"Good morning!"
That was what one was expected to say when greeting someone in the morning. Good morning. Such a strange phrase. What if the person you were speaking to was not having a good morning at all? What if the person you were speaking to was not having a good morning at all. Suzuki Touichirou knew for a fact that he was not having a good morning.
And it wasn't even morning.
The room was dark. He'd left the windows uncovered last night. He could see the sky, it was black, and that meant that it was either very late at night or very early in the morning, he wasn't sure of which, but he was sure that he did not want to be awake at this time. He had no choice in the matter, of course, because of the very small person pulling on his eyebrows.
Bad morning.
"Good morning! Right now!" said Mukai, well really she shouted it. She seemed to shout most of the things she said. Sho had the same problem. They must have gotten it from him. He was the only parent that they had between them…well biological parent. It seemed that both of his children were currently motherless. Sho had lost his mother years ago when she decided that she no longer wished to fill that position and most likely sought out other…well she had better not have sought out other opportunities…not that he cared what she did, what Sho's mother did. No, the only mother Suzuki was concerned with was Mukai's.
Well, her adoptive mother anyway.
"Where is your mother?" asked Suzuki as he sat up. She didn't stop trying to grasp at eyebrow in her, mysteriously, sticky hand. She just stood up. He reached out with his powers to keep her balanced. The last thing that he needed was her falling and hurting herself. Then he would have had to deal with Fukuda and he just…was not up to that right now. He wasn't up to much of anything right now.
His phone said that it was four thirty in the morning.
"Good morning now!" said Mukai
"Oh…right. I apologize…Daughter. Younger daughter…Mukai. Good morning." Said Suzuki. She let go of his eyebrow…and now she was reaching for his phone. He let her have it. He could always get another one. He wondered if she could have one of her own. He'd have to ask Shigeko…or the woman who was raising Mukai. Masami had said 'no' when he had wanted to get the children their own phones. He had no idea why. Phones were good for keeping children quiet…and that was when children were at their best.
When they were quiet.
The first thing that he had ever heard from any of his children had been crying. Shigeko had been crying, and losing control of her powers, the first time he saw her. He had been allowed to meet her before setting the wheels in motion to adopt her. She had been so small…and so loud….but that seemed to be how it went with children. The smaller they were the louder they cried. Sho…there had been no escaping the sound of Sho crying on the day he'd been born. Masami had been laying there in her bed, her abdomen cut open and her intestines in a bowl….he was nauseated just thinking about it….and Sho had been there in his little plastic box…thing….screaming his head off. He hadn't wanted to hold Sho then, he hadn't trusted himself, and he had been right not to trust himself. Masami had been so close to death…and it had been Sho's fault...and Sho had been the one who was crying…he'd had THE NERVE to cry when his MOTHER had been laying there with her organs on the outside of her body and a massive gash down the middle of her…there had been a lot of crying that day. Sho hadn't gotten any quieter…
And neither had Mukai.
The first time he'd held her she'd started crying…and he couldn't blame her. It had been an emotional day for the both of them…yes…that was how he was going to remember it. That was the word for it. Emotional. He'd just found out that he had a second born…third child but second born to his bloodline…and….and it had been quite a bit. Even now it was quite a bit. She was there and…and he didn't want to run away from her…and he couldn't. Shigeko had made herself perfectly clear.
He had to be a father to Mukai.
"Games?" asked Mukai as she held out his phone. Well now that the pleasantries were done with it seemed as though the time had come to get down to business. Was this why she was here? She truly was his child. Back when he'd been…well older than her….but not by much. He'd been seven when he'd gotten that first games console, the one with all the variations of pong, and he'd gotten up at four thirty in the morning plenty of times to play. This was…this really was his child.
He had a third child.
"I'm afraid I don't have any." Said Suzuki
"No games? Why?" asked Mukai
"Because I don't have the time for that. If you want to play games you should speak to Hatori…or better yet Serizawa. Serizawa really has the better taste. Hatori…I don't understand him sometimes." Said Suzuki
"Hat…Hatori says bad words." Said Mukai. It took her some time to come to this conclusion. When she reached it she seemed proud of herself….or maybe he was just proud of her. She spoke very well for a two…two and a half…year old. She spoke like Shigeko had when she'd been that age. Sho…well he'd been slow to speak. He hadn't said a word until after he turned three. Masami had been worried about him. Suzuki…well he knew that no son of his was going to be a failure…and anyway it didn't matter. The trick these days was getting him to shut up.
