This was the last time.

Mob had said that before….and before…and before that…but this time she meant it! This time had to be the last time. It was just…this was too weird! It wasn't weird while it happened, Mob couldn't think about how weird it was when it happened, but when it was over…when they were both laying down in his bed…when his arm was around her…when there was the big, gross wet spot right in the middle of the bed….there were feelings. Too many feelings. There were so many feelings and they were all there and just…just….

This was just really weird.

What she had just done was weird. Doing this in her best friend's bed was weird. Doing this in her best friend's rom was weird. Doing this with her best friend's boyfriend was weird. Maybe it would have been less weird in her own bed…or maybe a thousand times more weird because she shared that room with her little brother. Maybe it wasn't the location, maybe it was just the whole….thing. Did he think that this was weird too? Even a little…probably not. This was Shimazaki, nothing was weird to him…or maybe it was but he didn't want to say anything because saying something would have just drawn attention to how weird this was.

Maybe he felt the same way she did.

"Shima….Ryou?" asked Mob quietly. She wasn't sure if he'd heard her, he was breathing really hard. He was always breathing really hard when it was over, probably because it was a lot of work, or at least it looked like a lot of work. She wasn't sure, she had never been a boy. She wondered how he felt. Was this weird for him too?

"Mob….I'm tired. The spirit is willing but the flesh is exhausted." Said Shimazaki with a groan. He loved her. He really loved. He really fucking loved her. He really loved fucking her. But right now he was so fucking exhausted that the thought of fucking her made him feel exhausted. She was amazing…well enthusiastic mostly, and he did love being with her….but he needed to recharge. He also felt so drained after being with her, more than he normally felt afterwards….it was kind of satisfying.

"It's not about that….and I'm sorry for making you tired. I didn't mean to. You said that you wanted to and-" said Mob. Well now it was even weirder. He had wanted to and she had wanted to and…and she thought that it had been ok if they both wanted to but if he hadn't then….then what was even the point?

"I did want to, I do want to, and don't apologize. You don't have a cooldown period. I love that about you. I love you." Said Shimazaki. He stretched his legs as he said it, his foot bumping into hers. She pulled her foot back, slightly, not as badly as she pulled her aura back….

"Um…." Said Mob. She wished that he would have just kept that inside of his head. She didn't know what she was supposed to say to that. She never knew. He had said that she didn't have to say it back but…but that didn't leave a lot for her to say back.

"You don't have to say it back." Said Shimazaki quickly. Right, right, he wasn't going to rush this. He had to take this slow or he'd scare her off and then he'd be Mob-less…and he didn't know what he'd be if he was Mob-less. They could go back to being just friends but he knew that it wasn't going to be the same. He couldn't afford to fuck this up like he'd fucked up pretty much every other non-Toshi relationship he had ever been in.

"I kind of feel like I do, though, when you say it." said Mob softly. He pulled her closer. His hand was pressed against her back, right onto her spine, and he reached over and tangled one of his legs in hers. This was…alright. It would have been better if there had been clothes between them…or a thicker blanket…or her own blanket in her own bed.

"You really don't. That's mostly for me. Like…like you're Mob and I love you. I fucking love you." Said Shimazaki. He rolled over and kissed her…tried to. She turned away.

"Shimazaki, you were just…um…." Said Mob softly. She couldn't say it. What he had just been doing…she closed her eyes. She saw it. She opened her eyes. She saw it. She couldn't stop seeing it or thinking about it…was this how everyone who did things like this felt all the time? Did girls just look at their boyfriends and think 'I did all of this stuff with him' or was it normal for them and they never thought about it? Was it different when you actually loved the boy? But what about friends with benefits? Was it easier for those girls…it seemed like it would have been easier. The boy didn't tell you that he loved you afterwards….it would have been great. It would have been a lot easier if she and Shimazaki had been…well there was no point in thinking about what could have been.

