Sho never knocked.

"Fukuda! You better not have tried to feed them without me!" shouted Sho as he kicked his shoes off in the genkan. He didn't face them the right way, there wasn't any point to it. Fukuda's were faced wrong too. What was the point of facing your shoes if you were just going to leave right out the door again? He wasn't going to stay long, just long enough to get his pets fed and read to. Fukuda wasn't that much fun to hang out with anymore. Nobody was fun to hang out with…maybe Shimazaki, when he wasn't being a coward, but…well aside from him nobody else was fun to hang out with. Big sis was at her party and even if she had been home he still wouldn't have wanted to hang out with her. She just…wasn't that much fun anymore. Little sis was more fun than her and right now all she wanted to do was read the stupid caterpillar book over and over again. Hatori wasn't fun either even if he did know a lot of fun games. No way was Sho being friends with anyone who was friends with Dad. Serizawa wasn't fun, either, for the same reason. Shibata treated him like he was a baby, Minegishi was a bitch bastard, and Tsuchiya was always trying to do Mom stuff to him.

He was all alone….at least he had hamsters.

"Fukuda? I know you're home, I can feel your aura!" said Sho. Fukuda wasn't that far away, still in the house. He should have been able to hear Sho. Maybe he had headphones on or something. Well whatever then, he didn't care. He just had to take care of his hamsters and then go home so he could draw some more and then…well and then he would go to bed and get up again and do the same thing over and over again until he died.

Not fun.

Shimazaki had always said that being bored was the same as being dead. Sho kind of got that. Sometimes he felt all dead on the inside, not bad but not anything at all. Sort of like being cold. He only got that way when he thought too much about his life and how he was always going to be alone and how he was never going to see the love of his life ever again…and how everyone had betrayed him in some way….

Hamsters made him feel better.

He followed the hamster tunnels until he got to the kitchen. That was where their main room was, the one he fed them in, because it just made the most sense. If he was going to be cooking their meals, hamster food tasted gross, then it made sense to keep their stuff in the kitchen. Even though it made the kitchen smell weird…whatever, he didn't have to live here and his hamsters deserved the best. The loved him and trusted him. He was never going to do anything to betray them. Sho was a lot of things but a betrayer wasn't one of them.

Unlike some people.

"I've been calling you and calling you, stop ignoring me." Said Sho. He was careful not to shout in here. His hamster might not have been able to totally understand what he was saying but they did know tones. If you shouted when they were around then they got scared and if he scared them then that would have been the same as betraying them and Sho was not a betrayer!

If he was then he would have had to change his name to Fukuda.

"Oh, hey Sho. How…how are you?" asked Fukuda as he looked up from his cup of tea. He hadn't known what to do so he'd poured himself a cup of tea. He had poured it and then…well and then he'd had to wait for it to cool down. It must have been ice cold by now, that was how thermodynamics worked or whatever, but he just…didn't know what to do. If he drank his tea then he wouldn't have had a cup of tea anymore and then he wouldn't have anything to do…and then he could have done anything…

He didn't want to do anything.

"We don't have time for small talk, everyone's starving!" said Sho as he opened the fridge with his powers. He was going to make all kinds of hamster pancakes for them. Salads, too, hamsters loved salad. He didn't need help and if Fukuda wanted to stare at the stupid Zootopia mug Sho had gotten him from stupid Disneyland like the stupid kid he'd been then, fine, he could be stupid as much as he wanted!

"If you're hungry I can make you dinner." Said Fukuda. There. Something that he could do. Then he'd have something to do….until Sho left. And Sho would leave. He wasn't a little kid anymore. He wouldn't just stay here all night and watch TV or play video games or…or any of the things that they used to do together. Sho would leave him and then….and then he would be alone. All alone, here, with nothing to do but wait…wait for…he didn't even know. He just knew that the last thing he wanted to do was be alone. He wanted…he needed….he should have…..

Fukuda really should have gone with Masami.

It would have been great. Him and her, and Sho, together. Even if they had been on the run for the rest of their lives it still would have been a hell of a lot better than…than this. For all of them. For her. Yes, he had to think about her. He didn't know where she was or what she was doing but he knew that she must have been miserable. He had promised her that he'd bring her Sho. He hadn't. He had promised her that he would keep Shigeko safe. He hadn't. He promised her…the promised her a lot of things that he hadn't delivered on. He should have just taken Sho and gone after her while he still had the chance. Now she was gone.

