Suzuki's days were long.

They had always been long and now they were getting longer. So many meetings today. He needed money, preferably quickly, and he didn't care if he got it through legitimate means or not. Legitimate business took time, time that he didn't have right now, While he did... ut he didn't really want to take his time. He was forty six, Next he'd be forty seven, then forty eight and then so on and so forth. As numbers had been going from time innumerable. Suzuki knew we were just going to keep getting older and older and older. He didn't much want to keep getting older and older, not that he wanted to drop dead right now, of course, but a little more rest would have been nice.

But rest wasn't short supply.

Suzuki opened his eyes and glance at the clock beside him. His alarm would have gone off in another half hour period. He lost half an hour of sleep...not that it was that bad... It could have been worse. He hadn't always needed this much rest, he'd been able to get by in three or four hours of sleep when he'd been younger, but he wasn't that young anymore and he would have liked to have finished this before turning forty seven…it used to be fifty. Back when half a century had seemed like an insurmountable amount of time. Fifty years old…he hadn't even been halfway there when that had seemed like a century…or ten…..

He sat up.

"You so pretty now, Caterpillars." Said Mukai as she held something in her hands. Something pink and…a tiny paintbrush. The room smelled of…alcohol. Rubbing alcohol, or at least reminiscent of it. Paint? Mukai was holding a tiny pink paintbrush and upon further inspection he, and his bedspread, were spotted in it.

As were his hands.

"Pretty is a word which is applicable to you, not me." Said Suzuki without thinking. Mukai was looking at him now and shaking her head.

"What's what mean?" asked Mukai

"It means…it means nothing." Said Suzuki, not in the mood to get into a vocabulary lesson with a three year old right now. He looked down at his nails. She had painted not only his nails but the entire set of fingers as well…but she was very small and didn't even know what the words 'malicious' or 'intent' meant…

He stayed calmed. He had no other choice.

"Did you do this?" asked Suzuki forcing his powers to subside. He was not angry. He was not in the least bit angry with Mukai. He couldn't let himself be. He cared for her and from his understanding of it she didn't quite know what she was doing at her age anyway. He had read books, when Sho had been born, about what to expect in the first few stages of life. Sho had been a trial, of course, such a trial that no book would have been able to prepare him for what it would have been like to have Sho for a son. Mukai was a much easier child to care for. She was quieter than Sho had ever been, more intuitively intelligent, and also female. That helped. Even when they had both been small Suzuki had never gotten anywhere close to as angry at Shigeko as he had at Sho.

Female children were just easier. Most of the time.

"Did I do what?" asked Mukai

"Did you paint my nails for me in my sleep, that is my question." Said Suzuki with a sigh. Her vocabulary was still so limited, or maybe she just had difficulty paying attention. She was poking herself in the stomach with that brush, now, and Suzuki hoped that her pajamas hadn't been expensive. Shigeko spent enough of the budget on clothing as it was, he didn't need two daughters dressing him out of house and home.

"Look at your nails!" shouted Mukai. Suzuki did just that, though he had no idea what it was she hoped he'd see.

"I am looking at them, and don't shout. You're going to wake your siblings and your brother is insufferable in the mornings." Said Suzuki. Sho was at that age. Suzuki remember how incredibly difficult it had been to get up in the morning when he had been twelve, or maybe thirteen. The last year of elementary school was when he'd really started to feel it. Sho had no reason at all to be getting so upset in the mornings, it wasn't as though he had anything to get up for. It wasn't as though Suzuki needed his help with anything…or ever would.

"I painted you nails, see? Now you're pretty." Said Mukai as she held up what he suspected was one of Shigeko's bottles of nail varnish…polish, he corrected himself. That was what she called it. Mother had called it nail varnish and warned him not to touch it even though the quick drying paint had been before for recoloring his micro men. He couldn't fault Mukai for doing as he would have done…something close to what he would have done, if he had been her age…even though he would have liked that remaining half hour of sleep. He had been getting more and more tired these days. Four hours of sleep used to be enough…no reason to get angry about that either. Even though he was tired and the start of his day had somehow both begun to early and been delayed as well.

"I already said that pretty was a word which was not applicable to me, however I will let it slide due to your age and generally limited vocabulary. What I would like to discuss with you, however, is why you did this in the first place." Said Suzuki holding up his hand.

"What you mean?" asked Mukai

"I mean for you to…explain. Mukai. Explain." Said Suzuki as he held out his hand. She looked at it, at him, and then at her own pink hands before her eyes narrowed, what little aura she had focused, and she came to some sort of conclusion.

