind of understand but…but that's so terrible…no wonder Minegishi ran away. If I had to hurt people then…then I would have felt bad enough to run away and…" said Mob. Shimazaki sighed and reached over. He pulled her onto his lap, telekinesis helped, she had gotten so fucking heavy over the years…but not too heavy for him to pick up. He picked her up, sat her down on his lap, and kissed the top of her head.
He hated it when she was upset.
"Hey, come on. Toshi's not like that. They're been fucking people up, and killing them, since before you were even born. I mean, you know what happened to their parents." Said Shimazaki as he kissed her head a bunch of times. Peppered would have been a good word for it…but Mob liked salt better than pepper…so maybe he was salting her then…but that didn't sound right. Salt, sweet wine, and bubblegum? What in the hell was that…or maybe it was like salted caramel…the stuff that Toshi ate when nobody was around…but he was around…and he wished he hadn't asked them to share. They weren't Mob. They didn't like to share.
"I know that Minegishi is an orphan…but what happened to their parents?" asked Mob
"That's their story to tell. The only thing Toshi hates more than people talking about their tits is people talking about their business." Said Shimazaki
"But…but what happened to their parents?" asked Mob. Shimazaki shook his head. Toshi didn't want Mob to know. If they had wanted her to know then she would have known and he knew Toshi. Toshi was weirdly private about their life. Both of them had lived shitty lives, in different ways, and both of them dealt with it in different ways. Toshi clammed up. He, on the other hand, liked to talk about it. If he talked about it then it wouldn't have power over him…and it'd had too much power over him…a little bit was too much….
"A bunch of shit, now drink your wine and chew your gum so you're as sweet on the inside as I've always thought that you were." Said Shimazaki. He tilter her head back and kissed the space between her eyes. Another difference between Mob and Toshi, Mob could be distracted with kisses. Toshi…well when they wanted to know something then nothing was going to stop them from learning…but Mob…she could be distracted.
He kissed the top of her nose.
"But…ok." Said Mob. He stopped kissing her. She was sufficiently distracted and that was enough. If she wanted him to kiss her for real then she could have asked. She knew that the offer was on the table…right? Yeah, she knew. He wasn't going to push it…and he didn't even know if he wanted to push it. Mob was great but she was still young even by his standards. Also Toshi would have murdered him. There was no cuckery in their relationship. That went both ways. Toshi had found another boyfriend…but it wasn't like two wrongs made a right…or if Toshi had even done anything wrong…and anyway Mob wasn't the just sex sort of person, she was a relationship sort of person, and he couldn't bring Mob into the relationship.
Toshi would have killed him.
He didn't know what he would have done if he ended up losing them. Even Mob…as sweet as she was and as thoughtful as she was and as amazing as her tits were he wasn't going to give Toshi up for her. He wasn't going to give Toshi up for anyone, even Mob, or even…a few people in the past who were dead now and therefore did not need to be thought about. No, Mob was just a friend for now…and Toshi was more than a friend and…and how could they be more than a friend when they were on the other side of the world?
Mob was in his lap…and she was sniffling….and he was going to worry about the person closest to him.
"Hey…shit's going to be ok, alright? Toshi's just going through some shit right now but they're ok, they love us…especially you. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't love you." Said Shimazaki. He kissed the space between her eyes again and held her close. He wondered if he could have reached the gum…no. He wasn't going to move her. He had to think about her and her feelings and shit. He had to let her take up residence in his head so there was no more room for Toshi….no room at all for Toshi in his head…even though they had been their first and their plants and books were everywhere….ok, so there was a lot of room for Toshi in his head…and…and he loved them…
Even though they got like this sometimes.