"Going down on you?" asked Shimazaki. He felt her heating him. She was either embarrassed or she wanted him to get back to work. He wasn't awake enough to get back to work. It was always so draining, but in a good way,

"….yes…but don't say it like that!" said Mob as she pulled the blanket up over her face. Why did he have to just…..just…she was there, she knew what he'd done and…and he didn't have to SAY it! And, well, she didn't have to hide, either. She knew that he could still sense her. She was laying on his arm, his aura was right on top of hers, and…and he was right there…and she was right here….this was the part where she wanted to get dressed. It was just too…too weird having him here and her being here and neither of them being dressed and…and he never wanted to get dressed right afterwards. He always wanted to hold her and…and it was somehow both nice and weird at the same time.

The whole thing was just nice and weird at the same time.

"Ok, how about this? I ate you out, is that better?" asked Shimazaki

"I….no, not really." Said Mob

"Ok, I ventured to your valley and-" said Shimazaki

"Ryou! Don't say anything about it! It happened and I was here and you were here and…and we both know what happened so we don't have to talk about it." said Mob

"What's with you?" asked Shimazaki, kicking her foot lightly with his.

"I…um….is this weird for you?" asked Mob. There. She had asked and now he would tell her and then they would go from there. Maybe he would think about it and then realize that maybe they worked better as friends. This was kind of fun….ok, this was the best thing that she had ever felt in her life and she didn't even feel slimy afterwards….but the weirdness that she felt afterwards more than made up for it. Maybe he felt the same as she did but he was just keeping it to himself for her sake….

"Is what weird?" asked Shimazaki. He went over everything in his head that could have been weird. Had he made that weird face again? He'd been told he made a really weird face when he came…but Mob wouldn't say something like that. She was nice all the time, even when he knew he was being a weird ass, jealous, bastard.

"This…being here, I guess." Said Mob. Ok, so it was just wishful thinking to imagine that Shimazaki felt completely the same way she did….but having done all of his in Minegishi's bed must have been weird for him. Right? This was just the biggest bed but…but it was still kind of weird and…and how could he not feel the same way?

"I don't really mind the wet spot." Said Shimazaki. He shifted closer to her. That must have been it. The wet spot actually felt pretty fucking weird but if she didn't

"I…no, not that. I mean being with me. It's not weird for you?" asked Mob

"Nope." Said Shimazaki. Was she still worried about that? Why did she care how this looked? She was Suzuki fucking Shigeko. She could do whatever she wanted…and anyway even if she had been someone else he was still himself and he lived his life he way he wanted to. He didn't care. He loved her, she was into him, and wasn't that what this is was all about? Making the most out of life? Love, friendship, amazing sex….that was the shit life was made for.

"But…not at all?" asked Mob. She didn't know how this could feel anything other than weird to him. She had no idea what went on in his head, how he felt, stuff like that. Whenever they went out together people stared at them, sort of like they knew. Sort of like the whole world knew that she just wanted to be friends with him and every time she thought about being anything other than friends with him the whole thing just felt so weird and-and-and-

"Of course not. I love you, you're into me, I think you've got it going on, you think I've got it going on-" said Shimazaki

"Ryou!" said Mob. She covered her face and shook her head. She didn't want to hear that! About how he liked how she liked. Now that he had said that….she pulled the blanket closer around herself. She pulled it as closely as she could…she kind of hogged it. This was technically his blanket, the black silk one, and she shouldn't have been hogging it…but what was she supposed to do?! She was naked and she couldn't ignore it and…and she needed to cover herself with something even though it made no difference to him!

"What, you do? I think that you do, anyway. We're into each other, what's weird about this?" asked Shimazaki

"Because….because we used to be friends." Said Mob

"That's the best way to start a relationship, I think." Said Shimazaki

"Also…also you're my best friend's boyfriend." Said Mob

"And I'm also yours. If Toshi minded they would have said something, believe me they would have said something." Said Shimazaki. Was she still worried about what Toshi said? She knew Toshi just as well as he did. When Toshi had a problem with something then they said so. Besides, they had already set their terms for this. He hadn't been allowed to sleep with her until she stopped being twelve and she had stopped being twelve so here they were. Mob was such a worrier. She worried about everything and even when she had nothing to worry about she looked for more things to worry about. She was probably still stressed about her Dad or her brother or whatever and her mind just couldn't take a break. She needed a vacation or something.