"You have pretty nails now. I did it!" said Mukai. Suzuki groaned. It was too early in the morning for this. He needed coffee, he had a meeting to prepare for, and then another one after that. Tokyo was the center of it all, after all, and there were no days off right now. Not when he was in the middle of expanding. No days off, no rest, and no time to sit here and talk with his Daughter all morning…though he would have liked it, actually. She could be such a fascinating little person when she wanted to be…he loved her so much.

Though he would have loved her more with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"I can see that…but in the future please consult me before doing this…and consult Shigeko as well before you go through her personal cosmetics and grooming products. I have no idea what even half of those products are even for but I know that they cost a lot and they hold a great deal of value to your sister as well and I would hate for her to be upset with you…though I don't have any opinion as to…she can do whatever she wants. Shigeko can-" said Suzuki

"Shigeko awake. She said 'Mukai, don't do that!' and I come here now. Over here." Said Mukai. Suzuki nodded.

"I see, so your sister has chastised you. Very well. Why don't you return that to her and then we can, or I can, get on with my morning?" asked Suzuki as he got out of bed. It took a moment…but that was just because he was doing this by hand. He didn't need his powers to get out of bed in the morning, he wasn't infirm yet, he had just been sleeping in an odd position and…and this bed was too soft. He was fine, he wasn't old yet.

Though he also wasn't as youthful as he used to be.

Not youthful enough to roll across the bed, Mukai's preferred mode of transportation it seemed. He caught the bottle and the brush with his powers as she rolled, and then her as she got to the end of the bed, though there was no saving his bedspread. A streak of pink all across the navy blue…he'd need another one…that is if this couldn't come out. This was paint, wasn't it? So….turpentine? Shigeko would have known, she knew about these domestic matters.

This was her area of expertise after all.

She would probably know, too, how to get the paint off of his nails and fingers. He'd seen her chance the color of her nails before, she'd used cotton balls and some sort of strong smelling solution. She and Minegishi….though he didn't much want to speak to them at the moment. They could be very disagreeable at this hour of the day…or any hour really…

He hoped that they weren't rubbing off on Shigeko.

He could see her aura as he left his room. She was in the bathroom and the door was opened. Good, then she could help him with this predicament. Their relationship may have changed as she grew into the beginning stages of adulthood but she was still his daughter. She was still Shigeko. She still cared for him, he knew it, and he still cared for her…even though she had tried to destroy his entire future. What remained of it. just thinking of what had passed that day between them, how she had saw fit to show up and just insert herself into his private life like that, how she had…well he just wasn't going to think about that now. He wasn't going to let that series of events take up any more space within his mind. Today he had deals to make, illegitimate business ventures, and just the general work of being Suzuki Touichirou. He did not have the time or inclination to ruminate about his personal life right now.

Which was why he would be stopping right this instant.

Right now…now. Right now. It was difficult not to think about it, not while he was staring right at her. The walk to the singular bathroom had not been a long one at all. This was a different house than the last one had been, smaller, nearer to what he needed. He didn't care for it, the larger the house the better, but it would do for now. Shigeko wasn't complaining even though she had so little room on the bathroom counter that she was holding things aloft with her powers. Not enough counter space for whatever all of those lotions and potions and brushes and powders were for. She was quite the accomplished esper, she always had been, but fine movements went beyond mere raw power. The fact that she had this kind of control, and at her age, was amazing…he wanted to tell that. He wanted to praise her but every time he felt a word of praise reach the end of his tongue he felt it die there as well. Every time he looked at her he remembered that day, the frustration of it, the violation of it, the fact that she had even thought it was appropriate to intrude like that….he didn't praise her.

Later, perhaps, once the feeling was less raw.

"Oh…hi, Dad. You can have the bathroom, I'll come back later." Said Shigeko. Everything she had been holding feel to the counter with a clatter. He feared that it would have woken Sho up….that was why he was feeling whatever this emotion was at the termination of her actions. That was…that was all it was. It also had nothing to do with the feel of her aura then, closed off, ready to solidify at a moment's notice…the way her eyes met his….

It didn't matter. nothing really mattered.

"Gotta knock first! See? Like this." said Mukai as she caught up to him. She knocked on the opened door with her fist slowly, watching him the whole time just to make sure that he was giving her very important lesson in door knocking the attention it deserved. Shigeko's demeanor instantly softened…another emotion that he did not care to identify welled up inside of him.

