Sock skating was the best kind of skating.
"Be care, baby sis, try to balance." Said Sho as he held out his arms. He had been trying to teach baby sis how to sock skate since the floor had been first waxed. That was the best part of the day at Tokyo HQ, when they waxed the floors, but lunchtime was a close second. There was always jello with lunch. Not always with dinner, there was almost never enough left, but there was always plenty with lunch. The multicolored kind…and now he was hungry again…he'd get more jello later.
Right now he needed to teach Mukai how to sock skate.
"They all fall down!" laughed Mukai as she pointed to a bunch of Awakened. They were all trying to use each other to stand up but it made them all fall down. He didn't know why they didn't just let go of each other and stand up on their own. Maybe it was all that stuff that big sis said about friendship and people needing other people….or maybe they were just dumb. Yeah, he'd believe that.
Well whatever. They could be dumb all they wanted, he didn't have time to worry about them, he had enough to worry about when it came to baby sis.
"Yeah, they did…but come on! You can do it." Said Sho. Mukai laughed and started to shuffled. She went way too slow, she didn't know how to build up speed yet, but that was ok. She was little. She didn't know how things went yet. She didn't know how to sock skate or how to tie her own shoes or how to open her own soda or…well other stuff too. Like why she had to stay away from dad and stuff. She was little and he was big and it was his job to teach her stuff.
So that was what he was going to do.
"I think I can! I think I can!" said Mukai as she shuffled a little faster. Sho didn't know if she was saying that she could sock skate or if she just wanted him to read her that book again. She wasn't always the most specific person. Well he could read her the book about the train again, and in English too, because it was a lot easier to learn stuff when you were little like she was. She needed to get better at other languages, too, since they were probably going to move again when summer was over. He hoped they went somewhere nice with long hallways that were good for sock skating.
But short hallways were good too.
Maybe short hallways would have been better, actually, because baby sis was going way too slow at this. She sock skated like big sis used to back when they did this together. She had stuff to do now, well she always had stuff to do, but now she had stuff to do without him. She had to go and do girl stuff with her friend Minori. Sho wanted no part of that. He would rather have stayed here and waiting all day for baby sis to figure out sock skating while the Awakened treated each other like bowling pins than….well anything that had to do with Minori.
Big sis had the weirdest taste in friends.
She really did. She was friends with Minegishi and Minori. They were like the same person almost. Both had purple hair and were really bitchy and…and they both sucked! Well at least Minegishi had never tried to kiss him…his stomach tries to turn inside out at the thought. Gross. He had no idea why anyone would ever have wanted to kiss Minegishi…especially Shimazaki. Ryou should have been smarter than that. He was nice and cool and fun and he smelled good and he was really strong and he made good forts…he could have had anyone but he wanted Minegishi of all people? The same person who ran away from him to go and live in the woods in Osaka or whatever. He hadn't really been listening to big sis past the part where she said that she was brining Minegishi back. Sho had no real reason to listen past that point. Fucking Minegishi…
And, yeah, he knew that Ryou didn't like him like that…but still!
"I'm still coming!" said baby sis. She was still doing her little baby shuffles. He kind of wondered if he should have pushed her. Not in a mean way, of course, but with his powers so she went faster. She could have had some real fun if he did that. Not like now. Sure she was laughing and smiling but that wasn't really fun. Like the story of the people who lived in the cave and were happy because that was what they thought that life was but when they came out they freaked out. It was just like that…yeah.
Huh. So he had learned something in homeschool…maybe it wasn't a waste of time after all.
"Baby sis, come on! Go faster! You can do it!" said Sho. He clapped his hands and motioned for her to keep going. At this rate the wax was going to be all dried off by the time she got to the end. There wasn't anything fun about dry floor wax, he knew, he'd tried sock skating on the dry floor before. All he had done was wear a hole in his socks. There was nothing fun about wearing holes in your socks…especially the part where Fukuda lectured you.
Which made no sense at all!
