There was nothing like Valentine's Day in the countryside.
Valentine's Day had always been Minegishi's least favorite holiday. Even Christmas was better than this. During Christmas there was at least plentiful eggnog and the ability to eat yourself into a food coma. Valentine's Day was similar in that there was plenty to eat and drink, but worse in the sense that here as more to do. Christmas was just presents and then dinner, and maybe binge watching whatever Christmas specials Mob picked. Valentine's Day was more involved…
Anything involving going on an actual date was too involved.
Sitting in a restaurant, going on some romantic walk in the park, whatever else Ryou felt like doing…yeah, no. Not for them. They didn't have the energy to perform their relationship for the world to see. Ryou liked attention, he thrived on it, and he loved displaying for the world that he was in a relationship. Minegishi didn't like it, the performance of it, and the attention that came with it. They didn't want to walk around and perform their relationship for the validation of the world. They wanted, if it were up to them, to just treat it like any other day only with more sex, maybe. That would have been heaven on Earth.
This moment in time was heaven on Earth.
It was certainly cold enough to be heaven. If hell was hot then heaven was cold. February in Osaka was cold, there were colder months, but this was winter's last gasp. It didn't smell like snow, at least. It could snow as late as February, of course thanks to global warming it wasn't as bad as it had been when they'd been a kid. No, this was a pretty damn mild February….or maybe things were just better out in the countryside.
They didn't know, they were a lifelong city dweller.
They shifted more to the left, into Matsuo's chest. This was Valentine's Day done right. No one around, no display of anything, no expectations. Just two people who had feelings for each other cuddling together in a hammock. The hammock had been their creation, vines woven together and softened with leaves and flowers. It swayed back and forth, Matsuo's doing. There were three of his spirits beside them. Cotton Candy and Strawberry Custard were holding up either end of their hammock and swaying them back and forth. Caramel Cluster was holding up Matsuo's laptop, his favorite movie was playing on it.
They hadn't known that his favorite movie was The Secret World of Arrietty….but then again they hadn't spent that much time with him, not long enough to get to know him….
"Toshiki, look! This is the best part!" Said Matsuo, his voice reaching octaves previously unknown to man. Minegishi wanted to roll their eyes but didn't go through with it. It was nice to see someone getting excited over something normal…even though this the weakest of the Ghibli films. There was no story here, at least not that could hold their attention. They were tiny people who lived in the walls, the boy was dying, that was the whole movie. They held their tongue, of course. Matsuo liked it and they liked him.
They liked him a lot.
His eyes, they decided, even the one with that gigantic scar over it. They tucked their head lower on his chest. He didn't see well out of that eye, they didn't want to make it any worse, especially if this was his favorite part. He didn't get why, it was just the tiny people walking around in the walls. Sure it looked interesting but it lacked…spectacle was a good word. Spectacle didn't have to be big, like Castle in the Sky, it could have been something as simple as the soot spirits in Totoro. Now that was good animation, even Mob agreed and all she ever watched was Frozen.
Stop thinking about Mob.
"Can you see?" asked Minegishi as they tucked their head down low.
"I'm fine, can you see?" asked Matsuo
"I don't have to, I've seen this before." Said Minegishi
"I can put something else on if you want." Said Matsuo
"No, I'm the one imposing on you. The least I can do is let you watch what you want to watch." Said Minegishi
"Toshiki, I asked you to come here. It's not an imposition." Said Matsuo
"You only asked me to come here because I bitched to you about how impossible Ryou's been lately." Said Minegishi. It hadn't been intentional. They had just needed to talk to someone, someone unrelated to the situation, about the never ending migraine they'd found themselves in. They loved Ryou, they really did, but he could be a little much sometimes. They just…needed to talk to someone who wasn't much of anything…
Well not much of a headache.
Matsuo could be a lot, but in a different way. A good way. He was a lover of kitsch, loud patterns, and even louder…well he could be loud. They didn't mind his band of loud. They didn't really mind anything about him….they hadn't been with him long enough to mind things about him. They had only been with him since…well not even 'with' him. They had been in that bubble for so long that-
They were out of the bubble now, they were calm, and they were going to stay calm.
"No, well yes, but no. I mean you sounded like you needed saving and I was posted all the way out here so…." Said Matsuo
"So you're my knight in shining armor?" asked Minegishi, pressing a kiss to the plastic gems over his heart.
"Well I'll be your knight but shining armor is overrated. I'm your knight in bedazzled armor." Said Matsuo. Minegishi smiled and picked at one of the plastic gems on his sweater. He had taken the time to do it himself, unless of course the Osaka aquarium had really upped their souvenir game. Maybe they should have gotten him…well something other than stickers….well he always needed more stickers but if he would rather have had plastic gems…or something bedazzled. Mob would have gotten a kick out of that…they needed to stop thinking about Mob.
