Mob liked hanging out with her friends.

That was what this was, hanging out, that was all that this was. She was sitting on the floor next to Serizawa watching a very interesting show about people who were stuck in a videogame. That was normal. She was also sitting next to Shimazaki and telling him what going on. That was also normal. Also sometimes Shimazaki leaned in and kissed her, held her hand, or played with her hair. That was also normal. He had been doing that since last fall. He liked to hold her and kiss her and stuff because he liked her…

He more than liked her.

He LOVED her. Love. The thing that made your heart go doki-doki. That thing that made you dizzy and nauseous but in a good way. That thing that made you want to climb up on the roof and scream, as loud as you could, that you were in love with the person that you were in love with. Nobody had ever felt that way about her before. Ever. She had felt that way about other people…but that was over now. She knew that Teru didn't love her and that she hadn't ever really been in love with him. She had been in love with the idea of him, the Teru who she had created in her mind. The real Teru was a jerk who kicked you out after you and him did all the things. The real Teru…well she had been about to leave, but not forever. Not like…like she didn't want to be with him anymore. She would never have treated him like that…she would never have treated someone she loved like that.

She could never have hurt someone she loved like that.

And it did hurt. It had hurt when it happened and it hurt now. Thinking about it. About how…how he hadn't wanted her. How they had been as close as two people could be, how they had done all the things, and how he could just tell her that…that he wanted nothing to do with her. It always hurt when a boy said that he didn't love you. Hatori had told her that he hadn't loved her, and she had loved him a lot. She had been ready to marry him and hold his hand and kiss him, but nothing else because she had been too little, but he'd said that he didn't love her….but that was ok. He had at least said it. He hadn't waited until after they'd done all the things to tell her that he didn't like her….he hadn't waited until everything was done to hurt her…

She hadn't even gotten Shoko out of it.

Not a Shoko or a Shigeo…the idea of it, of having someone who would love her forever, had gotten her through the worst of those feelings. Well there was no chance of that so the feelings were coming back….or maybe they were back because she had been thinking about breaking hearts lately. Not her own, of course, she couldn't break her own heart…but she could break someone else's. Shimazaki's hand moved from her shoulder to her waist. This was ok too. She didn't mind this…she didn't mind anything…at least she thought that she didn't.

The whole thing was very confusing.

She let him rest his hand on her waist. He was staring at her, she could tell. His aura was on hers. She wondered what he was thinking. He was probably bored since he had no idea what was going on. It was a fight scene now, they'd finally gotten to the boss, and it was mostly just screaming. She should have found something with narration. She should have been a better friend….a better girlfriend. Was she a bad girlfriend? Was he thinking that about her right now? Was he waiting, at this moment, for the chance to break her heart? Or was he thinking the same sorts of thoughts that she was thinking. Was he too afraid to break her heart to say anything? To say that doing all the things…having sex…felt really good but also really weird at the same time and that it could never happen again? Even though it was even better than when you were alone? And even though Minegishi said, out loud over the phone, that it didn't matter to them? Even though the guilt ate you alive….guilt that it was dumb to have? Was he thinking-

-Mob got the feeling that he wasn't thinking anything like that at all.

"Um….should I go?" asked Serizawa. He didn't know what he was supposed to do in this situation. He knew that they were a couple and he knew that couples kissed…and also he knew that this wasn't for him to see! It was one thing to watch people kiss in a movie or a game or something but it was another to look over and see….that! Also it was kind of weird since Shimazaki was so much older…or maybe Serizawa was weird for thinking that this was any of his business. It really wasn't, not at all. This was so, incredibly, not his business that-that he was going to stop looking now.

He turned to look at the TV. He decided that from now on his eyes were never leaving it, even if it turned off. This was the only safe place to look.

"No, you can stay. It's your room after all." said Mob as she wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. She didn't know why he had to do that….well because he was in love with her….but Serizawa was right there. Shimazaki was always acting like this, like a crazy person, but that wasn't reason enough to break his heart. She couldn't think of a good reason to break his heart…

He had never been anything but nice to her. Weird sometimes, but nice.

