Touichirou had the most bizarre problems.

The most interesting thing that Shiori had planned for after work today was a trip to the aquarium supply store. She had been looking to expand into tropical fish for a while. Starfish were fascinating, but she had enough starfish. What she wanted was something that nobody had, something that was difficult to keep, some little bit of nature that she could control... Or a clownfish, because she liked clownfish. That was the only reason she had called Touichirou…well not the only reason. True she had called to see how under control his little 'breaking things' habit was. The last thing she needed was to have an entire aquarium's worth of water destroying her house, and hundreds of hours of her labor wasted. She had also called just to see how he was, to hear his voice, to see how he was dealing with his kids. She had been expecting his usual family drama, maybe some problems at work, but nothing even close to…to whatever the hell this was…

She didn't even have words for it

"Slow down, Touichirou, it must be a bad connection or something. I didn't catch any of that." Said Shiori as she put her bubble tea down onto her desk. Quitting time was coming soon and when it came she may or may not have been getting a new addition to her home. The 'not' seemed like the most likely option at this point. She couldn't even think about fish after the sheer…sheer bizarreness that she had just heard.

She prayed that it was a bad connection.

"Tadashi is trying to go to bed with me and I would like your thoughts on the subject." Said Touichirou. That didn't help anything. Now she just had more questions…like how this had even come up…and why he was telling her this.

"I'm thinking that this whole situation is pretty damn bizarre, Touichirou. I mean that's a hell of a thing to open with." Said Shiori

"Oh. I apologize. How was your day?" asked Touichirou

"Fine. I dragged some woman out by her ponytail, they forgot the boba in my bubble tea, and I was thinking of heading over to the aquarium store and getting a new tank and a clownfish…can we go back to the thing with your friend now? Just….what even brought this own. You told me that you'd gotten all of that out of your system." Said Shiori

"I don't think that I did….I still think about him." said Touichirou. Shiori had no idea what she was supposed to say to that. There was the immediate 'of course, stupid, you had sex with him' but that would have just made this worse. Touichirou was telling her this because he was worried, she could hear it in his voice….and she would have been too. Touichirou had made himself very clear to his friend…or so he had told her. Knowing Touichirou he could have said anything to that other man…..

"How do you think about him?" asked Shiori

"I think about the way he looks…the way he smells…the memory of him…intimate thoughts." Said Touichirou

"So it's just sexual then." Said Shiori

"I honestly have no idea how I feel. I have this growing need to be beside him but I don't know if this is sexual or…or something else." Said Touichirou. Shiori did not like the way he said something else. What else was there? He had wanted to sleep with this other guy, he had slept with him, and now it was out of his system. Most people got this out of their systems in university, but apparently Touichirou was a bit of a late bloomer.

"If it's sexual then go on, have fun. If it's romantic then kick him to curb." Said Shiori. Obviously, Touichirou did not want a relationship with this other man. It's a relationship with. This other man was something that he was truly after. Then he would have been with this other man. He would never have started any of this up, which she worry. There was no doubt in sure his mind that he loved her, that he was going to be faithful to her, and that if he ever had thoughts of not being faithful to her, she would hunt him down and murder him.

Alright, maybe not murder...

But she would be upset with him. Very upset with him. The most upset with him that she had ever been in her life. Nobody cheated on Shiori. Sure he cheated on others... that one time that had resulted in the creation of his youngest child….but his wife had been gone for years at that point. That was the difference between her and the last Missus Suzuki, she was going to stick around. She wasn't going to give him the chance to cheat.

And she was going to make sure that he never even got that chance.

"You…wouldn't consider it a form of adultery?" asked Touichirou. She had to think about that for a moment. The sex in and of itself meant nothing to her. They were both men. It wasn't the same as if he had been with another woman. So no... the sex was fine. Love, on the other hand... Love was an entirely different matter.

"No, of course not. I don't care what you do with other men as long as you don't plan on leaving me." Said Shiori

"That…does not help me." Said Touichirou. Shiori was ready to slap her head down on the desk so hard she gave herself a concussion. She settled for picking up her bubble tea and pressing it to her forehead. He wasn't going to make this easy on her. Was he?

"Well what do you want me to say?" asked Shiori. With a groan she pressed Her cup of frozen bubble tea to her head. It was only half empty, but it still provided the cooling she needed. She had to get the air conditioner guys out here today... or tomorrow. Summer was upon them, that was why she felt like this...though her boyfriend wasn't exactly helping matters.