"Mukai, did you steal more of my nail polish?" asked Shigeko with a smile on her face despite the fact that her own sister had not only stolen from her but made a mess for her to clean up, too. Suzuki had never been able to understand Shigeko…not lately. There had been a time, once, when he had known her like the back of his hand….but then she had changed. Mukai would change to, one day, so he would make the best of what they had now…even if she had painted his nails and fingers in his sleep.

"Caterpillars is pretty, too! See? Over there." said Mukai

"Oh…she got you too." Said Shigeko

"Yes. That's what's brought me to you this morning. I've seen you remove nail polish before and I'd like you to get this off of me. Now." Said Suzuki holding out his hand. Shigeko looked at him, his hand, and then Mukai. He saw something pass over her aura, something which he knew better than to ask her about. If it was something that he was meant to know then she would have told him. That was what their relationship was now.

"Sit down, I'll get it off now…or later, if you want to wait." Said Shigeko

"Why would I want to wait?" asked Suzuki

"Because Mukai worked really hard to paint all of our nails in our sleep. She was careful not to wake us up, even when she snuck in. She's kind of like a cat burglar." Said Shigeko. That was an interesting term, cat burglar. When he had been a child he had taken it literally, someone who came into your home to steal your cat, and he'd felt no fear because nobody in his home had any inclination to keep a cat. As he had gotten older and learned what the term meant it had begun to inspire a kind of fear within him. Someone coming into his home, undetected, to steal from him….a terrifying thought. One even more terrifying now. Mukai came and went as she pleased, he suspected that she may have been able to teleport, and if she could then others could have as well. Shigeko was not adept at defending herself, like most women she abhorred violence in all it's forms, and…and something could have happened to her. The terrifying thought leaves his mind…and another one forms. He remembers the company she keeps…as much as he disliked Shimazaki Ryou as a human being Suzuki did have to admit that he at least could keep Shigeko safe from any danger that she may have faced…though Suzuki had stamped out the dangers long ago…he was still angry. He needed to calm down. Shigeko…she was the last person he wanted to fight with today.

Even if she was, mostly, the cause of all of their fights.

"Or not, I can fix it right now if you want." Said Shigeko quickly

"Yes, that would be lovely…and if you could get the nail polish off of my bedspread too that would be much appreciated." Said Suzuki as he sat down on the closed toilet lit, Mukai tugging on the leg of his pajama pants every step of the way.

"No, Caterpillars, no! You gotta leave it!" shouted Mukai as he sat down. She tried to get him to stand up but she didn't have the strength. Not he physical strength or the metaphysical strength.

"I appreciate your handiwork but I am a man and men are not allowed to do this to themselves. Also you went outside the lines but I can forgive you for that since you're only three years old." Said Suzuki. Mukai crossed her arms and stomped her foot. Her aura, what little she had, flared ineffectively. It would get better once she got older…he hoped. Her mother had been more intelligent than anything, another hyper-cognate, though she might have had other talents. He didn't know, he hadn't really gotten to know her that well before Mukai had been conceived. Not as well as he had known Masami…or rather Shiori. He hadn't known Masami at all, Shiori he knew…not like the back of his hand, no….more like….the back of his head? He knew, reasonably, what was there though things could still take him by surprise…like that streak of silver….

He wondered if Shigeko still knew how to dye hair.

"What's that mean?" whined Mukai

"I meant-" said Suzuki

"Dad means that boys aren't allowed to paint their nails, alright? It's just for girls." Said Shigeko as she uncapped a bottle of clear liquid and stuck a cotton ball to the opening. She turned it upside down and let the clear liquid soak through.

"Not allowed….you're not allowed! You're a boy!" shouted Mukai before she ran away. He wasn't even going to try and understand what it was that she was doing. It seemed that daughters were confusing at any age…though Shigeko's age really was the worst. She was mostly an adult, in every way but chronologically, but she could still act so childish sometimes. Of course, though, they butted heads when he treated her like a child…he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't…

So he didn't.

"I hope she doesn't wake Sho." muttered Shigeko as she took his hand and rubbed a cotton call against it. It soon turned pink, thankfully not red, Suzuki didn't know if he would have been able to handle red. He had seen his own blood enough times this summer, he didn't need to be reminded of what it looked like.

