Bananas couldn't roll.

"Go, bananas, go!" shouted Mukai as she tried to make her banana roll. It was a race from one side of the plane to the other. She had to win! If she won then she got to eat her banana! If she lost then she got to eat Ryou's banana…but none of the bananas would get eaten if they didn't roll!

Only round things could roll.

"Go better!" shouted Mukai as she rolled her bananas herself with her hands. Ryou was catching up! He couldn't win! She wouldn't let him win! She was the winner, she was the best Mukai, and if he won then he would be the best Mukai and then…and then she didn't know who she would be!

"I'm catching up, you'd better watch out!" shouted Shimazaki. He had no intention of winning, of course, there was no sport in winning against a two year old. Besides, this wasn't a 'win at any cost' kind of game. This was a 'get Mukai to eat a fucking piece of fruit so Tsuchiya would stop stressing herself out' sort of thing. Kids needed fruits and vegetables and multi-vitamins that smelled and tasted like pieces of gummy candy. They were fragile like that, they needed the right food and stuff, or they'd never grow up and die of malnutrition or something. Shimazaki was responsible for a lot of death and fucked up shit but kid killing wasn't on that list.

"No, no, no! I'm the winner!" shouted Mukai. She picked up her banana and held it to her chest. She laid down on the floor of the plane and rolled. There. Now she was going to win! She was a smart Mukai! She was the smartest Mukai in the whole world…

But oh no!

Ryou was copying her like a copycat! Right there! He was trying to roll too, she could see it! Every time she faced him she could see him trying to roll…and he was trying to win! He was bigger and he could roll better, he was the best roller in the whole wide world! But no! She was the best! Mama said so! Mama didn't tell lies!

That was bad and Mama was not bad!

"You're not bad, Mama! You don't tell lies!" shouted Mukai as she rolled across the plane with her banana. She could see Mama, sort of, when she her head was facing in the right direction. Mama's colors were showing….but they weren't very bright….but she was there and she was watching and Mama was always so proud of her!

She waved at Mama. She didn't see if Mama waved back.

"You're doing great Mukai, proud of you." Said Tsuchiya as Mukai rolled past. Somehow she and Shimazaki had gotten into some kind of rolling across the floor contest. Mukai was winning, obviously, since she wasn't the size of a grown man. Tsuchiya wanted to tell her to get off the ground and to stop playing with her food but it would have been pointless. President Suzuki would have just undermined her like he always did….

Well he was her father after all.

She hadn't ever given it much though, blood, and what it meant. She had always known where Mukai had come from. President Suzuki apparently had all sorts of illicit affairs with his underlings, a cliched vice if there ever was one, and Mukai was the product of one of those affairs. Tsuchiya had always known but she hadn't given it much thought. President Suzuki hadn't wanted anything to do with her for two years…but that had ended months ago. Now he was, in his mind, the perfect father….and that meant letting his daughter do whatever the hell she wanted to do. Tsuchiya was her mother…but not fully, it felt like. She had been there for every scraped knee, diaper change, and midnight feeding. She had been there for her first steps and her first words…but she didn't share a drop of blood with Mukai…and apparently to President Suzuki blood was thicker than water.

Which meant that he got supreme authority over Mukai…despite that fact that he hadn't given a damn about her for her entire life up to this point.

"See how they run…" muttered Minegishi as they turned the page in their book. The potted plant, a very chatty little fern, wasn't taking this plane ride well. A plane ride was hell enough but a plain ride in the winter with a hyperactive two year old and Ryou, who was pretty much somewhere between two and twelve maturity wise, was hell on Earth…or at fifty thousand feet. They thanked God that they wouldn't be going very far this time. Somewhere else cold, of course, but it was what it was. They didn't set the schedule and honestly they didn't want to. They wanted zero responsibility right now, none, they were officially done with responsibility for the rest of the year!

And January wasn't even over yet.

"Don't sing, please. If you sing then you'll get him singing." Said Shibata. Had plane ride always been this…stressful? Normally he just kept his headphones in the whole time. That wasn't an option, now, since he finally had someone to talk to. Not that he didn't like the kids! They just did their own thing. Minegishi didn't like to be bothered, either, and Hatori…well President Suzuki pretty much monopolized his time. The only person Serizawa really hung out with was Mob and Shimazaki….well the last thing he wanted to do was speak to Shimazaki Ryou.