"They…they really don't care. I asked them and they said that as long as I was being safe they didn't care." Said Mob

"Yeah, that sounds like Toshi. They love you, not in the way I love you, but they do love you and you love them and I love the both of you…it's a lot of love here. I love it." said Shimazaki He leaned in and kissed the top of her head. Not on the mouth because that was weird with her. He didn't really care but they were two different people and liked two different things…and worried about different things. She thought way too much about everything. She overthought actually, which maybe compensated for the fact that he never thought about anything. He just acted. Thinking led to overthinking, worrying was boring, and boredom was the absolute worst thing that a person could possibly feel. That was the last thing he wanted Mob to feel.

He pulled her closer.

He traced circles on her back as he thought about what to do here. Toshi never overthought things. They thought about things, they were the smartest person he'd ever met in his life, but they never did the sort of 'is this ok, what is everyone going to think' over thinking that Mob did. She needed a vacation.

"I…I like…I…I feel like I shouldn't be here…." Said Mob. She didn't know how to say it, how to tell him that she thought that this was a bad idea. How after it was all over, she just felt like... like she had done something wrong. Even though she had been told, by her best friend, even, that she hadn't. Even though she knew that this was what adults did and she was an adult. The whole thing was just... weird... and she kind of just wanted to be somewhere else. Home? Home was a wallaway, or maybe back home to Sendai, back home to the Castle? Maybe even farther. Maybe she just wanted to put some space between him and her…..but that was mean. She was his girlfriend, She may not have liked the job, but she was his girlfriend, and she had no right to be mean to him like that. He loved her, She may not have loved him back, but she did care about him, and she knew that she could never hurt him like that. She didn't think she was capable of ever breaking anyone's heart.

But she was capable of getting up and going and just... just not being here for a while….if that was even alright

"Here like this room, this apartment, this country, this-" said Shimazaki, motioning to the air above them. He could have teleported them anywhere within his range, She just had to stop being so vague. He didn't really want to get up, He was happy lying in bed with her, He was content to enjoy the afterglow... and also to recover. Mom was really enthusiastic, and that it was a good thing, but he was also really starting to feel his age right now. He felt so…drained…but in a good way. He just needed some time to cuddle and recover…but if she wanted to get out of here then he would take her wherever it was that she wanted to go.

There were two people here right now, he had take her needs into account too.

"This country, I think. I was…I want to go to another country." Said Mob. Maybe if she put a country between him then she would have space to think. She just needed room to figure this out, how she felt, how she wanted to feel, how he felt... were all relationships. This difficult? Maybe this was why Mom had left... no! She was not mom. Mob wasn't just going to walk away from someone who loved her…but maybe it didn't count as running away if she planned on coming back…eventually.

"Yeah, I'm sick of Hongkong too. We should go, well wherever the hell you want to go. We could do Tokyo…we've done that…or we could do Osaka and piss on Toshi's parents grave, or we could go to Okinawa and do beach stuff. Whatever you want.." Said Shimazaki. God, She was so amazing. Their mental synchronization could come with one explanation, The two of them were just meant to be. Hong Kong had been fun... for a little bit... but honestly he kind of wanted to go home. Home to Tokyo, specifically, but they done Tokyo already. They hadn't done Okinawa before. Okinawa was a better vacation town anyway. Less people trying to kill him, if any people who were still trying to kill him were still alive. Of course, but he really didn't need anyone interrupting date night with guns and a plan that had taken a decade to come to fruition. Mob really did have the best ideas. She was so fucking smart, as smart as Toshi.

"I…I don't know. Okinawa is a good idea. I really want to go back to Japan and I haven't been to Okinawa so…so this could be fun, maybe, I think.." Said Mob She hadn't meant the two of them go somewhere, but now she couldn't exactly reject him, and anyway it could maybe be fun. Yes, fun. She had never been to Okinawa before, actually. She mostly just went where Dad had business, and Dad didn't have any business in Okinawa. At least not that she knew of. This could be…it could be fun.

She had to look on the bright side.

She hadn't been to the beach in a while…mainly because she hated how she looked in a swimsuit…but maybe this would be different. She would at least feel more at home in Japan, that was good, and…and she did like the beach. Well she had liked it when she had been little. Back when Sho had been able to go swimming with her, before he hated the water, and…and it would have been nice to swim again.