"I feel the same way…how long will this take? I have to get ready for my day." Said Suzuki. He wanted to spend time with her….but also he didn't. The person standing in front of him both felt like Shigeko…but also like there was some stranger in front of him wearing her clothes…or lack thereof. She was just in one of her sleeping shirts, one with the ice queen on it, though it had been longer when she had first worn it…it wasn't his place to criticize her clothing so he was going to let it be for now…and forever.

"I don't know…a while? She painted my nails too, you know and I have to…it doesn't matter, Dad, just hold still." Said Shigeko

"I am holding still." Said Suzuki

"Then hold stiller…I don't know." Said Shigeko. Her aura had taken on a hostile quality. He wished that he hadn't been so far away from his phone. Then he could have checked to see if this was the time to avoid her or not.

"I am holding as still as possible." Said Suzuki

"Ok…and don't talk or…or talk. I don't know. You don't want me to tell you what to do." Said Shigeko

"No, I do have no wish to command you and you do not command me…though if you require silence for your work than I can be silent." Said Suzuki

"Yes…no…I don't know. We can talk if you want…if you have anything you want to talk to me about." Said Shigeko. Anything he wanted to talk to her about…he had quite a few things he wanted to talk to her about. He wanted to talk to her about keeping her things where Mukai couldn't get to them, she was nearly a decade older than her sister so she was the one who knew better. He wanted to talk to her about not wearing such short nightgowns around the house, she was much too old for that. He wanted to talk to her about….well about many other things. He wanted to talk to her about her little adventure in wanderlust. He knew it well, it had afflicted him for his entire life, though he had never left his post as she had….and never with the sort of company she kept either.

He had no say in the company she kept.

Suzuki was not about to go and start that argument again. He and his daughter had both said their piece and now this was their relationship. This tentative sort of truce. He had so many things he wanted to tell her, so many things he wanted to yell to her, so many things he wanted to scream at her until he was blue in the face. He had wanted to do all of that and more but of course he wasn't going to be doing any of that. She was old enough to make her own choices and her own mistakes and he didn't have the time to save her from herself. She had her life to live and he had his and…and that was just nature's way. So he wouldn't be talking to her about any of that….

But he did have to talk to her about something.

"Do you have any plans for today?" asked Suzuki. That seemed like a neutral enough question…though Shigeko's aura did pull inwards. What? What could she have possibly been getting up to in her life that was worse than what he already knew about? The thought was terrifying….all the thoughts running through his mind were terrifying.

"I…I was going to play videogames with Serizawa." said Shigeko after a moment. Suzuki nodded, relief washing over him in waves.

"Good." Said Suzuki

"Because he's lonely?" asked Shigeko

"Yes and…and because of who he is. I enjoy his company." Said Suzuki. That was the best way to put it…right? That he liked Serizawa as a companion for her. He was perfect. He had no way of betraying her, he owed her a debt greater than any previously imaginable debt, and he had no ability to survive on his own. He was a lot like a newborn kitten in that way…that was what he was. Less of a man and more of a pet for Shigeko. That was what she needed in her life. Not a man who played into all of her worst vices….a man who's history was longer and even more checkered than Suzuki's…a man who's very presence irritated Suzuki like a mosquito bite he just couldn't scratch….he wondered if there was some way to get Shimazaki away from her without upsetting or…or at least rousing her suspicions…

This would need further thought.

"He likes you too. You guys should hang out…I mean it would be nice. I think. I don't know, you can do whatever you want." Said Shigeko

"I can do whatever I want, you're right, and I do not wish to keep company with him or anyone other than Hatori as this time. There is too much work to be done for me to sit here and worry about my social calendar." Said Suzuki. Shigeko stopped what she had been doing and looked up at him. Her braids raised upwards, a bit, behind her.

"Does that mean that you're not going to see that lady ever again?" asked Shigeko. Suzuki stiffened. The cotton ball slid from her hand and went tumbling towards the floor. She caught it, not him. He was still in shock at the sheer audacity…and that was the word….just…why would she….

"Excuse me?" asked Suzuki. He knew who she referred to as 'that lady' and he knew that he had been perfectly clear to her. This was not her place. She did not have any right to intrude upon his private romantic life and…and he had no right to intrude upon hers. A pact of non-engagement.

"I was just…nothing. I just wanted to know if you were still…friends…with that lady. That's all." said Shigeko before she got back to work.