Those had been Sho's socks and Fukuda…he had been all 'Sho, don't ruin your things' and Sho had been all 'I'm sorry' because he had been too little to tell Fukuda to go fuck himself. He could do that now, he was eleven and a half, almost twelve. Also Fukuda deserved it for making him tell lies and being a bitch bastard to big sis and just…all the other things he did! Like the secret telling! You couldn't just tell a person that you were going to keep all their secrets and then…and then just….not!
Fuck him!
"Well someone's mad." Sho jumped back…and slipped. He wound up on his back…stupid floor wax…and stupid Shimazaki for sneaking up on him like that?!
"Ryou here! Over there!" shouted baby sis. What? So now she knew how to sock skate?! She skated really fast, fast enough to slip, but Shimazaki caught her. That was…why did he catch Mukai and now…Sho was right there! And Ryou…he knew how to predict people's movements…so he knew that Sho had been about to fall down! But all he could do was stand there and laugh…he was such an asshole sometimes….he was the biggest asshole's dick hole….like a girl's asshole's dick hole…and Sho….
Sho still loved him more than anyone else in the world.
"Hey tiny little boss lady. What're you up to?" asked Shimazaki as he picked Mukai up. She laughed and kicked him…but he didn't mind. He didn't mind, too, that Sho was still on the floor. He used to at least help Sho up when he was done laughing at him…but whatever. Sho could get himself up. Baby sis needed helped because she was a baby. He was a kid…so maybe this was good. Maybe Shimazaki didn't see him as a little kid anymore.
Maybe, just maybe, one day Shimazaki would even stop seeing Sho as his kid.
"I'm skating!" said Mukai
"I'm teaching her to skate, sock skate I mean, you know…like we used to." Said Sho as he stood up, on his own, without any help at all from Shimazaki. He didn't need help and he didn't…well he could sock skate without Shimazaki. It wasn't like he had even needed Shimazaki's help back when he'd been little. They had just been having fun and stuff…because they'd been best friends back then…and they kind of still were now…
Even if Shimazaki had gone off on a mission and not brought Sho with.
He smelled liked gun powder. That meant that he'd been out on a mission someplace…and probably for a while. He hadn't seen Shimazaki since baby sis burned herself on the waffle iron…and he hadn't even been there when it happened. If Shimazaki needed help watching her then he could have just woken Sho up and had him help. She was his little sister after all. Shimazaki didn't have to take care of her…and he didn't have to hold her right now either.
Sho could have done that.
"Were you sock skating? Were you having fun? Are you going to take Japan to the sock skating Olympics? Are you? Ae you?" asked Shimazaki. He used the same voice to talk to Mukai that he used to talk to dogs. Mukai didn't seem to mind…but she was Mukai. The only things she minded were bed time, getting her hair combed, and when her mom took her TV away so she could sleep or do baby yoga or something.
"I won!" shouted Mukai. Some of the Awakened started to clap and congratulate her…even though that made no sense. How did you win at sock skating? It wasn't like they had been having a race or anything. He wasn't going to race his own little sister, it wouldn't have been fair, like how it hadn't ever been fair when Shimazaki raced him and won. His legs were longer and he was stronger….he was really strong actually…mostly muscle and skin and tattoos and…and stuff…
Sho looked down at his socks. They had wax on them.
Shimazaki was saying some more stuff to baby sis. Sho wasn't listening. He was too busy looking down at his socks. They were green. The toes were yellow. There was something sticky stuck to the top of his sock. Probably syrup from that morning or something. The whole bottoms of his socks had wax on them. He wiggled his toes. He focused on himself and his feet and not how…Shimazaki…was there and he was…strong…and how good he smelled….and how nice he was….and how cool….and how he looked when…..
Not now. Please, please, please….not now.
