The sound of silence was never a good one.

Minegishi rolled over. The house was quiet, too quiet. It would have been good for sleeping, really, if they hadn't lived with these people long enough to know that nothing good ever came of silence. They rolled over and picked up their phone. One in the afternoon, plenty of time to go back to sleep. Whatever it was that was happening right now someone else could deal with it. They rolled back over onto their side of the bed.

Laughter.

Tiny laughter. Tiny, high pitch, laughter. They buried their face in Ryou's pillow. Let him deal with Mukai. Or Tsuchiya. Or whoever else was home…or wasn't. They reached over into their plants, their aura spreading through the house. Empty. Nobody was home…nobody but Mukai, Mob, and Serizawa…and Mukai was laughing. It could have been nothing or she could have been trying to make cereal or climb the walls or swing from the light fixtures. Whatever. Not their problem.

They had one kid to look after and one kid was enough.

More laughter. They couldn't tell if Mob was out there with her or not. Mob's aura was always so bright it was hard to get a lock on her. Serizawa's too. It was like there was this pink, blue, and purple blob just at the corner of their vision. Mob was hanging out with Serizawa again. Minegishi wasn't worried…well not about what they knew people had implied that they needed to worry about…well of course not from Serizawa but…well they had nothing to worry about from anyone. Mob was…well not the sharpest stake in the garden…but not an idiot either. She was finally off of this 'Shoko' or 'Shigeo' thing…at least she hadn't said anything troubling in a while…

She hadn't said anything to them in a while, period.

They sat up. It had been a while since they'd talked to Mob. But in their defense there had been a lot of bodies to dispose of, and translation work to do too which was actually more annoying than the body disposal. Suzuki seemed to think that if he worked everyone to the bone then he could take over the world faster. All he was doing was sowing the seeds of dissent. Minegishi heard things through the grapevine, literally, and some people were starting to wake up and question this insanity. Well that was a problem for Suzuki to deal with. Minegishi had enough on their plate as it was.

Like the giggling toddler just outside of their door.

Minegishi kicked their covers off. One of Ryou's socks got caught on the end of their toenail. Ryou needed to stop kicking his socks off in the bed, he never could find them afterwards, and they maybe needed to cut their nails. They hadn't had a spa day with Mob in a while…they hadn't had any kind of day with Mob in a while. She preferred videogames to people these days. They didn't know why. Videogames were the worst mixture of boring and annoying. You expended all of that mental energy for nothing. At least if you read you learned something…or maybe they had just been soured on videogames thanks to those long days seeking shelter in arcades. Minegishi didn't feel like psychoanalyzing themselves, they had Mob to worry about, and Ryou to a lesser extent.

Idiot that he was.

They climbed out of bed…and stepped right on one of Ryou's shirts. They kicked it out of the way, they weren't his maid, and neither was Mob. He had gotten into the habit of treating the floor like a laundry hamper since his and Mob's little sabbatical or whatever. Well fine then, he could find his own clothes if that was the way he was going to be. Honestly. They had no idea what Mob had been thinking…they really didn't.

About anything.

"Damn it…" muttered Minegishi as they stood up. They stretched towards the ceiling, Tsuchiya would have been proud. Too long, much too long laying down. Maybe they were getting old. Thirty years old. Somehow they had made it to thirty. They had never seen their life going this way. A job, a life, a kid they were responsible for, an idiot who acted like they were responsible for him…an idiot they loved…a much lesser idiot that they liked a whole lot…they wondered what little Minegishi would have said if they could have seen them now. The younger version of them would probably have been happy. It wasn't so bad, they'd come from much worse after all. This was…Ryou was a headache and Mob had turned into a teenager overnight and they didn't much care for the toddler that somehow both everyone and no one was responsible for…but it could have been worse.

Things could have always been worse.

For example, it could have been their supplies that Mukai was sticking to the wall. There, leading from the bathroom and down the hallway, was a trail of pads stuck to the wall. Mukai was laughing to herself as she stuck them there and muttering something about stickers. They took one more look around through their plants. Only Mob and Serizawa….which meant that Mob was the one in charge here. Serizawa couldn't even be trusted to run a bath on his own…that was a lot of babysitting for Mob to do on her own….

This wasn't their problem.