"I have no idea what I want you to say. If you could tell me how I feel than that would be perfect…but if you could tell me not to feel anything at all then it would be even better than perfect." Said Touichirou

"You'd really let me have that kind of power over you?" asked Shiori. She sat up quickly, too quickly. Her bubble tea slipped from her hands and made a path directly for her laptop. She caught it at the last moment with her telekinesis, though it did spell... She was going to have to get the rug people out here too. She was going to blame this one on him, him and the sheer absurdity of what he had said, how he could make such a bizarre statement. She knew bits and pieces of his history with this other man, childhood friends at all of that, but that was no excuse to give another human being that much power over him. That was the level of power Shiori had over him. That was her power.

"I would." Said Touichirou. He had responded immediately. He hadn't even had to think….good. He shouldn't have had to think about it. She had that kind of power over him…..but with great power came great responsibility. She didn't know what he was supposed to do in this situation. There was emotional control and then there was what he was talking about. There was nothing more draining than trying to completely turn off your emotions. They were human beings, they had to feel things, and it wasn't always a bad thing,

If Shiori hadn't been pissed off all the time then nothing would have ever gotten done around here.

"Well….I don't know. You have to feel things. You're not a machine. I tried that, to be this cold unfeeling dragon lady, and it doesn't work. I just wound up spending more time managing my emotions than my people." Said Shiori

"That…makes sense. I do spend a large portion of my day managing my emotions…but I want to feel nothing for this man. I want to…I don't want him gone, just from my mind." Said Touichirou

"Then tell him to stop coming onto you. You're the President, aren't you?" asked Shiori. Honestly. This guy'd had years to get his feelings sorted out…and so had Touichirou. It was time to end this already.

"I am, you know that I am." Said Touichirou

"Then why don't you act like it?" asked Shiori. There was nothing more unattractive than when Touichirou got like this.

"Because he is useful to me, And because I don't know what my life would be without him. I've grown very accustomed to him over the years and the thought of being without him... is difficult for me." Said Touichirou

"People come and go. If this guy keeps coming on to you, and you don't want him to come on to you, then tell him to knock it off. If you want to go to bed with him, then go to bed with him. I have no problem with that. If you want to leave me for him, on the other hand, then you and I are going to have a very serious problem." Said Shiori

"No, no, no. I know that I don't want to leave you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I'd imagine I have about forty to fifty years left-" said Touichirou. Shiori had to pull her phone away from her ear. He actually thought he was going to make it that long? With the way he carried on? The way he ate?

"Well, aren't you being optimistic?" said Shiori with a laugh.

"Alright, perhaps 30 to 40 years would be a more accurate estimation of my life span... Though there are accounts. Saying that, we tend to live longer than most people. I would imagine it is the dangerous nature of our work., work most of us find ourselves in, that accounts for our short life spans on average." Said Touichirou

"Even thirty to forty years, Touichi, with the way you eat…." Said Shiori with a roll of her eyes.

"What's wrong with the way I eat?" asked Touichirou. What was right about it? He ate like he had never seen food before. She suspected that he didn't have the same tastebuds as everyone else. Who didn't like sweet foods? Sugar was like cocaine to the human body. Just more of Touichirou's many, somewhat charming, idiosyncrasies she supposed….

"I've seen you drink ketchup." Said Shiori with a laugh. Sure, yes, he was going to make it to ninety six drinking ketchup. She wished him the best with that.

"It's made from tomatoes...which are a fruit...or are they a vegetable?" asked Touichirou

"Somehow, I think they count as both... and also neither? Botany is complicated. I just grow the plants., I don't study them." Said Shiori

"I think you'd have a gift for botany, you're a very talented gardener." Said Touichirou

"I try. So, speaking of living beings that require constant attention, how ae your kids doing?" asked Shiori. Not the smoothest transition but one that she had wanted to make. The last time, well the only time, she had seen Shigeko was the day they'd met…she wondered how she was doing. That must have been a lot for her to take in, to process, especially at her age. She had brought it on herself, she'd been acting up for a while, but still…it had been a lot.