"But if-" said Serizawa

"He can do whatever he wants, it's a free country….right?" asked Shimazaki. He didn't know why Mob was so interested in whatever the hell was on TV. He was there, she was there, and there were a million rooms they could be in together. She had watched, he didn't even know how many episodes of this show already. It wasn't interesting, not to him at least, at least not interesting enough to keep her here with Serizawa.

What did she see int that guy?

It must have been good looking, that was the only explanation for it. He must have been phenomenally good looking for Mob to have put him ahead of…..not that he was jealous! No, no, no! Shimazaki Ryou did not get jealous. He didn't even know the meaning of the word jealousy. Sure, a jealous start had just started to take root in his mind, but he had killed it before started to grow. Like how Toshi pulled the weeds from their garden when they were just babies. He just had to take all the jealous thoughts in his head and kill them as babies, like smothering them in their cribs, or putting poison in their bottles, or any other way there was to kill a baby... there were people who killed babies out there...those people had to die...Mob would have liked it if he killed those-

Mob was not a fan of killing.

No, Mob had a thing against murder. Shimazaki didn't know where it came from. Certainly not from Suzuki, that guy...that guy may have killed for fun. Shimazaki wasn't exactly a Suzuki expert but he did go really fast to murder. You had to at least smack a guy around a little bit first. Mob was nothing like Suzuki. She was nothing like anyone he had ever met…in some ways she was better, maybe, since she was so peace and love all the time….but he should have been killing the people who went around killing babies. Babies were the most vulnerable people in the world, and also the best people in the world….but Mob hated violence. She hated violence and if she heard that he was out killing people in her name then she would have left him.

He didn't know what he'd do if she ever left him.

"I….think so?" asked Serizawa

"No countries are free countries until Dad rules them. Dad said so." Said Mob

"But…but that doesn't make sense….sorry!" said Serizawa

"No, no, it's ok. Dad can be kind of hard to understand sometimes. He says that the world is going to have a lot more freedom when he takes over. Espers are going to be free to be who they are, people are going to be free from crime because there won't be any more criminals, and we'll be free from war and hunger too. Dad said so." Said Mob

"That sounds wonderful…" said Serizawa. President Suzuki was so amazing! He was going to make the world a better place…even though it didn't sound like it when he phrased it like….well what did Serizawa know about phrasing things? He wasn't exactly good at talking to people himself. He was sure that it was going to be great when President Suzuki took over the world. He trusted Miss Suzuki more than anyone else in the world, more than he trusted himself, or even his mom.

"It will be. Dad has all kinds of plans for-" said Mob

"You know I have plans." Said Shimazaki

"You do?" asked Mob

"Yeah, I mean I can make them. Come on, we've been watching TV all day. How about we go outside and do something?" asked Shimazaki

"It's raining." Said Mob

"Well, yeah, it's the rainy season." Said Shimazaki

"I know that it is…um….we can't go outside because you could get rainwater in your eyes and you said that you hated when that happened because a lot of the time rainwater is very dirty and you could get an infection. Also Fukuda is all the way in Korea, I think, so you'd either have to wait or go to him…and either way you don't like Fukuda. So many we should just stay here." Said Mob

"I don't care about the rain, if it makes you happy then I'll stand out in the middle of the road with my eyes wide opened." Said Shimazaki

"That wouldn't make me happy at all, Ryou." Said Mob. She didn't know how his brain worked sometimes. Why would she have been happy about him getting infections in his eyes? That sounded just plain awful. She had never had any kind of infection but she had seen the gross pictures Emmy used to send to Sho. She had seen so many different colors of goo….the last thing she wanted was for Shimazaki to end up like that. She may not have loved him like he loved her but she didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

"Then what would?" asked Shimazaki. Mob liked cats. She liked milk. She liked Frozen. She liked it when he went down on her. That was plenty to work with. He had so many options…but how in the hell was he supposed to know what to do? Toshi always just told him what they did and did not want. Mob liked to make him dig for it, work for it, and he had no idea why. To prove how well he knew her….? He had no fucking clue. She was a puzzle sometimes, an unsolvable one, like a Rubik's Cube. No matter how many sides he twisted and turned she never stayed the same…or something…..

She was way too fucking complicated sometimes. That was the point. So fucking complicated….