This had the potential to be fun…and that was a good thing. Shimazaki loved having fun more than anything else in the world.

"Fuck yeah, we're going to Okinawa! What could be better?" asked Shimazaki

"Um…Disneyland?" asked Mob. Been to Disneyland in awhile, a very long while. She kind of wanted to go back But it wasn't the same without her little brother and sister. Sho liked Disneyland, or at least the churros, and Mukai went crazy every time they went…she couldn't go without them. Okinawa was ok, though, because Sho hated the water and Mukai liked to throw sand in people's faced.

"This is going to be great! I haven't been to the beach in forever, and Toshi never lets me bury them in the sand, and I'm going to collect so many shells... like at least a dozen shells... Actually, I'm going to bring a spare suitcase just for shells." Said Shimazaki, the entire trip materializing in his head. He was going to be rich in seashells. Smooth ones, bumpy ones, ones that still had things living inside…this was going to be one hell of a trip.

"Can you go to the beach?" asked Mob. She wasn't trying to think of excuses not to bring him, She could never have been so mean, but she knew how different the beaches back home could be. Now she remembered why they never went to the beaches back home. Shimazaki had a lot of tattoos, even one tattoo was too many in a lot of places, people were mean like that. She didn't see how having tattoos could have made him a bad person, even if they were yakuza tattoos. Just because he had been in the yakuza that it make him a bad person, It just meant that he did a lot of bad things, but that was OK because he wasn't in the yakuza anymore. She was her friend. And she knew he was a good person and when she took over the world, all of the beaches would let whoever they wanted on and-and-and it was ok for him to come with she just didn't want people to be mean to him!

"If I keep my shirt on." Said Shimazaki with a shrug. Right, he hadn't thought of that. He... did not see it going well if he just walked around showing the good people of Osaka all the tattoos he'd earned. If he was lucky someone would know what some of them meant. Ok, long sleeved shirt and pants at the beach…he could do this. For her. He'd do this for her.

"Um…ok, that works out. We can go there together, I mean all of us can go there together. I mean I have to ask Serizawa first." Said Mob quickly. She couldn't just abandon Serizawa, She had no idea how she could have possibly forgotten him. He was her friend, her second or third best friend in the whole world, and he didn't deserve to sit here all alone waiting for everyone to come back. Maybe he could stay at Hong Kong HQ. Actually, no, that would be a bad idea since people were kind of mean at all the HQ's. He wouldn't have wanted to come with though, He hated the outside an other people an weather and places where he couldn't go and hide if he got scared, So really it made more sense for them all to stay here...tut Shimazaki really wanted to go to the beach to...this was complicated.

"He has to keep the cat alive." Said Shimazaki with a wave of his free arm. Serizawa, Serizawa, Serizawa! Night and day. It was Serizawa! Why did she always have to drag him along to everything? The guy didn't want to come. He hated everything. Fun, what was that? Unless it was a videogame he wasn't interested and, anyway, he was terrified of the world and all who inhabited it. If he wanted to stay here and be boring, then he could. What, then? Did Mob want boring? No, she didn't. Shimazaki knew her. She was, at heart, a party girl. She was a party girl and she wanted to go to a party town and she wanted to go and get stoned and get drunk and do coke and molly, but not together or she'd die, and probably have really uncomfortable sex on the beach where he did ninety-nine percent of the work and ended up with a sore jaw and back. So that was what they were going to do and they couldn't do it if Serizawa got dragged along.

"We can just take Meow-Meow with us." Said Mob. Did you say cats didn't like airplanes, but she didn't see why Meow-Meow had to miss out on the fun too. Cats could swim, and some of them actually liked it, and maybe Meow-Meow was that kind of cat. You never knew until you tried.

"Serizawa hates the outdoors, or anything that doesn't have to do with videogames." Said Shimazaki

"I know, but it's good for him to leave the house." Said Mob

"He wouldn't like it." said Shimazaki

"You never know." Said Mob

"Mob…you know what? Invite whoever you want." Said Shimazaki. He was being a jealous bastard again, and he hated when he got like this. Serizawa wasn't a threat. It wasn't because Mob wasn't into him, though that really helped, it was because he was him. Sure he was good looking, Shimazaki figured, but also he was pretty much made of pudding, and not the good kind. He was rice pudding without the nutmeg or cinnamon. Just…soft and squishy and there. Mob didn't need someone else in her life to take care of…and anyway he shouldn't have been looking for reasons not to get jealous. He should have just not been jealous in the first place.