Sho was, thankfully, still asleep….he didn't have two children to deal with.
"Yes he does. You'll do well not to imitate him….and Sho as well." Said Suzuki
"Sho sleeping…Hatori sleeping….mama sleeping….Shigeko sleeping…Ryou sleeping…Mine sleeping….Shibata sleeping….Seri crying." Said Mukai
"Oh….alright then." Said Suzuki. He had no idea what to do with this information. Everyone was asleep, well most everyone was asleep, so this was not news to him…but she had noticed, remembered, and reported back to him. She was so bright…well of course she was bright. She was his and…she was his.
"Crying like this." said Mukai. She then proceeded to mime the act of sobbing. He wished that Shigeko had been awake, she would have taken a photo of this, and it would have been a nice change of pace from her usual photos. He wasn't going to wake her, though, she needed her sleep just like everyone else did.
Just like he did.
"Yes. That is what crying looks like." Said Suzuki
"Now you." Said Mukai. She pointed at him, her finger dug into his chest. She really needed to have her nails cut, he'd tell Shigeko to do that in the morning, or maybe he would have Shigeko tell her mother. Mukai had one of those….though her mother may not have been doing the best job since Mukai was here and not in her own bed where she belonged…
He had to get her back to bed.
"Now I what?" asked Suzuki
"You cry now." Said Mukai
"I have no reason to cry now and anyway I'm a grown man. I don't cry. Men don't cry, only women cry, alright? Those are social rules which we have to follow. You may not understand them now but you need to start learning them. Believe me, it's a lot easier to learn these things when you're small, as you are not, and not when you're my age. Do you understand, Mukai?" asked Suzuki. He thought that he had presented his argument well. He knew that he wasn't one of the great orators of the world, his speeches were usually long rambling affairs according to the children, but he thought that he'd gotten to the point there.
The only problem was that his audience was two years old.
She had an aura to her, a small one, and a dim one…but one just the same. It was as red as the pajamas she wore…a little redder than his. Su-jin's…Pang-san's aura had been…well he didn't need to think about her. She was long gone too…what was it with women leaving him? He wanted, he had the urge to, take his phone from Mukai and call Shiori…but that would have been illogical. She was in Osaka. If it was four thirty in the morning here then it was…well the same time since they were both in Japan. She would NOT have appreciated being woken up at this hour….he'd call her in the morning and he'd ask her if she had any plans of leaving him and/or abandoning their children.
Right now he had to deal with Mukai.
"Was that in any way unclear to you?" asked Suzuki. That seemed to break her out of whatever it was that she had been stuck in. Her eyes had been small, her pupils, so he knew that she had been deep in thought. She had his eyes and he did the same thing. He got it from father. He had no idea who father had gotten it from. He knew very little of his grandparents. Neither sat had been happy that he'd been mixed. He wondered how his parents would have felt about Mukai…and Sho to a lesser extent. Sho was Sho and the blood the flowed through his veins was the least of his problems…also he wasn't Korean. Father had harbored a great dislike for the Korean people that Suzuki had never been able to understand.
People were alike all over.
No matter what country you were in people were the same. Confusing. The world operated on it's own set of rules and logic. Suzuki must have been absent when they'd had that class, the how to blend in with the world class, in school. His entire life he'd been just at the fringes of them. He knew some of their rules, their sayings, and if he stared long enough he could sort of understand some of their expressions. It didn't matter what country they were from, they were confusing…incredibly confusing…
Mother and father hadn't shared his sentiments. They probably would not have been happy with Mukai's existence…and for more reasons than the composition of her genes.