"I….I don't…" said Mob. His hand was on her leg…kind of high up. She didn't…she did and she didn't. She knew what he was asking. She just….it was weird. It felt good but then when it was over it felt really weird and just…it always felt like she had done something wrong. Even though she knew that it was ok it just…felt weird. Like she was hurting Minegishi, even though they had given her their permission, and like she was doing something wrong, even though everyone else was allowed to. She was an adult now and this was what adults did...and it wasn't like it was bad, just weird….

It just felt really….really weird….

"I have an umbrella!" said Serizawa. He picked up his umbrella and held it in his hands in front of him as a shield. He had no choice. Shimazaki was just…glaring at him. He didn't know why. Sometimes he got the feeling that Shimazaki didn't like him at all…but that didn't make sense. They were friends. Also Shimazaki had kissed him once….but he didn't like to think about that.

"We're fine on our-" said Shimazaki

"There's nothing that we can do outside that we can't do here and…and anyway it's too close to…to lunchtime to do anything…so let's just stay here and watch TV. I can find something with narration, if you want, or something that's easier to listen to." Said Mob. She didn't want to go outside. Outside would have been like a date and right now she didn't want to go on a date. She wanted to hang out with her friends like Normal so that was what was going to happen. Even though... even though she Shimazaki did look kind of sad...

"Podcasts! Podcasts are…are a thing…I mean if you like them…" said Serizawa. That... hadn't helped. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut. Shimazaki was glaring at him again. He held out to his umbrella with both hands. And clutched it to his chest. It helped, having it near him was like having Miss Suzuki near him, but he could never have Miss Suzuki this close of course. It would have been weird, maybe, since she was a girl and he was a boy... and also he would probably accidentally crush her. He had held on to his umbrella so tightly before, very tightly, that he put finger indents in the handles.

"I do, actually, but knowing you you'll just pick something that has to do with videogames." Said Shimazaki. He had no idea what Mob saw in this guy. What, did she want to play? Video games all day? They couldn't have possibly been that fun….though then again what did he know? Video games could have been the best thing since Coke. For all he knew, and it wasn't like he was going to tell Mom she wasn't allowed to play, or watch shows about games, or anything really. He didn't tell her what to do. He had no desire to tell her what to do and he didn't own her. He wasn't jealous. He didn't have a jealous bone in his body and... and he was just bored. That was all. This was boring. It had nothing to do with her... or Serizawa...

It had nothing to do with anything!

"You don't like videogames? At all?" asked Serizawa incredulously. How could anyone not have liked- Oh, wait, now that he thought about it... Right...

"I held a Gameboy once, it didn't really appeal to me." Said Shimazaki

"Oh…right, sorry. Sometimes forget that you're-" said Serizawa

"This isn't really about videogames. It's about being trapped in another world and the other world is a videogame…so it's about feelings and stuff. Everyone's sad and scared but they're working to get out. I just think that it's interesting, that's all." said Mob. She may not have been the best at reading the atmosphere, but she did know how to read her friends. Serizawa was scared and Shimazaki was being mean. She didn't know what was wrong with Shimazaki. Sometimes, he knew how fragile Serizawa was, he was even more fragile than Hatori was! Shimazaki, just like to pick on people, that was just what he was like, and she should have been used to this by now...but him messing with Serizawa, being mean to him, was just a little too much. Hatori hadn't been liable to explode. Serizawa wasn't at that point yet…but he was going to get there soon if Shimazaki kept this up.

"I think that it would be…I mean I think that being trapped inside of a videogame would be nice." Said Serizawa softy. Actually, it was his idea of heaven. It didn't matter what game, as long as it wasn't a shooting game or a horror game, he would have been happy. He would have been happy in the Mushroom Kingdom, he would have been happy in Hyrule, He would have been happy even If he was stuck in one of President Suzuki's old games. In some flat 2D space with barely any colors where you could only move left and right... at least you knew where to go and what to do and how to do it. That was something that real life could never replicate.

"But you wouldn't be able to get out." Said Mob. She didn't want to be trapped in a video game, She didn't want to be trapped anywhere. She didn't want to have that smothering feeling of not being able to go, to leave, Having to be in a place she didn't want to be... Having to be a person she didn't want to be...