"What's wrong, Ryou?" asked Mob. He had pulled away from her and his aura was doing that thing again. She didn't know why but it felt like she always managed to make him sad in some way…she didn't like it.

"Nothing…everything…..it's me. It's not you, it's me. It's just me being jealous." Said Shimazaki

"What are you jealous of? If you don't want to wear a shirt at the beach then we can go somewhere else." Said Mob

"No, its not that. It's just that….I think I can be kind of jealous a lot of the time. I mean it's not a sex thing, I don't care if you sleep with him, it's more like….like I don't want anyone to take you from me, I guess." Said Shimazaki softly. There, he had bared his soul to her. Now he just had to wait for her to set him straight, maybe this time it would stick.

"Ryou….that doesn't make any sense." Said Mob

"Yeah, I know. Normally it's the other way around-" said Shimazaki

"No, I mean it doesn't make any sense because I don't like Serizawa like that and he doesn't like me like that. You're the only person who likes me like that…like this." said Mob

"Oh…yeah, I guess that doesn't make any sense." Said Shimazaki. no. Mob didn't think that Serizawa was into her, and that was OK, an she might have been right... or she might have been wrong...but either way it was none of his business.

"It doesn't." said Mob

"See? I'm just a jealous guy." Said Shimazaki

"I like that song…I like a lot of the stuff you like." Said Mob. She had been about to tell him that she didn't like it when he got like this but she knew that saying something like that was just mean. She didn't like anyone else and she didn't think that she ever would. What was the point if you just got your heart broken. Even if she married someone she wouldn't have been safe. She would have had to stay up all night watching him sleep to make sure that he didn't run away in the middle of the night. If Shimazaki left her in the middle of the night then of course she would have been sad but it wasn't like she would have been heartbroken or anything.

"Yeah, Lennon's solo stuff was pretty good…you want to listen to some of it? Or anything?" asked Shimazaki. He was changing the subject and he knew it…but it had to be changed. He was being an asshole again. Nobody liked jealousy, especially not the person being jealous. Maybe it was because Toshi was gone…he had been using that excuse a lot…but it made sense…but that was why they called them excuses or…or…

Or maybe he was the overthinker in this relationship.

"Um…can we smoke too?" asked Mob. He had always made things easier. That was why people smoked. She always felt better after smoking, Less weird, like she had smoked all the weirdness out. Like in Alice in Wonderland when they were trying to smoke Alice out because they thought she was a monster only this worked. Kind of wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland...that was weird. She didn't really like that movie... but it was less weird than everything else that was happening right now.

"Of course." Said Shimazaki as he climbed out of bed.

"Can we get dressed too?" asked Mob, pulling the blanket up to her chest. She knew that he couldn't see her, and also he'd just gotten done holding her, but…but this just felt better. She felt less naked, though she would have felt even less naked if she had been dressed.

"If you want to." Said Shimazaki. He didn't care either way. Mob seemed cold, though, she was really clutching that blanket.

"I do….and, um, when we're done we can go to Okinawa. It'll….it'll be fun." Said Mob. Really. This was….something that she was looking forward to. Going on a trip…with just her and Shimazaki. This was going to be fun and not at all weird…she had never been good at lying, not even to herself. This whole thing was going to be weird, it didn't matter where she was, and…and maybe she just had to get used to it. She wasn't Mom, she wasn't going to just leave him, and she was never going to break his heart either…so she was stuck with him. It wasn't all bad. All the things…they were fun…and he was nice, too, nicer than Teru had been and she had actually been in love with him. This was ok and…and Mob was looking forward to her trip to Osaka. She really would have rather been with Sho but Fukuda threatened to tell on her if she spent time with Sho and also Teru lived in Seasoning City so she could never go back anyway. Still, though, she did miss Sho and everyone else…the way things used to be…but she had to get used to the way things were now.

Because, really, there was nothing else that she could do besides get used to the weirdness.