"Cry right now. Over there." said Mukai
"You mean here?" asked Suzuki
"Yes! There!" said Mukai
"I…think that you might have the words for 'here' and 'there' confused. Here is a word which refers to a location which is-" said Suzuki
"Cry!" said Mukai. She was in danger of waking someone up. That would not have been good at all. Shigeko needed her sleep. She was still out of sorts…and he didn't blame her. Sho…well he didn't care if Sho slept or not…but also he kind of did. The boy was impossible to deal with at the best of times so him being exhausted all day…he did not want to have to deal with that and it wasn't fair to make Shigeko deal with that either.
So he did as Mukai asked.
He mimed sobbing. He felt like an idiot but he did it. It made her happy and that was all that mattered. If she was happy then she wasn't going to wake anyone. Her aura shone brighter when she was happy, too, it was nice. Sho had presented with such an insignificant aura when he'd been her age. Shigeko had shone brightly, of course, almost as brightly as she shone now. Mukai seemed to take after…well him. Not Shigeko. She wasn't truly his after all…not in the way that Mukai was. His daughter…his blood daughter…
His blood daughter who needed to sleep in her own bed.
"There. Was that sufficient?" asked Suzuki
"You cry liked Seri." Said Mukai
"I'll take that as a yes." said Suzuki
"Cry some more?" asked Mukai
"I would prefer not to, Mukai, I would prefer to go back to bed." Said Suzuki
"No, not bed time!" said Mukai. She jabbed him in the chest as hard as she could. Her aura met his…she was not happy at all…but the subject was not up for debate. She could not sleep here. It was…well not wrong since she was his. She was his child and he should have had no problem sleeping next to her…and this seemed to be where she wanted to be…but co-sleeping was dangerous. He remembered that from the research he'd undertaken in preparation for Sho's arrival into the world. If he co-slept with Mukai then he could have accidentally wound up suffocating her to death. He didn't want that.
Of course he didn't want that.
Shigeko would have been upset with him…and also he didn't think that he would have been able to live with himself if he killed a child. Adults he could kill, that was fine, but children…especially his own…that was a line that he was not going to cross. Not with his own children or the children of anyone else.
"Come along, let's get you back to your bed." Said Suzuki. He pushed her hand away. She had been hell bent on digging her finger right through his shirt and into his heart…and she would not be deterred even now. She just replaced it with a different hand…she was so determined. He wondered what she would put that determination to next…he really had no idea. He knew nothing at all about her…nothing. She was…she was this person who had made but didn't know. He had, at some point, become one of those men. Father had called them family men since their life's goal seemed to be to start as many families as they could. Father had always told him never to become one of those men. Everyone got one woman and no matter how annoying she was, how difficult, how downright confusing she could get you did not get another one until she died. A man did not step out on his wife no matter what.
Father would have been rolling over in his grave if there had been enough of him left to physically roll over.
Mother would have been beside herself. Somehow she had always managed to see every single failure in his life as something that he had done to plot against her. In a way he had been hurting her, his actions were a reflection of her parenting, but he hadn't made his mistakes to harm her in some way. He hadn't lost control of his powers and broken things to spite her…he hadn't fought the other children to make everyone think that she was a bad mother, and he certainly didn't have impossible dreams back when he'd been a child in order to show mother and father how ungrateful he was for his station in life. Mother…she would not have taken it well….and father….well father would have taken it worse.
He flinched.
He didn't know why he flinched. He was a grown man, forty five year old, and his father had been buried for twenty seven years now. It wasn't like his father was going to shake him out of bed, drag him outside, toss him a shinai, and tell him that it was time to practice. Without armor. Father…well even if his father had still been alive Suzuki no longer had qualms about using his powers against family…mainly because his only family was his offspring…and anyway he was a grown man and he should have been beyond these childish things. His father had only been doing what was right and he had no reason to flinch at the memory of his father doing what was right.
It was too early for all of this. That was the only explanation.
"Don't want to!" said Mukai. She tossed his phone over the side of the bed. He caught it with his powers and put it on the charger. She should not have done that. That had been…something that Sho would have done. He wanted to…well he wanted to do a great many things but he didn't. Shigeko had been very clear that he was not to strike any of them…and anyway he wasn't going to strike someone who couldn't even form coherent sentences yet.
He hadn't started correcting Sho until he'd been three.