"Mine! Mine! Mine! You want stickers?" asked Mukai. She pulled a pad from the wall and tried to hand it to them. Minegishi held up their hand and shook their head. That was…a lot of wasted supplies. The trail really did go from the bathroom…so plausibly some of those could have belonged to them. Mukai better not have gotten into their things. That would have made this their problem…and they didn't want it to be.

They wanted to go back to sleep.

"You take it! You need it!" said Mukai

"No, I don't, and neither do you. Now come on, go back to Mob and have her clean this up." Said Minegishi. Let her explain to Tsuchiya what happened. Minegishi wasn't a babysitter, in the case of Mukai they had made it all quite clear from the beginning. They didn't like toddlers. They hadn't liked taking care of Mukai when she had been a baby and this toddler version of her wasn't any better. Maybe when she grew into a child then she would at least have been tolerable. Mob had been a pretty ok kid….

She still was, for the most part.

"All for me, all the stickers for me!" said Mukai as she got back to work. Minegishi didn't know, exactly, how cognizant Mukai was of the world around her. It wasn't like Minegishi could remember being three. Mukai was mostly id, it seemed. She never thought about what she was doing, she just…did things. She needed to be watched and Minegishi was not the person to do this.

But Mob was.

The walk to Serizawa's room, or Mob's second room at this point, was a short one. Minegishi could hear the annoying repetitive sounds of a videogame being played. How Mob could stand it they did not know. They should have been counting their blessings. Videogame addiction was a hell of a lot better than actual addiction. Mob had been going easy on the everything lately, something that they had been praying for since they had started Mob down this path. Maybe she'd gotten it out of her system with Ryou…or maybe she was just replacing one addiction with another and he could easily switch back…Minegishi had no idea what they were supposed to do for her. They didn't know how to be a parent…they weren't even sure if they knew how to be a good friend to her…

But they were doing their best.

"Hey, Mob? You in there?" asked Minegishi as they knocked on the door. The hair on the back of their arms stood up as a wave of energy washed over them. Serizawa. Whether they had startled him or if he was just awkward around them still they didn't know. They weren't about to ask him. They were too tired…not sleepy, just tired.

Bone tired.

The doorknob turned and Mob stuck her face through the crack. Her eyes were hidden under her bangs…it had been a while since their last haircut day, hadn't it? They needed to cut her bangs…or maybe she was finally old enough to cut her own bangs. They brushed their own hair out of their eyes. They both needed a haircut.

One thing at a time.

"Hi…hi, Minegishi…I'm in here." Said Mob softly. She looked away from them. She had been that way for a while. They had no idea what any of it was about. Mob wasn't talking to them…or to anyone either than Serizawa. Ryou had been going on and on and on about how distant Mob had been from him. They didn't care if Mob was distant from him or not, actually it was better that way, but Mob being distant from them…well that was something to worry about.

Mob loved giving them things to worry about, didn't she?

"I can see that…why?" asked Minegishi

"What do you mean? I mean me and Serizawa are playing…well he's playing Mario 64 and I'm watching. I don't really want a turn….but it's nice to hang out with him. He's nice." Said Mob

"Yeah, Serizawa's a drop of sunshine come down to Earth-" said Minegishi

"Thank you!" shouted Serizawa

"You're welcome!" shouted Mukai. Minegishi rubbed their temples. It was too loud in here. It was too loud…they were getting a headache that they didn't want or need. Too much yelling and too much…too much going on. They needed a break. They needed a nap…another one. They needed to go back to sleep…even if it was one in the afternoon.

"That was really nice, Minegishi, you're not always that nice…thanks for being so nice. To everyone and to me…I don't deserve it…" said Mob softly

"Why?" asked Minegishi, getting right to the point. Mob was sad. About what they didn't know. She could be really cryptic when she wanted to be. She had always been like this. Even at the age of eight when she had been stealing sips from their liquor bottles and, on one occasion, Xanax from their pill tin….

They had better not have needed to start counting their pills.

"Um…maybe you felt like being nice? Or maybe you got a good night's…day's sleep and now you're in a good mood and you're going to be nice to everyone. Maybe." Said Mob

"That would be great! I mean not that you're not nice, you are, but in your own way-which is a good way! I mean you can be a really good friend…you are a very good friend-" said Serizawa

"Mine's my friend, not yours!" shouted Mukai. Minegishi shook their head. That was enough from the peanut gallery.