"Stop it…" muttered Sho. He tried to think about other things. He thought about his socks, about his shoes, about his hamsters, about his cat, about how his cat liked Fukuda better, about how much he hated Fukuda…about how much he hated dad…about how much he hated it when dad made them have breakfast for dinner…pretty much anything other than Shimazaki…anything other than Ryou….Ryou who was so cool and…and strong….who was made up of skin and muscle and tattoos…a lot of cool ones…
"Sho's sad!" said Mukai. Sho shook his head. He didn't look up, he couldn't, but he could shake his head. He wasn't sad. What he was…nobody could ever know about. Ever. Especially not one of his SISTERS! Nope. This was just a thing that happened to him sometimes that he was going to take to his grave…which would probably be soon since Shimazaki could sense…well Sho wasn't sure all of what he could sense….
If he could sense how Sho was….feeling…right now then Sho was going to Seasoning City and living in the graveyard with grandma and grandpa until it was time to put his ashes in the Suzuki family grave…rock…..thing.
"No, he's fine, don't bother him. Come on, you want to go skating with me? How about that? How's that sound?" asked Shimazaki
"Skating! Right now!" said Mukai. Sho took a deep breath and looked up. Shimazaki was putting her down…and as he did she grabbed onto his shirt. Sho could see the dragon on his chest…and the scar that you really had to look to see…and also the dark red….blood?
Blood?
"What the fuck happened to you?!" asked Sho. Now that he was really looking he could see it. Shimazaki's whole shirt…the front of it…had blood on it. It had been hard to tell because he'd been wearing his red shirt but…but that was blood. Shimazaki didn't bleed…he made others bleed…but now he had blood on him! Sho…he didn't…he had to breathe. In for…he forgot how many he was supposed to breathe in for…and he forgot how many he was supposed to breathe out for too! He just…he just….
He didn't know what he would have done without Shimazaki in his life being all…alive…and stuff.
"Ryou hurt…we go fix! Right now!" said Mukai as she poked him on the chest. He shook her off and put her down.
"I'm fine, that's not my blood." Said Shimazaki. Sho let out a breath he didn't know that he'd been holding. Shimazaki was fine…of course he was fine…and Sho was a really bad friend and person for ever doubting him. This was Shimazaki Ryou. Nothing could hurt him. He hurt other people. Sho hoped that, when he grew up, he ended up being just like Shimazaki….only not in love with someone like Minegishi. That would have sucked more than an out of work business man in a public bathroom during golden week.
"Ryou hurt…over there." said Mukai. She pointed up at Shimazaki just in case Sho forgot who she was talking about. She was nice like that…but also not that smart. Of course Shimazaki was fine.
"That's not his blood, that's traitor blood." Said Sho
"I have no idea if this if from traitors or what. I don't ask questions, I just work." Said Shimazaki
"Do you…have more work to do today? I mean we could hang out if you're done. We could sock skate or…or steal jello…or we could jump out and scare people…or we could make a fort out of the couch in dad's office…you know, that kind of stuff. The stuff we did when I was little." Said Sho. He was maybe too big for some of that stuff, he didn't fit inside of forts so well these days, but…well the other stuff like sock skating or scaring people was fun. Sure they had done that sort of stuff when he'd been little, and he wasn't a little kid anymore, but Sho would have done anything if it meant that h got to spend more time with Shimazaki.
"All I have to do now is give your dad my mission report and then I'm going to go home, wash the blood off, and then crash in bed for a while." Said Shimazaki. Sho glared. He couldn't help it. Going home and going to bed…Sho knew what that meant. He was going to be at home with Minegishi and they were going to do…stuff…together….
Gross.
"Fine. I didn't want to hang out with you anyway." Said Sho. He took baby sis by the hand and turned his back to Shimazaki…even though that was kind of pointless since Shimazaki 'saw' in all directions. He might have even been able to see Sho glaring at the ground in front of him…or the way his eyes were starting to get tears in them…or the way his heart didn't know if it wanted to beat more than ever or not at all.
"Yes you did, you little liar." Said Shimazaki. He flicked Sho over the back of the head before teleporting away…like the asshole's dick hole that he was. Well whatever! So what if he wanted to be like that?! Sho didn't need him anyway. He had…he had a full day of sock skating planned…or however long he had before baby sis's mom came back for her…he had…he had things to do! All kinds of things!
