Shiori had never been a big fan of jewelry.

Necklaces and earrings were just something else for an enemy to grab onto in the middle of a fight. She tried, she always tried, to put as much distance between herself and her opponent as possible but that wasn't always possible. She had to really focus to lift or push something as heavy as a person with telekinesis. Not everyone could be Touichirou. He had, she had never seen it but she'd heard stories, lifted an entire room full of people once without moving a muscle. His kids, or at least the oldest girl, were the same way…

She wondered what their kid would be able to do.

"Shut up." Said Shiori, partially to her blaring alarm and partially to her own brain. She'd been up for a while now, it had been one of those restless nights. Not in the good way, no, Touichirou was out of the country and she knew better than to bring another man into her bed. They were a couple, she had stumbled into a relationship with him, and…well they may have been about to be much more….

She reached for her alarm.

"Damn it!" said Shiori. She slept, when she slept alone, with her hands steepled and tucked under her head. She had always slept like that, she didn't know why she did it beyond comfort. Normally her hands were bare, she had never cared for jewelry, but last night she had tried something new.

And now it was tangled in her hair.

She reached over with her telekinesis and shut her alarm off…and knocked the clock onto the floor. Great. Now she had two problems. She decided to focus on the first, and most pressing matter. The ring caught in her hair. She sat up and pulled it free slowly. It came loose, eventually, along with a few strands of her hair. Nothing major, not like that one fight she'd been in with that pyro-kinetic, but enough to annoy her. Those had been strander of black hair. She didn't know how much of that she had left. The grey streak she'd had since her mid-thirties didn't bother her that much anymore, it was what it was, but the thought of it getting bigger…colonizing her hair, was just a bit too much right now.

Just a bit.

The lines in her face were starting to get clearer. Crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, laugh lines around her mouth, even a crease in her forehead if she stared at herself for long enough. Not that she made it a habit to stare at herself. She was getting older, there was nothing that she could do to stop the march of time, and she wasn't going to go through any dramatic medical lengths. No. That would be admitting that she had lost the fight. Sometimes it was better not to fight. Sometimes it was better to admit when you were outmatched.

It didn't happen to her often but she knew that in a fight against time and her own genetics she had no chance of winning.

Against this ring, however, she did have a chance of winning and she had won. She always won, when she fought, she just never started a fight that she couldn't win. She had her ambitions, everyone did, but she kept them reasonable. She wanted to control a city and now she controlled a city. She wanted her own house and now she had her own house. She wanted mastery and control over as much of nature as she could and now she had an amazing garden and a series of very complex and involved aquariums. A cat, too, but that was mostly to stave off the loneliness. That old cliché was true, it was lonely at the top. Company…well she'd had plenty of it, before, enough of it that she'd gotten sick of everyone. Jodo and his cult….well that was over with now. She had her own home and all the blissful solitude that she needed, company when she wanted it, and she was happy with what she had.

She really way.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed and got up. Time to greet the day. She picked up her alarm clock and put it back where it belonged. No time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling, and contemplate life even if she had wanted to. She had business to attend to, a cat to feed, and at some point starfish tanks to clean out. Time to get up, get dressed, and make up for all time she'd wasted in her life. Forty years. She had spent twenty of those under her parents, ten of those under Jodo, and another ten building her life up to what it was now.

She was so behind.

She could have, if she'd had any sense, controlled more than Osaka. She could have had this entire section of Japan. She would have started back when Touichirou was still taking the north. He could have had the north, she could have had the south, and then there would have been a reason for them to marry. There was no reason, no good one anyway. He'd been married before and it had fallen apart. She'd been strung along, and doing the stringing, for nearly a decade before this. He had three children. She didn't even know if she wanted them. He controlled most of Japan and a few places overseas. She controlled Osaka. It wasn't as though they were uniting Japan like the nobles of old by getting married. It wasn't like she was pregnant and they had to get married to perform their best approximation of 'the normal family'. Hell, they weren't even a couple of stupid twenty sometimes racing for some arbitrary date so they could prove their own normalcy to their peers. They were just two people in their forties, in a relationship, with no reason to take the next step….

She took off her ring.