They had come here to get away from Mob.
"Am I your bedazzled damsel in distress, then?" asked Minegishi. They felt a kissed being pressed into their hair. It was rough, the feel of his shirt against their face, but they didn't mind. There were much worse things happening in their life.
"Damsel in distress, no, but I can bedazzle you if you want…well I could if I were back home. Sorry, sorry, I don't know why I said that." Said Matsuo. Minegishi rolled their eyes before they leaned upwards to kiss him. They miscalculated, of course, and the hammock began to tip too far to the left. In their defense they had never been good at math and had been drinking all day. They weren't that far from the ground at least, the only thing that would be bruised in the fall was what they had left of their pride.
The fall never came.
A hang reached out and grabbed their hammock. A shiver went up and down Minegishi's body, stopping only to make their stomach twist and turn. Too close to a spirit. Too close to being physically…aurally…touched. Their passive range had never been that good, they had never gotten used to spirits evil or otherwise, and being this near to one of them was just plain unpleasant.
They might have preferred to have gone toppling down to the ground.
"Well you're not a damsel but you're definitely in distress." Said Matsuo
"And you're still my knight in bejeweled armor." Said Minegishi as they pulled themselves back into the hammock. The feeling went away, the full body unpleasantness, as the spirit pulled it's hand out of their passive range. They let their aura touch Matsuo's, they had already been a thousand times more intimate than this so it didn't matter, and they buried themselves in him. Ryou had said, once, that this was like humming, like they were trying to match his octave. They couldn't hear it but they could feel it, their aura rising and falling with his. It was nice even though his aura felt…off. Probably because he took in spirits, ate them, when he needed a quick power boost. They wondered if that was a form of cannibalism, since all spirits had once been human. Mob wouldn't have minded if it was, she had made her views on cannibalism very clear…damn it.
Stop thinking about Mob.
"Are you alright, Toshiki? You've been kind of off all day. Jet lag?" asked Matsuo
"No, I'm only an hour behind. It's just…I don't know. Mob. Ryou. Life." Said Minegishi
"He's not actually dating her, is he? Because I heard through the grapevine-" said Matsuo
"Tell the grapevine that if it doesn't learn to shut it's mouth there won't be gape harvest this year." Said Minegishi. Matsuo shrank back from them, just a bit, enough for them to notice but not enough to overbalance them both….damn it…
Right, this wasn't Ryou.
"Sorry, sorry. it's just a sore subject for me. He's not dating her. He's attracted to her emotionally, and maybe physically I honestly don't want to know, but he isn't dating her. He knows Suzuki would come after him and probably kill him, or at least make him wish he was dead. If Suzuki doesn't show mercy to people who talk during meetings, take excessive breaks, and steal printer paper then I don't know why in the hell Ryou thinks he'd show mercy to the guy who's trying to date his daughter." Said Minegishi
"Also the age thing, Toshiki. I think that the age thing would probably be a problem…" said Matsuo. Minegishi groaned. Right. It was one thing for Ryou to spill his entire past out onto their feet. It was another thing to see it reflected in the present. Minegishi…had no illusions about the man they were in love with. He was just that immature that he could be on the same level as Mob and he was just that socially out of touch, he had never had to be in touch, to want to openly have a relationship with her or someone her age. He also never learned from his mistakes. This time it wouldn't be banishment, no, this time he'd die. The only reason he'd been banished the first time was because nobody had been able to figure out how to kill him.
Suzuki would have no such problems.
Even this far away from the city center they could still sort of feel him if they focused. He was that speck of red out on the horizon, a miniature sun in the shape of a man. Ryou didn't stand a chance against him. He could teleport, sure, but that wouldn't save him if Suzuki was determined…and he would be. Mob could stop him from teleporting and she wasn't even fully gown yet. Suzuki…they hadn't even seen the upper limits of his power….they got the feeling that they never wanted to see that…
Ryou may have been an idiot about a lot of things but regardless of how he felt he knew better than to repeat history.
"Ryou is…himself. I don't condone what he does but I'm not going to get up on my soapbox and preach to him. It's not like I'm perfect." Said Minegishi
"I know you've got your problems but addiction isn't anything like-" said Matsuo
"Can we drop this? Please? I came here not to think about Ryou and Mob and now you're talking about them. Ryou isn't dating her. He's smarter than that and she's smart enough…she's too smart for him…at last I wish that she was." Said Minegishi
"Toshiki? Are you-" said Matsuo. He put a hand on the top of their head. They shook it off.