"Mukai, the subject is not up for debate, now come along. Let's get you back to your mother." Said Suzuki. He got up from the bed and, after a moment, held his arms out to her. Shigeko and Sho…they used to do this. He used to hold his arms out for them when they'd been toddlers and they jumped into his arms….
That had never been enjoyable.
Masami had insisted that he catch them with his own strength and not his powers. It would have been simpler, and more educational, to catch them with his powers….but she had not been interested in that. She had been more interested in them forming an emotional bond before anything else. It made sense. The books that he'd read about spoke incessantly about the importance of bonding and skin ship. He trusted Masami, and he trusted books, he had never been afraid to trust an expert in a subject that he was ignorant of. Parents were supposed to hold their children…
And this was his child.
"Catch me!" shouted Mukai. She took a running jump off of his bed and threw herself into his arms. Whether her powers, what few powers she might have had at this point, or pure athleticism were to blame for how hard she hit him in the chest he wasn't sure. He used his powers to keep himself upright…though maybe he should have used his powers in the first place. He wasn't as young as he used to be. He had been in his mid-thirties when Sho and Shigeko had been this small…now he was in his mid-forties…almost fifty. Almost late forties…that felt better. Not that he had anything against the age of fifty, or aging in general, that was what people did…they got older…and then they died…sometimes with their dreams going unfulfilled.
His dreams would be fulfilled.
Nothing was going to stop him from ruling the world. He had a destiny and he was going to reach it. Even if he had several distractions to deal with. His personal life and his work life had, at one point, been in perfect balance. He worked and then he came home. Now work and home had blended into…this. Not only had work and home blended but he'd made several mistakes…no…he wasn't supposed to use that word anymore. Mukai was not a mistake. She was just…a factor that he did consider when he had intercourse with her mother. Children were a thing that happened when one ejaculated inside of a woman. Now he was prepared to deal with the consequences of his actions.
He wondered if Shiori was awake yet.
"I caught you." Said Suzuki as he held Mukai in his arms. He had forgotten how…warm…children were. Sho had never been enjoyable to hold, he had never been able to sit still for long periods of time. Shigeko…he wished that he could still hold her…but she was twelve and much too big. His back was barely forgiving him for holding Mukai and she was at least the same size as Shigeko had been at this age.
Much grabbier, though, as grabby as Sho was.
"Caterpillars." Said Mukai as she tugged at his eyebrows. He used to put Sho down when he did this…but Mukai…well if he put her down then she would have just climbed back onto the bed and then they would have been back to square one. He tried his best to pull her hand away, gently, with his powers. He didn't know how own strength and children were somehow both resilient and made of glass at the same time. He didn't want to harm her. Shigeko would have been upset with him…and anyway she didn't mean anything by this. She was just fascinated with his eyebrows.
All of his children had been.
Suzuki was well aware that he had unfortunate eyebrows. Mother had never minced words. She hated his eyebrows. She hated them on him and she'd hated them on father too. Suzuki was well past the point of hating his eyebrows. They were a part of him, one which he could not change, so he had no choice but to accept them. At least nobody ever said anything about them anymore. Back when he'd been small…well it had been such a bother to have to teach a new group of children every single year not to mention his eyebrows or his hair or his freckles or any of the other things which made him different. Children….they could be so cruel…mainly because they didn't have the ability to mask their natural cruelty like adults did. Children were….not the best people….but his children never had to worry about that. They had each other…
But still, he hoped that Mukai didn't end up inheriting his eyebrows.
"Yes, they do look like caterpillars, don't they? I agree with you…now let go of my eyebrows." Said Suzuki as he carried Mukai from his room. He turned the light off with his powers as he walked through the doorway…though that may not have been the best move. He wound up stepping on something…and he was proud that he didn't crop Mukai. He also didn't raise his voice or lose control over his powers. Maybe the hallway hadn't shook on it's own, true, but he'd done well…
At least he thought he had.
"Again!" shouted Mukai. He had been about to drop her…but for some reason she wanted him to stumble again. He didn't understand her…but then again he didn't understand his other children so she wasn't special in that regard. She was kicking him and asking him to drop her again…but he wasn't going to do that. There were dolls in the hallway, many of them, all of them sitting there on the ground waiting to trip him. He brushed them all to the side with his powers.