She slid it off of her finger easily. It was the perfect size…which meant that either Touichirou had a future in the jewelry business or he'd tied a string around her finger as she slept. She would have believed either. At least he had saved her the trouble of needing to get one of these things resized…if she was even going to keep them. She didn't even know which one she liked best…or if she even wanted them. He had just pulled a handful of rings from his pocket, put them on her fingers, and asked her to marry him. It hadn't even been a private moment! Hatori had been right there…what, did he need a witness? Did he need to have someone vouch for the fact that she'd said…

She had no idea what she would have said.

She walked over to her vanity table, tossing her nightshirt over her head as she went. One of Touichirou's shirts that she'd borrowed, or liberated, depending on the view one took of the situation. She let it fall to the floor, she wouldn't wash it. Not yet. Not while it still smelled like him. She'd put it through the wash when he came back and then she'd slip it back into his things. He either hadn't noticed or hadn't cared that she'd stolen his shirt…or maybe he just took the attitude, now, that his things were her things and her things were his things. That was the attitude that you had to have when you were married, right? And Touichirou seemed to think that their marriage was a given at this point. He had all but declared that they would be getting married. He had even done the unthinkable for her….well the unthinkable for any other man. If she had asked any man, any of the men that she'd been with, to sleep with another man she would have gotten answers ranging from 'no' to 'fuck no' to 'what in the hell is the matter with you, you crazy bitch'. Touichirou had actually gone through with it…well the fact that he had just discovered that he was bisexual helped…

How a person could go their whole life without knowing such a basic fact about themselves was beyond her.

She was Sakata Shiori. She knew exactly who she was. She was going to rule over Osaka totally and completely one day. She knew who she was going to be. She would have ruled the world if she could have. It wasn't feasible, though. She hadn't had the start in life Touichirou'd had, she wasn't as powerful as he was, and she didn't have the time he'd had. Apparently he had been working towards this since middle school. Now he was the biggest name in…well a lot of things. Crime. Business. Real estate. The general esper underworld. She was just….Shiori…and she could have been more. If she'd just had more time she could have been more.

She didn't need Touichirou to make her more than she was now.

She tossed her ring into her seldom used jewelry box. She owned some jewelry, of course. Pieces that caught her eye. Mostly stones and gems, bits of turquoise and crystals at the ends of necklaces and strung around bracelets. A few childish novelty earrings she wore when she was alone. Nothing for Touichirou to go off of, which was why he'd gotten her everything but the kitchen sink when it came to these rings. Gold, silver, platinum. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds...he'd certainly gone all out. If he had actually asked her she would have told him that wearing rings was a good way to get your finger degloved in a fight and she would rather have just had something breakable, moveable, like a silicon ring…

If she'd actually wanted a ring.

She still didn't know. She had tried one on for size and…it had been a heavy thing. Cumbersome. It had gotten in the way more than anything. She was going to give that one back…she was going to give all of these back…or maybe she was going to keep them. She really didn't know. She sighed and sat down at her vanity. Her reflection stared back at her. The lines in her face had gotten just a little more clearer…no point in worrying about it. If she worried about it then she would try and do something about it and if she did something about then she would end up losing. Sakata Shiori did not lose. So she would leave them be. Time was immovable, immutable, and she couldn't fight it. She would….what was it the kids said again? Lean in? That sounded right….Touichirou would have known. He was the one with children.

Three kids…and he wanted more.

She pressed her hand to her stomach. There was McBurney incision from an appendectomy she'd gotten as a child. A long ugly thing. It was matched with one even longer and uglier, a vertical incision right down the middle. Some idiot with the power to turn psychic energy into bladed weapons had attempted, and failed, to gut her like a fish. He hadn't even made it through the muscle….that had been a fun stay in the hospital. She didn't know if she wanted to add to her collection of scars. She didn't need another one on her stomach, certainly not a c-section scar. She had looked it up, it was said to be safer for a woman her age…she didn't even know if she wanted kids. This was not the life to bring a child into, first of all. The bullet wound through her left arm was testament to that. She didn't even know if she could have cared for a child…if she had it in her. If this was a fight that she even could win.

Touichirou certainly wasn't winning.