And he was alone.

"I'm not starving, they're starving. I'm fine." Said Sho. He closed the fridge and put the salad stuff on the table. He knew that it came in bags but he liked to do it himself. When you loved someone you fed them, like how big sis fed him even though he could get his own food now. She had been too busy to make him dinner before her dumb party thing…but it was whatever. He liked poptarts and he could have eaten them every single night, day, and the in between times too.

"I guess your sister made you dinner." Said Fukuda. Shigeko. She and Suzuki were two of a kind. She had always been so much like him…who knew how else she would take after him. There was some sympathy, there, for the men in her life. Nobody should have had to go through…things which he had gone through.

"No, I made it myself." Said Sho as he washed the lettuce. The last thing he needed was for his hamsters to get sick. They trusted him and when someone or something trusted you then you didn't make them sick so they died and then the survivors would be all 'why did you kill my friends' and then…um….and then it would have sucked! He didn't know exactly how it would suck but he did know that it would suck and he just….he couldn't work with Fukuda talking to him like that!

"Poptarts?" asked Fukuda with a shake of his head. He ran his aura over Sho's…he wasn't doing so well. More cavities, it felt like. Fukuda wouldn't have let that happen to Sho if he'd been his son…but Sho wasn't his son. He was Suzuk-he was Masami's son and she would have taken better care of him. Sho…his life could have been better if Fukuda had just done what he said that he would. But no, he had thought that his hands had been tied. He'd been such a moron back then….a naïve moron.

"And mochi, but the fruit kind so it was healthy." Said Sho as he shrugged Fukuda's aura off. He wasn't a little kid anymore. He could take care of himself. It wasn't like anyone else was going to take care of him…well besides big sis…but he didn't want her to take care of him. She'd done enough. She only did what she wanted to do, not what he needed her to do, and the worst part was that she didn't even care. She could read, she knew what 'cover for me' met, but she had chosen to come after him and-and-and ruin everything!

"Alright then." Said Fukuda. He looked back down at his tea. Sho wasn't a little boy anymore. He made his own choices and Fukuda didn't get a say in them. Not even about something as simple as what he had for dinner. Mochi and poptarts…Masami would have been so angry with him….she would have been a lot of things with him. He had failed her in every single way…and he'd slept with her husband. Would she have even cared?

It wasn't like she was around to give her commentary on the situation.

Maybe it was better that he was never going to see her again. How could he have possibly even begun to explain any of this to her? That Sho was his own man at the age of twelve? That Shigeko is, was, and had been her own woman since the age of-of he didn't even know? That he'd spent the entirety of the holidays making her husband see stars. That wasn't an exaggeration. Suzuki had said, during, that he could see stars shooting across his field of vision. That was a blood pressure thing or…something. Fukuda didn't know how the human body worked, he just healed it. Wasn't that just…the most bizarrely disturbing thing in the world.

He had no idea how he could have possibly explained this to Masami….so it was good that he'd never have to.

"Alright? Is that all you have to say? You're not going to tell me that I have to eat from all the food groups or I'll never grow up to be big and strong or whatever?" asked Sho. He turned around. He had to see this to believe it. Fukuda was always telling him what to do and now…now what? Did he not…care anymore? That was…whatever. Sho didn't need anyone to take care of him, he could take care of himself.

"You've already grown up big and strong, Sho, stronger than a lot of people. Stronger than me, anyway." Said Fukuda

"What's with you?" asked Sho. This was weird. Like he had fallen into another dimension or something. One where Fukuda was…this guy now? This sad guy who drank tea and treated Sho like he was twelve instead of two.

"Nothing! Nothing. I've just…been a little upset, lately. That's all." said Fukuda. No. Sho could not know. If Sho knew then Fukuda knew, he was completely certain, that he'd wind up describing it to a therapist in twenty years.

"Well yeah, of course you feel like shit. You're best friends with dad." Said Sho. Fukuda's whole aura jumped…weird. Weird and kind of…normal. Fukuda was Dad's best friend after all, he was close enough to know to be scared of him. If Shimazaki was scared of Dad, and he was the bravest person Sho had ever met in his life, then what chance did Fukuda have? Wait, no, Shimazaki wasn't the bravest…Ritsu was the bravest….Sho grabbed a knife from the block with his powers. The salad stuff was clean enough. He had to make dinner for his hamster and not…not think about…about how much he missed…about how much this hurt….