"No, but I wouldn't…I don't think that I would want to. When I was a kid I used to imagine that I could…that I could actually be inside of my games." Said Serizawa

"You mean like with VR?" asked Mob

"No, better. Like I was actually there…but I wasn't scared! I was happy. It would be like….like being home. Like being in a place that was better than being at home. You get unlimited second chances in games. If you die you just go back to the first level and…and you always know what's going to happen. I wouldn't have minded being trapped in a game…but a game that I liked. I don't really like MMOs." Said Serizawa

"Me neither. I mean I like multiplayer…and I don't think that I would mind being stuck so long as everyone was stuck with me. Like if we lived in Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley…but not Minecraft, my Dad gets really bossy in Minecraft and also there's zombies." Said Mob. Well, once there is output it like that, it actually sounded OK. Like if she was still the player character, and she controlled the game, and also Hatori taught her how to do mods, then it wouldn't have been so bad at all. She could have lived in a big endless today with all of her friends. No worries, no responsibilities, nobody being mean... It would have been heaven on Earth.

"Zombies would be terrifying…but I would really like to live in any other those other games with you. Especially Harvest Moon…but only if it's Friends of Mineral town. There are so many people you can talk to…I mean there are always people you can talk to…" said Serizawa. That had sounded dumb and he had been dumb. He should have taken it back... Her hand was over his. So maybe it hadn't been so dumb after all. Maybe she got it, Mineral Town was the best because the whole game was making friends, and there were so many people, and everyone was always so happy to see you... It just felt different than any of the other Harvest Moon games. It felt like home but better. People actually wanted to talk to you there, they weren't obligated to.

"But everyone is so nice. I bet Minegishi would love it, they would live up where the Goddess does because it's peaceful and they liked peaceful places. Shimazaki would live with them because they love each other. Shibata would love the cooking festival, I think, and Mukai would love helping him because he's a good helper. Tsuchiya would live with him because they love each other. Sho would live with me because I love him. Dad can go live with his girlfriend in another game and he can take Fukuda with him…but not Hatori, he can live in the treehouse because they probably get good signal up there-" said Mob. Serizawa's aura was bright, but in a good way. Shimazaki's aura, on the other hand was bright. But in a mean way. He put his hand over hers. She held his hand back, of course, Even if she hadn't been his girlfriend, she would have done it. Something was bothering him and she had no idea what. She could find out in a minute though. He just needed a minute to calm down, maybe... maybe.

"Do they have Wi-Fi, you think?" asked Serizawa

"They would in my game. I'd make sure that everyone got unlimited data, and that you got unlimited data. I'd even build a kitchen but then turn it into a gaming room for you." Said Mob

"You'd let me live with you, Miss Suzuki?" asked Serizawa. Wow. She would let him live with her, she wouldn't have made him live in town with the other NPCs…she was so wonderful like that.

"Of course I would. You're my best-" said Mob

"Hey Mob, you want to fuck?" asked Shimazaki. Serizawa gasped and his aura shrieked. Good, let him freak out. He wanted to go lock himself away again then that was fine. Mob wasn't going with him, even in this hypothetical scenario. Sure Serizawa knew about videogames and shit but Shimazaki knew about what mattered and he knew how to make her happy in ways that Serizawa couldn't even imagine.

He won.

"I…I…what!?" asked Mob. Must have been going deaf, She prayed that she was going deaf, Maybe she should just deafen herself just to be sure. He had not asked her that! And not right in front of Serizawa!

"Sex. Do you want to have it? Preferably with me." Asked Shimazaki. He put his arm around her... and she pushed it off. She pushed it off and…and that was ok. She could say no whenever she wanted. It didn't cut him to the core of his being, it barely nicked him. Fine, if she wanted to lock herself in this room for the rest of her life with a guy who didn't even know how to do his own laundry or pull the skin off of his own pudding then that was fine. She was her own person and so was he.

"I-I-I….Shimazaki! I mean Ryou! Serizawa is right there!" said Mob. What happened in that crazy head of his! In what Universe had asking her that been a good idea?! Why had he…well now Serizawa was all red and scared and his aura was super bright and…and she would have welcomed one of his explosions at this point. Anything to make this better.