Like teaching baby sis how to sock skate.
"You're a liar! Sho's a liar!" shouted baby sis. Sho…did not get mad. Not even a little bit. She was little and she had no idea at all about what she was even saying.
"Am not, and don't say stuff like that. It's not nice…or whatever. Now come on, I said that I was going to teach you how to sock skate and that's what I'm going to do." Said Sho. He put some space between them, half a hallway, that would be enough for what they needed. She just stood there laughing and patting something in her pockets. Probably someone's phone. Dad said that he was getting her a phone of her own but he would only give it to her when he had time to celebrate all the holidays he missed…and the birthdays…
Fuck him.
Not fuck her, no, he would never even think something like that about baby sis. Sure dad liked her better…and he'd only known her for half a millisecond….and he'd given her up when she'd been born...he was happy that dad loved her and didn't hate her…like dad hated him. Dad really hated him even if he said that he didn't. If dad hadn't hated him then…then he would have been nicer like he was to big sis and baby sis…and he would have remembered Sho's birthday like he remembered both of theirs…
Big sis's birthday was even a Claw holiday!
"Come on, Mukai, you can do it!" said Sho as he held out his arms. She was shuffling along like an old person….and stuff…but that was ok. She was little and stuff. He wasn't mad at her or even annoyed. He was happy….he was happy that she was having fun. She had been really happy since she joined their family…rejoined…and that was a good thing! He'd been working his ass off trying to be a good big brother and…and that was….he was happy to have been able to make her happy.
He liked being a good big brother.
"I think I can…I think I can…." Said Mukai as she shuffled along just as slowly as she had been before.
"Yeah….maybe you could go a little faster?" asked Sho. She was his sister, she should have been able to go faster than that. Even big sis had been able to go faster and she hated sock skating…at least he assumed that she hated it. She wasn't with him, was she? She was off doing her own thing…and he was all alone with baby sis…but that was ok. He was her big brother and he shouldn't have minded watching her…
He didn't mind watching her.
"Here I come!" said Mukai. She didn't go any faster…but she hadn't said that she was going to be going any faster. She had just said that she was coming…and she was…and then when she got to him they would….well he didn't know what he would do then. Something else fun? He could teach her how to build a good fort…or maybe not. Not in dad's office, anyway, maybe at home. He didn't want to be around dad…she did, though, for some reason she liked him.
She liked everyone.
She was baby sis and she was the friendliest baby in the world. She said 'hi' to everyone and wanted to play with everyone…she was baby sis…and it made sense, too, that she liked dad. He had liked dad, too, when he'd been really little. She was the same age he was, well a little younger, when he'd been…well when he'd wanted….when he'd been stupid enough to love dad. When he'd been dumb enough to bug mom, constantly, about when dad would be back. That was how it went when you were little. You loved your parents…even when one of your parents was dad…
She was a baby and she didn't know any better….so it was his job as her big brother to teach her.
"You're doing great…but maybe you should try and go faster. You know, how I was doing." Said Sho. Baby sis shook her head…why? She didn't have to go so slowly. Didn't she trust him? Why didn't she trust him? She knew that he'd always been there for him. She knew that out of everyone else he was the one who visited her. Big sis hadn't even known where she was and dad…dad gave her up…but she still went to play with dad and….and he knew better about dad. She was little. She didn't know any better…and he had to teach her…
"No! Don't want to!" said Mukai. She actually went slower there. She was going extra slow now…and…and he…well he was trying to teach her to sock skate but…but she would never learn if she didn't go any faster!
"You have to! Come on, you know what to do!" said Sho. He maybe shouted a little bit….and that had been wrong…some of the Awakened were looking at him now. He glared at them and they looked away and went back to sock skating….and they were going faster than baby sis! She was his sister! She knew how to sock skate. She knew…she knew what she was doing and…and she just….what? Did she just not trust him or something?!