Tsuchiya, on the other hand, was good company.

"I don't mind it that much, Hiroshi, it's better than them rolling on the floor." Said Tsuchiya. They felt Minegishi's aura on hers. She looked over. They were staring at her with what would have been a raised eyebrow if they'd had any. The effect, honestly, was kind of…not good…not that she would ever have said anything to them. She didn't like laying into people about things that they couldn't control.

"I don't mind either…Hiroshi." Said Minegishi, with a raised eyebrow. Well Mob was going to have a field day with this. Good. She needed to think about other people's love lives besides her own. She was still hung up over that kid, they figured, and they didn't blame her. It wasn't ever easy…especially at her age. It got better, physically and emotionally, and Mob…well Mob would figure that out later on. Much later. Right now she needed to stick to kid stuff, like playing videogames with Serizawa, or rolling around on the ground with Ryou…

Or maybe not that. Maybe just the videogames and prying into other people's love lives thing.

"Well, if neither of you mind…I mean…" said Shibata. He shifted in his seat. Tsuchiya and him weren't exactly a thing but they were on a given name basis….which was more than he'd ever been with any of these guys.

"Suzuki, probably, will mind…so it's best not to get Ryou the human juke box going." said Minegishi

"It'd be nice if he minded something…" muttered Shibata. He had no idea if Shimazaki was serious or not about having feelings for Mob. He had said that it wasn't a sex thing but that was exactly what someone would have said if it was a sex thing…but then again this was Shimazaki and he was just as likely to admit when it was a sex thing. It had better not have been a sex thing or any other kind of thing. Shibata didn't like to fight unless he had to but if this was some kind of…he didn't even want to know what…then he was putting Shimazaki in the ground. He didn't know how he was supposed to win against a guy who could teleport but he was going to try his best.

"President Suzuki somehow minds everything and nothing at the same time…it's honestly kind of disconcerting." Said Tsuchiya. She'd heard tales of him killing a man for breathing too loudly, once, during a meeting…but here he was on this tiny airplane perfectly content to let his youngest daughter roll around on the floor screaming. His son was off in his own world occasionally coming back to planet Earth so he could glare daggers at everyone. His daughter…well she didn't know the complete story of what Shigeko got up to but what she did know…well it was amazing what President Suzuki let her get up to.

Maybe it was true, how you could never fully know a person…especially from a distance.

"What about President Suzuki?" asked Suzuki. Even from this distance he knew when he was being spoken of. He looked up from his work, his legitimate work. Another asset he would have to personally acquire and an actual in person physical meeting with some triad or other…this was going to be a busy trip….but this was good for him. The more he had to do the less time he would have to ruminate on certain developments in his life.

Or, rather, the lack of certain developments in his life.

He felt an aura on his. Tsuchiya was looking at him, now. They made eye contact. She was…a woman. Not unattractive but certainly not his type. The last thing he wanted was a woman who was physically stronger than him. It just…wasn't attractive. Sure she was an esper, and not that powerful as far as espers went, but she just…wasn't his type. He had one, now, or maybe he'd always had one and it had taken him time to figure it out. His type had been, before, just whoever would have him. He was older, now, and he had more to offer a woman….he had everything to offer a woman. Any woman. Even the most perfect woman…for him, anyway. Every single time he found a woman, a woman who was his type, the most perfect woman for him she either left or…or told him that she wasn't looking to marry anyone right now….

He looked away. He'd didn't have time for women right now.

"Nothing!" said Tsuchiya. They'd made eye contact…he had beautiful eyes. She had no idea what to call that shade of blue, sapphire maybe? She didn't know what they were called but she did know that they were beautiful. Mukai's eyes. If he had been anyone else then she would have been happy to have looked into his eyes but this was President Suzuki. It was…not pleasant, looking at him, having him look at her. It was best, maybe, that they didn't spend a lot of time looking at one another.

She didn't know if she wanted more kids right now but she did know that she didn't want to have any with him.