"Did I tell you? She wants to have a baby…and honest to God baby. She can…I mean physically she can but…I have no idea what's wrong with her sometimes. She has a two year old sister and that's baby enough for all of us. She's twelve years old and she thinks that this is a good idea…well of course she thinks it's a good idea, she's twelve. It's impossible for her to think things through! She thinks that a baby is all fun and games. She thinks that if she has a baby then she'll finally feel fulfilled or whatever. She thinks…she isn't thinking! She's talking about bringing an entirely new human being into this shitshow! The only reason I'm here and not handcuffed to her is because I know she doesn't have anyone to sleep with….oh, and did I tell you? She slept with some kid, just let him shoot one off, and-and-and-" said Minegishi. They were being pulled into a hug, now, their hammock becoming unbalanced. Matsuo had his spirits stabilize it, he didn't even have to say anything. He just held them and pressed a kiss to the top of their head.
They touched the scar over his eye.
They pulled away and touched his eye. The scar over it. What were they going on about? He had real problems…worse problems. Mob was…she was being stupid but that was parr for the course with her. She never thought anything through, Minegishi was her voice of reason, and it was exhausting….but it could have been worse. They could have been Mob's voice of reason and they could have had Matsuo's job. Scars…they were the lowest of the upper echelons. They not only did the work Suzuki was too lazy to do but the work that the other members of the upper echelons pushed down onto them too. He was all the way out here literally chasing ghosts. He could be recalled back to the Seventh Division at any moment. Hell, Suzuki could have started another territory war….they had their own problems and he had his. They shouldn't have unloaded their problems onto him.
They shouldn't have needed to do that.
"It's ok, Toshiki, it's ok. I'm sure that she's just…getting into her rebellious phase or something. I remember when I was her age I tried to give myself a tongue tattoo of Mothra….which I know isn't as bad…" said Matsuo
"I know. A baby I can deal with, tongue tattoos and I just might have to defect." Said Minegishi with a smile that they were sure hadn't reached their eyes. If Matsuo had seen anything in the darkness he hadn't said anything. All he did was lean in close and kiss them.
Lemon-lime Chapstick.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have put all of that onto you. You have your own problems to deal with." Said Minegishi as Matsuo pulled away from them.
"That's what boyfriends are for, right?" asked Matsuo. Minegishi…was not going to start a fight. Being their boyfriend didn't mean that he had to be their emotional dumping ground. They had problems, everyone had problems, but they could deal with their own shit on their own. Mob…she was home and she was fine and all of this would pass. Suzuki would knock up another mistress and then she'd have all the baby she ever wanted. Ryou would come to his senses at some point and realize that fucking the boss's underage daughter was exactly what had gotten him into this mess in the first place. This was…this was something that they had to deal with. They weren't Ryou, they weren't needy, and yes, they would say that he was needy….
They were used to it, that didn't mean that they liked it, and it certainly didn't mean that they wanted to emulate it…so they weren't going to.
"Come on, let's finish the movie." Said Minegishi. They didn't want to get into it with him right now. They had come here to they wouldn't have had to get into it with anyone. This was a holiday, wasn't it supposed to be relaxing or whatever? Hadn't they come here to relax and get out from under Ryou's mountain of expectations? Dates and love and his ever present, ever suffocating, need? Need for them to listen, to hold him, to assure him that he mattered. That he was seen and heard and loved and that he mattered. That he mattered to them, that he wasn't useless to them, that they weren't planning on locking him away in some dusty old room when they were done with him like an unwanted plaything?
They needed a drink.
They needed a drink, an Xanax, and a bowl. The good stuff, the stuff that they'd grown. Now that would have been a good time. Maybe next year they could just celebrate with Mob. She was pretty devoted to making all of their mistakes, to ending up just like them, so why not move up the time table? Since she was so committed to becoming them, all the worst parts of them, then why not? She was just…this was why they had never wanted kids. Mob wasn't even theirs, and they had only come into her life when she had been eight and a half, but look at where they had brought her? What she had become…they had never asked to be a parent. They had never asked to be a lot of things, for a lot of things, but….this was what it was. It was Valentine's Day, they were here in this hammock with Matsuo watching movies in the cold, and they had might as well made the best of this. Valentine's Day was their least favorite holiday, so for their least favorite holiday it was going relatively well. Maybe they'd come back next time…maybe. Possibly, if things didn't get any better, they'd come back to where at least they could have a minute's peace.
Valentine's Day in the countryside was nice…but they would rather have skipped this holiday altogether if they could have.