"Serizawa, get lost. Go feed the cat again or something." Said Shimazaki. He pointed at Serizawa and then at the door just in case he hadn't gotten the message. He had been an idiot for thinking that Mob wasn't into him anymore. She was just shy, not like Toshi at all. Toshi never freaked out when he asked them to fuck and they didn't care who was around when they asked him….but Mob wasn't Toshi and he had to stop thinking of her as Toshi the second or….or whatever. She was her own person and he had to think more about what she wanted and less about what Toshi would have wanted….or what he wanted….

"O-Ok!" said Serizawa as he got up. He did NOT need to be told twice! He ran out of his room as fast as he could. That was…he tried not to laugh, he always laughed when he got nervous, and nothing could have made him more nervous than hearing someone talk about THAT STUFF. That was just…what people in relationships did that was private and none of his business and…and the cat was his business! So now he needed to go and…and tend to the business for the rest of the day and probably the week too!

"Wait it's not…ok…bye, I guess…." Said Mob. Wow. Serizawa could run fast…she had learned something about him…and she had learned something about Shimazaki too.

"So? You want me to-" said Shimazaki as he reached over to her thigh…and was soundly rebuffed. She drew her knees up to her chest…what was she being so defensive about.

"Ryou! You can't just ask me that!" said Mob as she hugged her knees to her chest. She didn't want him to touch her right now. It was weird, it was always weird, but now it was especially weird. Just…just why did he have to be like that! Maybe if he had asked her in private…but she shouldn't have been doing that stuff anyway. Minegishi had said that she could but that was their boyfriend and…and it didn't seem like the way to treat her friend and….and also if she did this again then she was proving Fukuda right. He'd been saying for years that she did stuff like this with Shimazaki and….and remembering what he said made it feel wrong and….and Dad didn't like her either when she did this…but she didn't need Dad to like her anymore. Dad had a new girlfriend and he was going to start a new family and…and Dad didn't need her at all anymore.

"Why not? I think, honestly, it's better that I ask. This is not the place for miscommunication, Mob." Said Shimazaki. He put his hand on her knees…and there went her legs. Good, no more defensive Mob. He had no idea what'd he done to make her like that….but it was over, that was what mattered.

"Ok, ok, you can ask me but….but in private when nobody else is around." Said Mob softly, even though there was no one else around. No Dad to tell her that he hated her when she did things like that. No Fukuda to make fun of her for doing…doing the same stuff that every other adult did! If she was an adult then…then she should have been able to do whatever she wanted and…and she should have been able to know what she wanted to do. She should have been sure…but she hadn't been sure of anything in so long she had forgotten what it was like.

"But he's ALWAYS around. From the moment you get up until you go to sleep you're with him." said Shimazaki just as softly. He didn't know why they were whispering, maybe it was because the atmosphere had gotten really somber now. He knew what he was doing. He was thinking about what he was doing, saying, feeling….Mob made him do that. She was always making him take a good, hard, look at himself like this…and she was always making him see the parts of himself that he didn't like. The parts that he had tried to keep buried. She always dug them up…she was always trying to make him into a better person.

That was what she did, made people into better versions of themselves…and in some ways he loved her for that.

"Him and you." Said Mob. They had all been hanging out together. It had been normal. She had no idea why he was acting like it was anything other than normal.

"Yeah, but I want…I don't want to be like this." said Shimazaki. He felt heavy. Mostly in his shoulders. He let his head sink down and sighed.

"Like what, Ryou?" asked Mob as she scooted closer to him. He was clearly sad about something, his aura felt sad and he was doing that thing he did when he scrunched up. She put her hand on his shoulder. He didn't look at her, his aura stayed put.

"Like…like this. I get it, you and I are this thing and you and him are that thing and…and I shouldn't have a problem with anything but I do. It's like I have a problem with everything….maybe because Toshi left. I don't know." Said Shimazaki. He shook his head. That must have been it. The last time Toshi left, really left, he'd felt like this…but why? Toshi wasn't truly GOING anywhere and neither was Mob. He knew it…but his stupid brain hadn't gotten the message. Mist have been a bad signal.