"I don't want to go fast!" said baby sis. She said that and then…and then she just stopped. She stopped right there and…and that was…she didn't need to do that!? What? Did she not trust him? Did she think that…that he sucked? That he wasn't good at anything? That he sucked the most out of everyone else in the whole world and…and now that she had a big sis and a dad she didn't need a big bother? Did she just….just think that she…that she didn't need him anymore?
Well she did need him.
She needed him because she was little and she didn't know what to do. He knew what to do…and he could help her. He reached out with his powers and helped her…but she didn't want his help. The minute his powers touched her, the minute he tried to push her, she pushed back…and toppled over. She had been pushing back with her body and what little powers she had…she had to use her body since she was only two and didn't have much more than an aura at this point…
He kind of…really fucked up.
"I fell down…" said Mukai. She had fallen on her side…but she wasn't crying. That was good. She wasn't crying at all. She was pushing herself up from the ground….the red ground…
WHAT THE HELL!?
"Mukai! Baby sis…don't move!" said Sho as he ran over. He took about three steps before he slid to the ground. He fell down weird on his knee…and it hurt…but that didn't matter! He had to get to baby sis before she died! She was standing up now and the whole side of her overalls was red…but she was getting up and walking?! What the fuck…how did that even work!? He had read, well Emmy had sent him this thing, about how some people were born without any ability at all to feel pain…but Mukai wasn't one of those people! She cried whenever she got hurt…and she was hurt….but she was acting like she was fine…
Even though she was covered in blood…her whole side was covered in blood….
"Sho fell down….over here." Said Mukai. She came over and tried to pull him up. She grabbed him by the sleeve and started to pull….she even put her aura in it. She was such a good baby sis…and he was such a sucky big brother…
"I'm sorry, Mukai, I never should have pushed you and I never should have tried to make you go faster…I suck…and I'm sorry….I'm so sorry…" said Sho. Baby sis put her hands on either side of his face and started shushing him.
"Sho….you be ok. You hurt….you're hurt….you will be ok!" said Mukai. She looked him right in the eye while she said that. Her eyes were doing that thing they did when she was getting really serious about something…and she was really serious right now. He tried to get up…his knee didn't like that…but he shouldn't have been complaining. She was covered in blood…so much blood that he could smell…
Cherries?
"Mukai…did you have jello in you overalls?" asked Sho. Mukai smiled and stuck her hands in her pockets.
"You have some! Right now!" said Mukai as she shoved handfuls of jello in his face. She was fine…he laughed…even though that gave her a chance to shove pocket jello into his mouth. That was…not good…but she was fine! She was perfectly fine and…and he was so happy…even though he wasn't perfectly fine…
Not perfectly fine at all.
"Baby sis….thanks for the jello….now give me some space. I have to get up and go…go to…" said Sho. He had to get up and go to see Fukuda. He didn't want to see Fukuda…but he also didn't want to end up with a broken leg. Standing up was hard…and his knee was all hot and swollen…he had to get over to Fukuda's office…
He wasn't going to stay long.
He used to hang out with Fukuda all day. They'd play videogames and talk and just…hang out. That was when they'd been friends. Now they were just two people who…they didn't even hang out. They were just two people now. Fukuda used to be so nice to him…when things were bad Fukuda was the person who made everything better…and maybe he still did…
Body stuff, not feelings stuff.
Fukuda…when Sho had been little he used to think that Fukuda could fix anything. No matter how sad he was, or how mad, or how badly dad had hurt him Fukuda had been able to fix it. Fukuda had been able to make him feel better even when dad said the meanest stuff…like…like how Sho was a nightmare and he didn't like him…and how he wished that he had a better son…..Fukuda always made him feel better….he even….he even used to wish that Fukuda had been his dad….but he'd been little then.
He didn't need a dad.