Though maybe that hadn't been the best choice either.
Between Mukai carrying on and the fact that he hadn't exactly known his own strength when he brushed the dolls to the side of the hallway the children were bound to wake up. The door to their room opened and….oh. Sho. He would have preferred Shigeko, she at least could have carried Mukai back next door to her mother, but this was Sho.
He knew better than to ask anything of Sho.
"What the fuck are you doing to baby sis?! Give her to me! Right now!" said Sho. He said that much too loudly. Suzuki, well if Shigeko hadn't forbidden it, would have shoved Sho into the wall face first a couple of times so he learned his lesson. That was the way punishment was meant to be carried out, quick and to the point, not the sort of long and drawn out thing that made you count the minutes until you were pulled from your bed in the middle of the night….or your parents decided that you were someone worth speaking to again. He really didn't know which was worse.
Both were unpleasant. He preferred his methods of punishment…though it was a moot point since he wasn't allowed to punish Sho at all anymore.
"Don't shout. Don't curse. Don't wake your sister." Said Suzuki as he pulled Mukai away from Sho. He had gotten taller during their separation….but not nearly tall enough that Suzuki would have considered him a threat. Instinctively, of course, since no matter how much time passed he would always be more powerful then Sho could ever hope to be. He was still a little boy and there was no need to even think of things like this…even if Sho was trying to rip Mukai from his arms.
"Don't shout! Don't curse! Don't wake up!" said Mukai as she kicked at Sho. Good. So they were in agreement, he would be the one to carry her home.
"Don't let him get to you! Resist, baby sis, resist!" shouted Sho as he tried to pull Mukai away with his powers. Suzuki put up a barrier and forced himself not to do anything to hurt Sho…even though he deserved it. It would have been so much simpler to just slap him across the face or slam him into the wall…or even just throw him down the stairs. Shigeko…he loved Shigeko and if she didn't want him to punish Sho then…then he would do as his daughter said.
Even if it was very difficult.
"Stop it. Go to sleep before you wake your sister…your older sister." Said Suzuki trying his best to keep quiet. He held Mukai in his arms and made his way down the hall. Sho was easy to shrug off, he may have been a powerful esper but Suzuki was THE most powerful esper in the world. Sho was no match for him.
"Dad! Give me Mukai or-" said Sho. He was tugging on Suzuki as he made his way to the stairs…and that was dangerous…so he had been right to send Sho sliding down the hall. Honestly. That child….he had no idea how he had fathered that child. He knew that he had, of course, since he knew Masami….Sho had just somehow turned into this person despite being half of Suzuki.
Maybe Mukai would fare better.
"Sho fall down." Said Mukai. She pointed behind him as he carried her down the stairs….also very dangerous….but he wasn't angry with her. She was very young and she didn't know any better.
"Be care. I don't want to drop you. Shigeko would be upset with me if I were to drop you…and also I have no wish to harm you. I…do not wish you any harm." Said Suzuki. He…well he cared for her just as he would have cared for anyone he had made. She was his child and….and she was alive because of him. It made no sense to give someone life just to turn around and end it.
Even if the child he gave life was Sho.
Sho was still carrying on by the time Suzuki made it to the bottom of the stairs. He'd taken the stairs slowly, too, for Mukai's sake. By the time he'd made it to the bottom of the stairs the children's bedroom door had opened…which caused a breeze….which was new. He had never felt a breeze, well when a breeze was indoors it was called a draft, inside of this house before…but by the time he took three steps away from the stairs he could see why.
The front door was opened.
He didn't think. He just put up a barrier and felt around for…well anyone who would have wished harm onto him and his family. He clutched Mukai close despite her protests. This was for her own good. There were so many people that wanted him dead…he lived across the way from the most powerful espers Claw had ever collected and yet…calm. Be calm. Be calm and figure out who had…the only person that he could feel was Shigeko.
Of course she was the only person he could feel. She was right beside him.
"Dad….what's happening?" asked Shigeko with a yawn. She had just gotten up. Her hair was a mess and her eyes had sleep in the corners. She needed sleep…and she would…with him. He pulled her close and put a barrier around her. His daughter…his daughters, both of them, were in danger. They were sleeping in his bed. He would keep vigil over them. The others could find and dispose of whoever dared to threaten his children! These were his children and-
A hand tugged on his eyebrow.