"Don't talk to my Dad! It's a bad idea!" shouted Sho. What was with Tsuchiya? She better not have been thinking of making friends with Dad. Dad had already converted Hatori to his side…that was bad. Hatori was really useful, he could steal money and mess with records and stuff. The most important part of Claw, Fukuda had said, was the money and the records. It wasn't about having the strongest espers or the biggest army, it was about being able to pay every and to know who was who, where they were supposed to be, and what they were supposed to be doing.

That was what it was to run Claw…and it was a lot of work. Sho was glad that he didn't have to be king or President or whatever of the world. It looked like a real headache.

"Sho, don't shout at people. I'm getting a headache." Said Fukuda as he rubbed his temples. He banished the pain, again, but it always came back. This was just…less chaos than there could have been but more than there needed to be. Mukai was only two years old, and she took after Sho, so it was alright for he to carry on like this. Shimazaki on the other hand….

"I could kick you in the chest to distract from the pain in your head." Said Shimazaki as he stopped rolling beside where Sho and Fukuda were sitting. He couldn't believe that Sho had chosen here of all places to sit. He was done with Fukuda, he'd said. Shimazaki guessed that he'd changed his mind….for whatever reason. It didn't matter, Sho was his own tiny little man and he could do whatever his tiny little heart desired. Even leave him for Fukuda. Whatever. Shimazaki had a new tiny little person to hang out with.

"Somehow that doesn't appeal to me." Said Fukuda

"Well it appeals to me, who doesn't like a little wanton violence in the middle of an otherwise dreary plane ride? Come on, Sho, back me up." Said Shimazaki

"I'm kind of busy, Shimazaki, but we can hang out later." Said Sho. He didn't really want to kick Fukuda in the chest, violence was fun and all but Fukuda was kind of ok right now, but he did want to hang out with him. Like they had before. Shimazaki and Mukai looked like they were having fun, Mukai was rolling around on the other side of the plane saying over and over again that she'd won. He kind of wanted to have fun too but…but right now he had plans to make. Taking down Claw was as much work, it felt like, as running it.

"That's…that's cool. Whatever. Me and your sister are having the time of our lives anyway. Aren't we Mukai?" asked Shimazaki. Sho had other shit to do. That was fine. People had lives and shit. Sho was busy, Mukai was busy, Minegishi needed peace and quiet…whatever. He could deal with that. He wasn't needy.

"I'm the winner! Me!" shouted Mukai as she jumped to her feet! She was the winner and now she had to eat her banana…but the wrapper wouldn't come off. She tried to bite into it but it tasted bad. She put her teeth to the other side and bit into it…and the other side….it still tasted bad! She didn't know why it tasted bad, it made no sense. When Mama made these for her they tasted good! Maybe because Mama cut them up and put them on her special Tangled plate. Everything tasted better when you could see Rapunzel. She was the best of all the princess friends. Shigeko thought Elsa was the best.

Shigeko was wrong.

Sometimes big people could be wrong. Shigeko thought that Elsa and Anna were the best but they weren't because their movie didn't have Rapunzel. She had long hair with braids like Mukai did. Also her songs were better. Big people could be so dumb sometimes. Like Ryou, he was stuck in the middle of the plane. Maybe Fuckuda could get him unstuck, with Sho's help he could do anything! Sho was good at thing…he should have played too…but he wouldn't have won. Mukai was the winner but she couldn't eat her prize! But maybe Sho could open it for her! He was good at taking the wrappers off of things!

Sho would help!

Mukai took one step before she was covered in someone's colors. Red, but not Sho's red. Sho's red was the same sort of red as apples. It was a good sort of red. This was Caterpillars' red. His red was too bright, like the sort of red that came out of you when you got an owie. She didn't know why someone as nice as Caterpillars could have such a mean colored thing of colors. Everyone needed a red like hers, she was red like Strawberries which were the best fruit ever. Bananas were good too, though….and maybe Caterpillars knew how to get the wrappers off!

He knew a lot of things, too, but not as many as Sho did.

"Open this! Open this! You know how!" shouted Mukai as she was floated up and over. Hatori was there and he was fun but he didn't know about things. He mostly just knew about games but Seri knew more so he was more fun to play with. He didn't even have games on his computer screen! He was just reading words…he was boring. She didn't want to play with him, she wanted to…she wanted to eat her banana! She poked Caterpillars with it. He would know what to do, and if not him then Sho.