He didn't need a dad and he didn't need another friend…but what he did need was a healer. He was grateful that he had powers. He could make himself float with them and as a bonus baby sis thought that he was cool. He could have just waited to heal on his own and stuff….but then he would have had to float around when he left HQ. There were normal people out there and normal people didn't know about powers…so he had to get healed up…..so that was what he would do. He would float over to Fukuda's office, get healed, and then leave to do more fun stuff with baby sis.
That was how it would go….no matter what Fukuda wanted.
"Whoa! What the fuck?!" asked Hatori. He almost fell out of his chair…he could be kind of dramatic sometimes. He turned all the way around and almost tipped over on his chair. His whole bag of Doritos flew everywhere. Baby sis, of course, ran over and started eating the chips that went on the floor. It was fine, five minute rule and all of that.
He was a god big brother. He put her first…unlike some people….and if she wanted to eat floor chips then she could eat floor chips.
"What the fuck, Sho!? What the fuck, Hat…tor….i?! What the fuck….Fuck…u…da!?" asked baby sis as she ate the floor chips. Fucking Hatori teaching baby sis to fucking curse like this was some kind of fucking cursing match…fuck him…fucking…fucker….person!
"Sho? Mukai? What the hell…what did Shimazaki do this time?" asked Fukuda as he got up from his desk. Sho glared at him and did his best to keep his powers under control. He couldn't teach baby sis to use her powers to hurt people. She did the things that he did…most of the time….and he was supposed to be a good big brother! And he was a good friend too! Fukuda didn't know shit! Shimazaki hadn't done anything…and he never did anything….he was….Fukuda shouldn't have been talking about Shimazaki!
"He didn't do any fucking…he didn't do anything. Me and baby sis were sock skating and we feel down." Said Sho. Fukuda got down to his level…even though he didn't have to. He didn't have to get down on one knee to look Sho in the eye. He wasn't as short as he used to be…and anyway he didn't need…it didn't make him feel better anymore! It didn't make him feel like he wasn't so alone anymore or….or whatever….
He pushed Fukuda away. Not hard enough to hurt him but hard enough that he knew to leave Sho alone.
"Baby Suzuki? What are….what is that? Please don't tell me it's blood…" said Hatori. He said the last part like he was praying. He got down on the ground next to her…and Sho…well he could have told Hatori that getting down on her level was a bad idea…but he didn't much want to warn him. If he wanted to be warned about stuff then dad could have warned him since they were best friends now or whatever.
"Here! For you! You eat this!" said Mukai as she stuffed her hand into her pocket and shoved jello into Hatori's face. He had jello on his face and his glasses and it was even dripping down onto his stupid Pokémon shirt….no, that was mean, Pikachu didn't deserve that.
"Gee….thanks…" said Hatori as he took off his glasses and frowned. Sho knew that he should have felt bad for him…but Hatori had dad to feel bad for him or whatever. He didn't need Sho.
"At least she's ok…ok. Sho, hold still. You really messed your knee up." Said Fukuda as he ran his powers up and down Sho's body. His aura pushed back at Fukuda's. He used to feel better…comforted or whatever…but that was then and this was now and now…now he just…he just wanted to get back to sock skating with his little sister! Was that really too much to ask?!
"Whatever. Just fix it." Said Sho. He didn't care if Fukuda was looking at him like he was hurt or whatever. Sho was hurt and he was going to fix him up because that was his job…then Sho was going to take Mukai and they were going to get back to sock skating. They'd be back to it before Fukuda even said that stupid thing….
No concussions…contusions…or abrasions….
Sho didn't care if Fukuda said that. He didn't care if Fukuda said anything. He didn't care…he didn't think about Fukuda or care about him or…or anything. Sho wasn't a little kid anymore. He didn't think that…he didn't think that he even should have wanted…he didn't want anything! Anything to do with Fukuda…secret teller that he was. What he wanted…he just…he wanted to go sock skating with baby sis…even if they had fallen….even if they'd fallen they just got back up again….that was what you were supposed to do when you fell down….
Whenever you fell down…not just when you were sock skating.