"Why did you mention your father?" asked Fukuda. His blood had gone ice cold. That was…Sho didn't know. There was no way in hell that Sho would have known. He had been half a world away with the others meeting Santa Claus and watching the last of the icecaps melting or whatever. There was no way that Sho knew what had happened. There was no way that this could have gotten back to Sho. Suzuki had decided that it was one of those things that they were never speaking of again…and who would he have even told? Who WANTED to know about his sex life? Who-breathe. Breathe Tadashi, come on.

"Because he's an asshole and if I had to be friends with him then I'd have run away or frozen myself or…or something." Said Sho

"You're not still thinking about it, are you?" asked Fukuda. Running away….Sho had always made it seem so simple. There was no running away. He had only known of one person who had managed to run away from Suzuki and that was Masami. She wasn't a Claw member. The only way that anyone could leave Claw was through death…but if there had been a way out then he would have taken it.

"Don't ask me what I think about. You can't know! Nobody can know!" said Sho. He banged the knife on the table and immediately wished that he would have taken it back. His hamsters were scared, now, and it was al his fault. He was no better than Dad, scaring people that he should have bene taken care of. He just…he had to make them dinner and then he could go home. He had the whole room to himself, he could stay up as late as he wanted and do whatever he wanted, so he would just…figure out whatever it was that he was going to do.

Anything was fine so long as he didn't have to talk about it…how he felt.

How every single day he thought about running away, about going, about just….putting on his shoes and leaving. Nobody ever left Claw. Dad would never let him leave. Fukuda had said, before, that Dad didn't need him. Everyone in Claw was replaceable and Dad was going to replace him with a new son. That was crazy talk. Girls didn't like Dad…nobody liked Dad. Sho…if he were replaceable then he could have left…but he couldn't…and he didn't even want to think about it! The only thing he would do was hurt his own feelings if he thought about….about how he could have been with Ritsu. If he had been someone else. If he had been someone else or…or if he had been brave enough to try and leave or-or-or-

Other stuff that Fukuda didn't need to know about!

"I meant…if you're still thinking about running away. Defecting." Said Fukuda. It was….a thought. Leaving. He didn't even know what he would have done without Claw. So much of his life had been spent with Suzuki. Thirty years…he had no idea how long he was going to live for but he had already spent so much of his life in Claw. He had told himself before, so many times before, that he was in too deep. That he had already spent so much of his life building up Claw that he just didn't have any time left…that he didn't have a chance at anything close to a normal life. That was before Suzuki had decided to take this thing to strange, new, and unwanted places. Now…he couldn't do it again…but he knew Suzuki. He would. This was going to happen again. This was going to keep on happening for as long as Fukuda was in Claw…

For as long as there was a Claw.

"Yeah but it's…whatever. It's not like it's ever going to happen. Dad never lets anyone get away, first of all, and even if I did run away then Claw would still take over the world and Dad would be the president of the world like he wants and-and he doesn't deserve it!" said Sho. He couldn't help it. He was just….mad! Why did Fukuda have to bring all of this up right now! He had made his point, there was no way he was helping Sho, and there was no way that Sho could take Dad down without help!

"What if you had help?" asked Fukuda. He didn't want to take it back. Sho…he was so much like Suzuki. Sometimes in the right way. The way he said it, that he wanted to take down Claw, that he was going to….that if he had help….

He was going to have help.

"Then I'd win, obviously." Said Sho rolling his eyes. Of course he would have won. He was Suzuki Sho.

"Let me help you." Said Fukuda. There, that fire…that certainty. Sho was a powerful esper in his own right. Maybe….maybe if he had help then he could have taken this thing down…or at least he could have taken Suzuki down a little. If things went wrong then Fukuda would take full responsibility and whatever came with it. He didn't know if he could ever be killed but….but even that would have been better than having to spend another night with Suzuki.

"I'm not a baby, I know how to use a knife." Said Sho as he rolled his eyes. Even big sis trusted him with knives and she still ran his baths and tried to tuck him in at night. Fukuda treated him like such a little baby sometimes…it was kind of nice, him being normal and stuff.

"No, I mean let me help you…let me help you take Claw down." Said Fukuda. Sho dropped the knife. It went right through his pant leg and into his skin. He bled. He didn't react. He just stared. Fukuda didn't blame him. He knew that he had just dropped one hell of a bombshell…but it was one that needed to be dropped. Claw needed to be stopped, Suzuki needed to be stopped, and Sho…he need out….

…and so did Fukuda.