Big people were good at opening things. They knew a lot of things.

"I do know how to open a banana, yes, but are you sure you want this one? it's been on the floor." Said Suzuki as he inspected the banana in his hand. This was not at all worthy of his daughter. Maybe they could visit a banana…forest? Huh. It just occurred to him that he had no idea where bananas came from. Well he knew that they came from trees but he was no cholorkinetic, he didn't know the specific terminology. Minegishi might have known….but he had no desire to speak to them right now.

He had no desire to speak to any female human being, born female or otherwise, who was not related to him in some way.

"It's got a pretty thick skin, though, don't you think?" asked Hatori. He knew what was coming. If Mukai decided that she wanted another banana Hatori was going to be the guy sent to get it for her. That would then put him in Shimazaki's path. The last thing he wanted to deal with was that guy…and not just because he was an asshole. He'd been extra weird, lately, with Mob…Hatori hoped to God that he hadn't been lying about it not being a sex thing. Mob didn't need that in her life. Hatori didn't know why Suzuki let Shimazaki live, especially with the way he acted around Mob….but Suzuki was a weird guy. Who knew why he did the things he did?

Well Fukuda was their resident Suzuki expert but after what Suzuki had told him….yeah, Hatori didn't want to see or speak to Fukuda ever again.

"It's bruised, though, it's not good enough for her." said Suzuki. His children deserved the best…or at least his daughters did. His son…well he was lucky he was even there. Tetsuro was going to be more grateful, and obedient, than Sho ever was…if there was even going to be a Tetsuro. Shiori had said that she needed more time to think about marriage and children. They weren't broken up, she had been very clear about that, but they also weren't proceeding with their relationship according to plan. Why? What was she waiting for? She said that she had to wait until she was certain…but hadn't she been certain before? He was certain. He was beyond certain. She…women were so confusing sometimes. Most of the times.

"Does she even mind?" asked Hatori. He'd seen her eat chips and other crumbs out of the couch cushions before.

"I have no idea. Mukai, do you mind that your banana is bruised? Would you like another one or would you like to eat this one? Is the bruising a problem for you" asked Suzuki. Children, or at least daughters, were so simple at this age. She wasn't a complicated person, Mukai, she wanted what she wanted and she didn't keep it a secret. She didn't tell him that she needed more time. She didn't act contrary to his orders. She was practically perfect in every way. She would grow up, though, and then….well and then there would have been nothing that he could do. She was going to grow up and become her own person…she'd wear makeup and high heeled shoes and color her hair and spend time in the company of men…who she had feelings for….

Thank God Shigeko was with Serizawa.

He didn't like Shimazaki. If it had been up to him then Shimazaki would have been reassigned to the ends of the Earth years ago. It wasn't up to him, though, despite the fact that he was not only the President of Claw but Shigeko's father. He knew that if he ever even though about banishing Shimazaki then Shigeko would never have been able to forgive him. She would have left, she would have taken her newfound independence and walked right out of his life, and then….and then he didn't know what he would do. She was becoming a stranger to him, this short woman who had taken the place of his oldest daughter, but he still had his attachment to her. This was…inevitable. Nature's way. She was clearly in the middle of puberty and with that came….things which he chose not to ruminate over. This was what it was and she was who she was….and she could be who she was with Serizawa, not Shimazaki.

He hoped that in ten years Mukai wasn't going to give him the same sort of problems.

"Not a problem! Open my banana!" said Mukai as she held out her hands. Caterpillars did what she told him to do. He was nice like that. All of her friends were nice. Her friends here and her friends from the other place. She didn't know what other place it had been but she knew that she had lived somewhere before with white walls and the people there had been very nice. These people were nice, too, they did what she told them to do. She had the best friends in the whole world!

And she had a banana too!

"Go, banana, go! Go, banana, go!" shouted Mukai. She ran away as soon as her feet touched the ground. She ran past Hatori, making sure to hold her banana really close so he could see it. She jumped over Ryou, well she landed on him but he said that it didn't count, and she showed Sho and Fukuda. They saw and said that it was nice. She showed Mama, too, but not for very long because whenever she had a good snack Mama took it away. She could be mean like that, but not as mean as Mine. She didn't show Mine at all, they were always mean. Shibata was nice and he made better snacks than this…she hoped that he made waffles, she liked waffles. Waffles were the best but so were other things, like pancakes, and bananas! Everyone had to see that she had a banana so that they would know about it and be proud of her!