His kids ran wild. His son was a terror, his oldest daughter was a brat, and the youngest was a toddler. All toddlers, there were no exceptions, were tiny little demons. She didn't know if she could have handled it, one of her own. A tiny little monster running her ragged and destroying her house. It didn't get better when they got older, either. He'd lost control over his son long ago and his daughter…well she was worse than any boy could have been….

Shiori didn't think that her daughter would have been any different.

Shiori, when she had been young, had wanted nothing more than to be grown up. To wear cute clothes, hang out with hot guys, party and drink and smoke….that was just how girls were. Touichirou's daughter was nearly thirteen and she'd colored her hair, wore makeup and heels, hung around boys…well grown men…and that wasn't even getting into the drinking and smoking. Touichirou let her. He may have been able to reduce grown men to tears by the mere mention of his name but when it came to his daughters he was a big old softie. She knew that if they had a girl then she would end up running wild just like Shigeko did…like Shiori had wanted to…

Shiori wouldn't let her daughter get away with that.

She wasn't a softie, not like Touichirou. She couldn't afford to be soft in any aspect of her life. That went for parenting…if she had been a parent. If she had been a mother there was no way that her twelve year old daughter would have been wearing makeup, dying her hair, drinking, smoking, or spending time with grown men. Her little girl was going to act like a little girl. Her daughter would challenge her, all kids challenged their parents, but Shiori was ready to rise to that challenge. She wasn't about to start a fight she couldn't win…and of course she would be able to win in a fight against a teenage girl.

Touichirou wanted a boy.

He had this idea in his head that his son was going to be the best of the both of them. Like they had a choice. Shiori didn't gamble, not even a trip to the pachinko parlor after work, she had never enjoyed playing her odds. If the odds weren't in her favor then she wasn't going to try. Their kids would have been the worst of them. Their kid, their son, might have been just as…whatever….as Touichirou's son was now. The boy was willful, that was what she had gathered. He insisted that he was gay, as if he could know that at his age, he insisted on running around and shirking his responsibilities to his family, he insisted on fighting his father on everything….hell, according to Touichirou even bath time of all things was a long screaming match. She knew that their kid would argue with them, it would be willful, with Touichirou's genetics there was a good chance that their kid was going to be less than straight, their kids…their kids were going to run them ragged. They could win that fight…they could have if they had been younger. She was forty going on forty one, he was forty five going on forty six, and by the time their kid graduated from high school she and Touichirou would probably be in an old folk's home….that is if they started now….

She had no idea if they were going to start now.

Her phone chimed. She called it over with her powers. There was only one person who it could have been this early, unless of course something had gone wrong and now her people were running around trying to put out some kind of fire. She clicked her phone on…no fires. Touichirou, like she had thought. He knew her schedule. He must have been sitting up by the phone for an hour waiting for her to get up. They got up around the same time each day but he was in Shanghai, an hour behind her….he moved all the time….would their hypothetical kid have even known him? Did he plan on leaving the kid here with her while he went about his globetrotting life? Was he-

She'd focus on his message now and then worry herself into knots later.

'Good morning. I love you. In my eyes you have achieved physical perfection and I will never criticize your appearance.'

Touichirou. Typical Touichirou. Well someone had been chewing on something all night. He did this a lot. He had these conversations with himself and she got to hear the end of them. She put her phone down and looked in the mirror. Lines on her face. A grey streak in her hair. Scars. Old bullet wounds. Her skin was clearly losing it's elasticity. Her breasts…well she knew that he didn't mind those. Oh yes, he had made it PERFECTLY clear that he had no problem with the fact that they didn't point north anymore. Apparently he thought that she was perfect. She'd heard it from men before, of course. The old 'I don't know why you girls wear so much makeup, you look so much better without it'. She took a moment. Touichirou didn't mean it like that.

She had no idea what it was that he meant but she knew he wasn't trying to get in her pants. He already had an open invitation.

'Thanks. You look great too. Any particular reason we're complimenting each other this morning?'

It was best to get to the point with him when he was like this. His mind was a labyrinth and even he got lost in it sometimes. She put her phone down, face down, and got on with her morning. She called her bra over with her powers, her most comfortable one. Tan, plain, and boring. It wasn't like anyone was going to be seeing it today. Touichirou was an ocean away. This was a comfortable bra day, she decided, since she had do much to do.

Things that would get to later.