"My children are all still alive." Said Touichirou

"Well I should hope so." Said Shiori with a roll of her eyes. Good job, Touichirou, you keep them alive another day. She kept that to herself, of course. She knew him and she knew that, emotionally, he was going through a lot right now. She'd be there for him, of course, but she just wanted to know how Shigeko was doing. And his other kids, she supposed, though she had only met the boy in passing and the youngest was still a stranger to her. Well they were all strangers to her, really, and they would always be.

She had no desire to be their mother.

A child of her own…she was warming up to the idea. She wasn't preventing but she wasn't actively trying either. She knew that she would be able to handle her own kids. They would have been hers from birth, she would have been the one raising them, and she would have made sure that they didn't grow up to be spoiled brats. It wouldn't be a Dickensian orphanage or anything, her home, but she would have actual rules and boundaries. Her kids would know who was boss…if she had any. That was still up to fate or God or whatever. She knew she was open to the idea of one of her own…but she had no desire to be anyone's stepmother. She had no desire to come in and try to clean up anyone's messes. There was hope for the youngest, she was only three, but the other two were twelve and thirteen. She was not dealing with a teenager and a soon to be teenager…not that she would ask Touichirou to abandon his children….but they had been largely….the whole situation was complicated beyond belief.

She just wanted to know if Shigeko had recovered, she would start with something simple.

"I have no other information, current information, on their states of being." Said Touichirou

"Nothing at all? They don't talk to you? I mean from what your said your oldest is addicted to her phone." Said Shiori

"I haven't spoken to Shigeko in some time…but Hatori did show me some pictures she put up on one of her various picture websites. She went to a cat café, she seemed happy, though I dislike the company she took with her….I don't get a say in this part of her life anymore. I made myself clear and I can't go back on my word." Said Suzuki. Oh yes….he'd made himself perfectly clear all over her front steps. She knew that Shigeko had it coming. She knew that Shigeko was a brat, she had seen firsthand how bratty that girl could be, but that slap had gone beyond discipline…that was as hard as she would have hit one of her subordinates.

But she was dealing with unrelated adults.

"Yeah, you made yourself perfectly clear…how's her face? Did that eye of hers ever end up healing?" asked Shiori. That had been one hell of a hit. A split lip, a black eye, and a bloody nose.

"Her face is normal. Why do you ask?" asked Touichirou

"I was just worried, you hit her pretty hard…I mean that was probably thirteen years of pent up frustration coming out…but still." Said Shiori

"Still?" asked Touichirou

"You hit her way too hard. I never want to see you hit one of our kids that hard, do you hear me?" asked Shiori. Direct. It was best to be direct with hm, otherwise he would never get it. Kids were not subordinates…well they were…but not in the same sense that subordinates were subordinates.

"One of our children? Are you-" said Touichirou

"No, I'm not pregnant. The red tide rose as scheduled. Now tell me that you hear me. You are never going to hit one of our kids that hard, I don't care what they do…and our children will never get that point." Said Shiori. No thirteen year old daughter of hers was going to be walking around acting like she was a grown woman. Her daughter was going to know her place, even if Touichirou didn't know how to teach it to her Without giving her a black eye. That was what Shiori was for. This was why a girl needed her mother.

Mother.

She had never given much thought to the word before, Aside from that pregnancy scare she'd had in university. Mother. She was going to be someone's mother... not this month of course... but she was going to be someone's mother. A child... a year ago a child would have seemed like an absurdity, but now... She could do this. People have been having and raising children since the beginning of time, and she was in a place where she could do it comfortably, and she did love Touichirou. He was not the best father. He wasn't even close to being the best father. She still loved him.

But she already knew better than to leave the parenting decisions to him.

"I agree to never hit our children, the ones which we have together, as hard as I hit Shigeko….now back to the subject of children. Do you want to try again? I don't know when I'll be able to see you again. I can make time but whenever I'm absent-" said Touichirou

"Your work suffers. I know how it goes. Its fine. I'll see you when I see you…but when I see you next I'm probably going to have a proper aquarium so you'd better get that little 'breaking things' problem under control." Said Shiori

"I've been trying to do that for the past….I'll work harder. For you. I would do anything for you. I love you." Said Touichirou. Shiori knew that it was true, that he would do anything for her, that she had that kind of power over him. She liked it. Any woman would have killed to have the power she had. To have him wrapped around her finger...the last Mrs. Suzuki had been an idiot to leave. Shiori was going to stick around for quite a while. The rest of her life. She had no urge to leave him, none at all...

... even if he did have the worst, most bizarre, problems known to humankind.