"I still like hanging out with you. Just because I have another friend it doesn't mean that I care about you any less." Said Mob

"I know…I mean it's like I know, like my brain knows, but it's choosing to fill my head with all of this shit…" said Shimazaki

"Like what?" asked Mob

"Like…I don't know…you know I wouldn't mind being trapped with you. Right?" asked Shimazaki. He would have gladly been trapped anywhere with her, anywhere in the world, like a curse room…or maybe even his old room. Now there was a cursed space. A new house had been built where his used to be…he wondered if there was a new room where his had been and some other weak, useless, little kid was trapped in it. Mob would have gotten him out. She was a good person like that. Shimazaki wouldn't have minded being trapped with her.

It was better than being trapped on his own.

And he was much better company to be trapped in a room with than Serizawa anyway. What had that guy done? Locked himself away…of his own accord! He could have gotten out at any time. He had been an adult, practically, when he decided that the world was too big and scary for him. When he decided that his powers were too much for him. Well tough shit! The world was big and loud and crowded and it took a while to even be able to walk down the street without having to stop and throw up from all the noise and smells and feelings…and that was even without the growth spurt. Everyone had weird growth spurts with their powers, they went on into your twenties if you were unlucky enough, and everyone lost control and hurt someone…sometimes irreparably. That didn't mean that you got to run away like some useless, scared, mistake! He had been strong enough to get out but he hadn't, he had chosen his life!

And Mob, for some reason, always chose him.

"But being trapped is your greatest fear." Said Mob. She was confused. Shimazaki was so…himself…sometimes. She wondered how long it took before you could understand him like Minegishi did. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be like…this…with him for that long.

"I never told you that." Said Shimazaki quickly. His greatest fear….that wasn't…what even was his greatest fear? He had never ranked them…but she had. She had been watching him, learning him, and…and she knew him. Or at least she was trying to. She had never once looked right through him. He was…he was always there, to here.

"You didn't have to, I can tell….I mean I think that I can tell. Because of what you told me, I mean, how you were locked up before you learned how to teleport. How people were always sticking you places and leaving you places…like how your dad left you in the woods to die and you were trapped there. if you couldn't teleport away then I think you'd be scared…but if that's not your greatest fear then I'm sorry if I got it wrong." Said Mob softly. He didn't say anything. He just pulled her close and kissed her for a really long time. This was ok, though, it wasn't the slobbery kind…though those weren't really that bad all the time…just some of the time.

"What was that for?" asked Mob as he pulled back.

"For getting close." Said Shimazaki. She knew him well…but the more he thought about it the more he thought that she was wrong. She had gotten close, she was on fire, but she hadn't gotten there.

"Oh." said Mob. Well she had been really close to him and he always wanted to kiss her…so that made sense.

"I think that…I think that my greatest fear might be being alone…truly alone. Nobody around…just a great big…aloneness." Said Shimazaki. He laced his fingers in hers. The world used to be big and empty before he learned to see. Back when the space out in front of him had been infinite. It was finite, now just like he liked it. Four walls, one window, one door, one bed, one Mob….he could see it all. Even when she was silent he knew that she was there…there was nothing worse than infinite space and infinite silence spread out in front of you….nothing at all.

"Like there's nobody in the whole world that loves you. Like you wake up one day and everyone is gone…they're gone and they didn't even love you enough to say goodbye." Said Mob. She let him hold her hand. She held it back.

"And you expect to see them there but it's like….like there's a missing track or something in your life and no matter where you set the needle you can't find it." Said Shimazaki as he pulled her close. She laid her head down on his shoulder. He could feel her breathing. Deep and low…he could feel her talking, too, the rattle in her chest as air became words…

He couldn't see past her.,.and he didn't mind one bit.

"Like there's a missing piece inside of you and no matter what you do you can't fill it up." Said Mob. One of his hands found her hair. She let it. She didn't care that he was making knots.

"Hey Mob….Shigeko?" asked Shimazaki as he ran his hands through her hair. The world had shrank to just the two of them…just the feel of her breathing. The smell of her soap as it clung to her skin. The rise and fall of her chest. If he tried to teleport away now he wouldn't have made it far…he didn't mind. If he had to be trapped with someone then it might as well be with the girl he loved.

"Yes?" asked Mob as he stopped playing with her hair.