"Caterpillars. Yours." Said Mukai as she tugged on his eyebrow. She was so small she didn't know what was happening…ignorance was bliss. Truly.
"Dad? Did you have a bad dream or something? If you want to cuddle something to feel better then you can hold me or one of my stuffed animals or something." Said Shigeko
"He's stealing Mukai! Stop him!" shouted Sho from the top of the stairs. Suzuki had never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. This was his daughter. How could he possibly have been stealing his own daughter? He made her. She was his and nobody else's…well her mother's…and her adoptive mother's…but she was also his.
This was his child.
"Don't be ridiculous. I can't steal her, she's my child, and anyway I was not stealing her. I was taking her back to her mother but now…well now it seems as though someone tried to come in and harm us in some way." said Suzuki
"What?" asked Shigeko as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"Caterpillars. Over there." said Mukai as she reached over and tugged on his other eyebrow…but that was fine. She was calm and that was what mattered. He wouldn't have been able to think otherwise. Sho was carrying on….and Shigeko was waking up….he couldn't focus. Whoever it had been shouldn't have been out of his range yet…if they had been an esper. Normal people…well normal people had their reasons to want him dead too….
The world was full of threats….and his daughters were so very small…
"The door is opened….but don't worry. I'll protect you. Here. Take her to my room and hide until I say that it's safe." Said Suzuki as he handed Shigeko her little sister. He felt lighter…and colder…without her in his arms. She was in Shigeko's arms…that seemed right. Shigeko held her close and didn't even say anything as Mukai tugged at her hair. She was so good with her…she would be so good with his grandchildren too…but that would be a moot point if he couldn't keep his daughters safe!
"Huh? Oh, yeah, Mukai does that sometimes. I don't know how she reaches it…and I told her to stop. Didn't I?" asked Shigeko. She looked down at Mukai. Mukai just stuck out her tongue and kicked her feet.
"Games?" asked Mukai. Shigeko shook her head.
"So…this was her doing? How? She's so very small…she isn't tall enough or strong enough to open that door…and why would she even come here at this hour in the first place?" asked Suzuki
"I don't know how she does it…and I guess she missed me and Sho…or something. We used to share a room before you were here….I don't know. I'm sleepy. I have to get her home before Tsuchiya notices. Ok?" asked Shigeko
"I…am…I find that acceptable. Yes." said Suzuki. Shigeko nodded and then started walking away…with Mukai. He watched them. Every step she took…had it always been so many steps to the door? Why was this house so big? Why were his daughters so small? Why was his son still carrying on? Why-
"If you want middle of the night breakfast I'll make it in a minute." Said Shigeko
"I…am not hungry right now." Said Suzuki
"Oh…ok. You were just watching me with your aura. If you're not hungry then just…go back to sleep or something. I've got this." said Shigeko as she slipped her shoes on with her powers in the genkan. Mukai was shoeless…which meant that she had gone outside without shoes…which meant that her mother had let her leave the house in bare feet…if her mother even realized that she had left. He should have left Mukai with Shigeko.
She was a very good mother despite the fact that she had no children of her own.
"I…I'll do that." Said Suzuki. Mukai was, literally, in good hands. Shigeko knew what she was doing. She was a good daughter and mother…she knew what she was doing and she didn't need him. He had no part to play in this. Of course he didn't. He was only the father and his role in the family was to provide for his children…and that was what he would do, provide.
That was what he was good at. He knew the role he was born to fill and he had no intention of failing…or overstepping. Masami had always tried to get him to step into a different role when it came to the children. She had tried, whenever he was home, to get him to feed the children and bathe them and dress them and all of the other things which they needed when it came to their care. That was not his job, so he didn't have to be good at it, even if he…maybe wanted to try…or at least to hold Mukai a little more. Shigeko had this, though, and he….well he had to go back to sleep. He couldn't do his job, in this family or in life if he did not go back to sleep, and he had so much to do….so very much to do….
In the morning, of course, always in the morning.