Wait, she'd forgotten Shigeko!

"I forgot you! I forgot Shigeko! I forgot Seri!" said Mukai. She showed them her banana…it was a little broken…as she'd been running the top fell off…and now it wasn't a very good banana at all!

"It looks really good, Mukai, really tasty." Said Serizawa. She was looking at it and her eyes were filling up with tears…he hated it when he cried but he had no idea how to make her stop! She needed…she needed another banana but he would have to get up to get her one and they were flying so high and right now the only thing keeping him calm was Miss Suzuki…and he couldn't leave her side….

"No it doesn't!" shouted Mukai

"I-I-I-Whatever you say!" said Serizawa

"Whatever I say! Me, Mukai!" said Mukai

"That's right, you're Mukai. Now, do you want another one? That one's all broken and smushed and dirty. We have other ones, good ones in the snack cart…um…and other snacks too." asked Mob. Mukai needed to stop running around and playing with her food. She was just going to keep on ruining it and then Mob would have to get her more. If she got up and got Mukai another banana then she would have had to cross paths with Shimazaki…that was the last thing she wanted. He hadn't kissed her in a while….but that just meant that he wanted to kiss her now more than ever. She didn't want to kiss him at all, she was tired of people trying to kiss her. She just…she just wanted to play videogames with Serizawa.

He was a good friend. He had never once tried to kiss her.

"This one! This one! This one for me!" shouted Mukai

"Maybe there's some way to…to save this one? I mean if she wants-sorry! I'm sorry, that was dumb…I'm dumb sometimes." Said Serizawa. Sometimes he had no idea what he was even saying. He just…said things, maybe to make up for the fact that he had spent so many years of his life without saying a word to anymore. She liked it when he talked to her, and to other people, and he would do whatever she wanted. She was Miss Suzuki and…and he was doing his best. His best just…kind of wasn't good enough sometimes….most of the time…

"No you're not and I don't want you saying things like that about yourself." Said Mob. She patted him on the hand. He always said bad things about himself. She didn't know how she was supposed to make him stop…but she was happy to figure it out. She would rather have spent the rest of her life trying to figure out how to make Serizawa see himself the way she saw him than…a lot of other things she had to do. Shimazaki was looking at her again and…and she knew that she had been avoiding him and she knew how he didn't like it but…..but other people needed her! They needed her and she needed….what she needed didn't matter. That was just how this worked. Other people needed things from her but she didn't get to need things from anyone else…

It wasn't fair but that was just…life, she supposed.

"You're dumb! You're a dummy! Dummy!" shouted Mukai. Ryou laughed….that meant that she did good! Mama said not to call people that but Mama wasn't fun. Ryou was fun, he was the most fun person…well maybe Sho was the most fun…or maybe they both were the most fun! Shigeko and Seri weren't fun, though.

"That's enough, Mukai, come on. Let's go get another banana." Said Mob. She would have to talk to Mukai, later, about mean words and nice ones. She had tried before but Mukai might have still been too little to understand. She didn't understand everything just yet and…and that was ok. Mob was her big sister and it was her job to teach her this kind of stuff.

Everyone had jobs and this was Mob's…and she needed to do her job. That mattered much more than what she wanted.

Which was why she had to get Mukai away from Serizawa. She knew that she was going to wind up putting herself in Shimazaki's path but right now Serizawa needed her and so did Mukai. Serizawa felt bad enough about himself as it was and Mukai…well she was a lot like Sho and dad. They both got really grumpy when they didn't have enough to eat or when they didn't get enough sleep. Mob had gotten lucky, she hadn't gotten that from Dad, and it wasn't fair that Mukai and Sho had….but that was ok. Mob was here for her.

And also there were plenty of bananas here for her too.

"Go bananas! Go bananas!" shouted Mukai. Now Shigeko could race with her and Ryou! This was going to be the best thing ever They were on a plane and they were playing and everyone was together….even Caterpillars was back! This was the best thing in the whole of best things and-and she was going to win again!

Go bananas! Go and win!