'I compliment you because I love you. Also I don't know if you're contemplating altering your appearance but I want you to know that I find you perfect as you are. I will never criticize your physical appearance. I know now that doing so will hurt you emotionally.'

Shiori clicked her tongue. Well something had happened. She would have to get to the bottom of this…well she could have just left it alone. She could have just put on her bra, and the rest of her clothes, and then did the rest of what she had to do to get ready in the morning without a single thought to Touichirou and what he meant, what was happening in his head…it would have been easy….

'What brought this on?'

She could have gone about her day but in doing so she would just have had this hanging over her head. Him. Whatever he was going on about. It was the declaration of love that had gotten her. Maybe she was a hell of a lot softer than she'd ever thought. Maybe their kid was doomed, in that case. Maybe they had no business ever reproducing. Maybe they were better off living the rest of their lives as that weird childless couple with too many cats….their married life….their hypothetical married life.

'My daughter and I had an argument. I criticized her appearance. It harmed her emotionally. I know better than to do that now. Also last night you watched the premiere of your plastic surgery show. Out of curiosity was it infected?'

She laughed. She covered her mouth and laughed. How did he…he remembered the strangest things abut her. That more than made up for the fact that he'd gotten into another fight with his daughter. Their never ending war. Suzuki Touichirou, conqueror of the world, but locked in a constant battle for power with a twelve year old girl, and also he was the keeper of trivial information on the comings and goings of his girlfriend…fiancée….girlfriend….

'Yes. Three massive infections. I taped it if you want to watch with me next time you're in town.'

She didn't put her phone down that time. She stared at it. There were the three dots. He was typing. He hadn't even waited to think…she felt like a kid again. Like she was sixteen years old waiting up by the phone for a boy to call. God, she should have been past this by now.

'I'm going to be busy in China for the foreseeable future. I can send for you.'

Shiori shook her head. She wasn't going to be doing that. She knew that if she started going to him then he would have grown to expect it, to expect her to drop everything and come running to him. She had her own life to live and she wasn't going to give that up for him or for anyone. No man or…or anyone.

'I'm busy here. Give me the address where you're staying, I'll mail you your Valentine's Day chocolates.'

Now there was nothing. No three dots. She put her phone down, face up, and finished putting her bra on. It didn't take long, not long enough for him to respond. She stared at her phone for a moment. Nothing. Maybe he was busy, or pouting, or just…she didn't care. She had to get dressed. She stood up and, in the moment her feet touched the ground and her legs straightened out, her phone chimed. Perfect timing as usual.

'I don't like chocolate. I would rather see you in person. I want to see you. I'll be there for the holiday but not for long. Also we don't have to have intercourse but if we do I would like to pass on performing oral sex on you for now. I can return in five to seven days to perform oral sex on you if you want me to.'

Shiori did some mental math…well then. He really did notice everything, didn't he? He remembered the strangest things about her…well at least he was honest. That was…sweet. He was sweet. He was somehow the sweetest man in the world, or at least that she had met. She had never known a man to be as transparently sweet and thoughtful as him…and as strange. To the point. He never wasted time. Like her he realized how little there was and how much had to be done with what little they had….

'I'd like to see you and as for sex we don't have to do anything that you don't want to do.'

She got the feeling that if she'd pushed for it he would have gone down on her even during….not that she would ever have asked that of him. He loved her that much…and she loved him. She loved him, she loved her boyfriend, and…and she wasn't opposed to being with him. She wasn't opposed to marrying him. It was the rest of it. What was marriage but two rings and a piece of paper? The part about children….about merging their lives…that was what scared her….but being with him wasn't so bad. Actually it sounded pretty appealing, in it's own way. No more dealing with men, no more being out there, and…and he was her equal….

And he did care for her.

She picked out a ring at random. A silver band with a small diamond in the middle. Something that wouldn't get caught in her hair. She slipped it onto her finger…it fit. It wasn't that heavy, silver was lighter than gold. The diamond was smaller…it was smaller….but it fit. Maybe this one wouldn't get in the way. She'd have to try it on for a while, wear it around, wear it in. She could do that for him…and for herself. She never started fights she couldn't finish…but this wasn't a fight. This was just….a ring…a ring she was trying on….

She had never cared for jewelry…but for him she could try.