"Shiori is still…this is none of your business and you would take care not to make it your business. Shigeko, I care for you as a father, but right now you are really trying my patience. I am very tired, I haven't had any coffee today, and your sister woke me up half an hour before I had planned on waking up. I do not want to argue with you again." said Suzuki

"I don't want to argue with you either." Said Shigeko

"Then drop the subject." Said Suzuki

"Ok, I will…but then what do you want to talk about?" asked Shigeko. Again she had put the onus of the conversation on him…and again he came up with nothing. So that was what they discussed. Nothing. When every single conversation, sentence, when every single word doubled as a landmine there was nothing at all that he could say but nothing.

So they sat in silence.

The sound of cotton scraping against skin was not a loud one at all, so they sat in silence. Shigeko working and him watching her. The process felt odd but did not hurt. He didn't know why he had assumed it had, maybe from the smell. Whenever he had smelled rubbing alcohol, and that was what this smelled like, it had been when he had been small and injured. Mother had been very fond of cleaning his wounds with rubbing alcohol, it had been her opinion that the pain was germs dying. That made no sense, of course, since he had been the one in pain and not the germs. Mother had never been a fan of such backtalk.

The last time he had tried it he had been thirteen years old.

It had been before he had met Tadashi, even. He had gotten a papercut and mother dipped his entire finger in rubbing alcohol. The pain, of course, had been immense. Immense enough that he broke the bathroom mirror. Mother had been so upset with him, and father later on. He wondered if Shigeko would have been a fan of that story, if all of his children would have been. They all, or rather the older two, seemed to think that he treated them poorly. They had no idea what poor treatment even was. He had given them the most that he could, provided more than his father ever could have dreamed of, and given them all the freedom in the world.

But still it wasn't enough.

He would have killed to have had his parents see him, at thirteen, for the adult he had been. Chronologically, he had still been a child, but in his mind he had been a fully formed adult. After all it had been at the age of thirteen when he realized what he had been put on this earth to do, to take over the world, no matter how extreme a plan it might have been. Mother and Father had treated him like a child up until the end, up until they told him he needed to grow up, up until they had told him that he needed to have a real plan for his life. He had not been a child, not since he had been at least 10, or maybe a little older. Sometimes when he looked at his son, he thought of himself at that age and wondered if he had ever been so very small. He always remembered, though, that his son was more childish than he had ever been at any point in his life. Sho was practically an adult as well when he thought about it, when he really sat down and thought about it…ruminated on it. Two out of three of his children were adults, now, in every way but chronologically. Mukai would grow up soon enough. Is youngest child. Then what? Tetsuro, of course, that is If he was ever born….if he would ever even be able to find the time to conceive him.

He had so little time these days…

Certainly not time for this. She worked slowly, deliberately, even though he didn't think that this required quite so much care. He had seen his daughter do this a thousand times before, take one color off of her nails to add a new one, and it hadn't been so very long and deliberate and slow. Then again, she had never had quite so much Polish on her fingers. She was much more skilled at the art of polishing nails, She was quite a bit older than Mukai, so it made sense. So maybe she did need to take her time, to be the slow and deliberate, It wasn't as though he was an expert in this. No. He was a man and men did not know about these things, So for all he knew she was actually working very quickly.

He decided to keep his opinions to himself.

So he sat in silence and watched her work. It was a silence, broken only by the sound of show screaming. Apparently he had also been one of Mukai's victims. Part of Suzuki thought that it served his son right, surely the boy had done something to deserve it, but another part of him wanted to tell Mukai that she needed to stop this. He wanted to lay down the law as Shiori would have said...but Maki still was only three years old. He was going to treasure the time that he had with her now. He had squandered so much of his time with Shigeko when she had been that age. He had spent so much time berating her, correcting her, and generally treating her as if she had been Sho. She hadn't been. Sho had been his Son, she was his Daughter. You have to correct your sons, otherwise what kind of men would they grow into? Your son was your legacy and you had to mold him into the man you wanted him to be. On the other daughters grew up to be women, not men, so it was the mother's place to mold her into the woman that she needed to be….

Though, really, aside from the constant intoxication and company she kept she really was a better person than Masami had ever been.

So he let her alone, so he didn't start with her, so they sat in silence. Her working and him watching her work. If he closed his eyes, he could have seen her as she had been when she had been small, and that would have felt just like old times…nostalgic. He could have imagined that this was just another Sunday, even though it was a Tuesday, and they were preparing to spend their day together. He used to love spending his time with her, their long Sundays together. His days had been long, not as long as they were now, but long just the same…though they had allowed him some time with her…but now those days were over and they were never coming back.

His days were long and even if he had wanted to capture the nostalgia of the past, of her youth, then he wouldn't have been able to. He had to get on with his day after all.