"You know that I love you, right?" asked Shimazaki

"I know." Said Mob

"And…yeah, ok, I can be a jealous bastard sometimes but I don't mean anything by it. I'm not trying to own you or…or anything like that. I just…I don't care where you go or what you do, just come back to me when you're done. Ok?" asked Shimazaki

"I'm not going anywhere." Said Mob. he kissed her again that time, but it was OK, Weird, but not as weird as other things had been. Plus he was sad and he needed it.

"You're perfect, you know that? You're like…like perfection spread out into a human being." Said Shimazaki as he pulled away from her. She didn't need to say it back…she didn't. It would have been nice if she had but he wasn't going to push her. If he pushed her then he was just going to push her away like he had done with Toshi.

"I'm your most perfect person?" asked Mob. Dad had told her, ever since she had been little, that one day she would find her most perfect person and then she would leave him. She didn't know if Shimazaki was her most perfect person, He probably wasn't, and that was OK. She didn't think that she wanted a most perfect person. Dad had found the most perfect person, Somehow Mom had been his most perfect person, and Mom had left him. Mom didn't think that she could stand if a person that she loved, her most perfect person, left her. She didn't think that she could make it through. Dad had barely made it through and he was the strongest Esper in the world. Now he was on to his second most perfect person, that Shiori woman, but that didn't make her perfect now did it? If she was number two. Maybe there was no such thing as a most perfect person….or maybe Mob just didn't want one. She had already had her heart broken twice and neither Hatori nor Teru had been her most perfect person. If she found him, one day, the boy she couldn't live without then….then she was running the other way.

She couldn't go through what she had gone through before, not again, and she wasn't as strong as Dad…she didn't know if she could make it back after someone who she loved hurt her like that.

"Yeah…you're tied with Toshi." Said Shimazaki

"Minegishi can be number one, I don't mind. I don't even have to be a number." Said Mob. She didn't want to take him from Minegishi. She didn't want anymore guilt. She hadn't forced him to do anything but she had done something to make him like her….love her…and that wasn't right. She wished that she could have stopped doing whatever it was that she was doing but she had no idea what that thing even was! And…and she didn't want to break up. If they broke up then they wouldn't be able to be friends anymore…and she didn't want to lose him or any of her other friends. She was done losing people.

"Well you are. You're a math…thing…equivalent to number one. That's who you are to me…" said Shimazaki. He wiped his eyes. What was the matter with him? He'd been to places with more somber atmosphere, he'd crashed plenty of funerals in his day, and this….this wasn't even so somber. He didn't get himself sometimes. He needed a drink, that was it.

"Are you…are you ok?" asked Mob as she patted him on the arm.

"I'm fine, you?" asked Shimazaki. He'd only just bared his soul in a way that he had only done for two other people in his life. Nothing major, no need to break down and confess every single fear, weakness, and pain to her right now.

"I'm fine….but you just seem like you aren't, and if something wrong then please tell me. I only want to make you happy." Said Mob

"Well then I guess we're even since I only want to make you happy." Said Shimazaki with a laugh. They were at an impasse. He didn't mind. She only wanted to make him happy. She thought of him. She thought of everyone, caring about people were her thing and all, but he could pretend that she specifically and only thought of him. He felt like he was filled with a mixture of warm pudding and candle wax.

"If you mean like…um…like you were saying before then…then I guess we could…one more time…." Said Mob. If he wanted to then she would. It wasn't like it was bad…parts of it could be nice. When they were happening and you didn't have time to think about what was happening. You didn't think about how mad your best friend should have been or how much your Dad disliked you now or how Fukuda was probably off somewhere saying 'I told you so' to anyone who would listen. In the moment it was just a bunch of good feelings….and she liked feeling good. Happy….it wasn't easy being happy these days.

"Really? You want to?" asked Shimazaki. Well that was a good turn of events. Fuck yeah! Somber, heavy, talks for the win! See? This was why you talked about your feelings.

"Um…yes…yes I do." Said Mob. She didn't really know….but she did know that she wanted to make him happy. It wasn't bad, just weird, like kissing him had been. She had gotten used to that and she could get used to this…not that she would be getting used to it. This would be the last time, the very last time, and….and that was all. That was what this was going to be. She was more sure of this than…than she was sure of anything and…and this was a thing that was going to happen…and she did like it….

But she also liked regular hanging out more.