"Minegishi is-" said Mob

"Minegishi is getting tired of all of this. Now Mob, can you please tell me why you've been sequestered in here all day and all night for the past God only knows how long?" asked Minegishi. Mob's eyes widened and she focused on the sight of her feet against the rub. Either she was shy or high and contemplating her socks again.

"I…I…like hanging out with Serizawa. He's nice." Said Mob

"Yeah, I got that part…so, any particular reason you left Mukai all alone? I'm assuming that Tsuchiya told you to watch her." said Minegishi. They knew when to let things go and this was one of those times.

"She's napping…or I guess she was. I told her to come and knock on the door when she woke up but I guess she forgot." Said Mob

"Or she had something better to do." Said Minegishi

"What do you mean?" asked Mob

"Come outside and have a look." Said Minegishi. They stepped off to the side. They could have just told her what Mukai had done but…well they wanted to get her out of that room. She was getting pale, paler than normal. She wasn't taking whatever this was well. Ryou said that it had been Suzuki again, being the asshole he was, and they were inclined to believe that….

But it didn't feel right.

Mob told them, had told them, when Suzuki had seen fit to run his mouth again. He'd hit her, too, stupid as it was. It was getting along in years if that patch of white hair was anything to go off of. Who did he think was going to take care of him in his old age? Sho was obviously more inclined to hide his pills or smother him. Mukai, at this point, didn't look like she'd grow up to be the sort of person who could be trusted with a houseplant let alone a human being. Mob was the one he'd raised to be his and everyone else's caretaker and he had already fucked up when it came to her.

When Mob stopped taking care of someone then, obviously, something was wrong.

"Mukai! No! That's…that's wrong! That isn't what those are for!" gasped Mukai as she turned red and ran over to Mukai. She reached out behind herself with her powers and slammed Serizawa's door shut. They rolled their eyes. Mob was bright red, honestly, she didn't have to be so embarrassed….still, though, it was nice to see some of the old Mob.

"Stickers! You want some stickers?" asked Mukai. Mob practically died right on the spot. Mukai pulled a pad off of the wall and held it out like she had just found the holy grail. Minegishi put a hand over their mouth. They wished that they'd thought to bring their phone, it really was a cute picture. Well it would have been…

"Mukai! No, those aren't-I told you what those were for. Remember? I explained it to you when you were two?" asked Mob

"I'm three now!" said Mukai, holding out three fingers.

"I know but-" said Mob

"Why don't you tell her again when she's older." Said Minegishi

"You're right….um, Mukai? Do you want to go and play with Serizawa while I clean this up?" asked Mob. Mukai looked up, her eyes wide as dinner plates.

"Games? Phone games? With Seri?" asked Mukai

"Um….maybe? You should ask him first-or run away, that works too." Said Mob as Mukai ran away. She ran right to Serizawa's door and started pounding with both of her little fists. Mob opened the door just enough for her to make it inside and then slammed it shut as she simultaneously got to work. Minegishi decided to help her.

It was really the least that they could do.

"Seri! Let me in! And play games! Phone games! I win!" shouted Mukai as she ran through the door. There was another burst of purple, maybe sending the overly enthusiastic and possibly sugared up, Mukai seemed to have some kind of candy supply stashed away somewhere, to the most unstable person in the house hadn't been the best idea.

"Mukai…please don't shout like that…" said Mob softly.

"I don't think that she can hear you, or that she cares." Said Minegishi

"I guess but I still have to say something and…and you don't have to help me, really, I have this. it's not that many…just…oh. They go all the way down the hall but…but I don't need help. You can go back to sleep if you want to." Said Mob as she undid Mukai's handiwork, her face red as they'd ever seen it. They didn't know what she was so embarrassed about, they hadn't taught her that, but they weren't going to get into all of that with her right now. Clearly she was going through something. They had no idea what but they knew that she didn't need a lecture.

"I know, but I want to…though I'm not sure how many of these are going to be salvageable." Said Minegishi as they pulled a pad from the wall and tried to fold it back up. These things did not want to refold and probably wouldn't re-stick but, hey, it was the thought that counted. Right?

"They should be, she just stuck them to the wall…um…none of these were yours, right?" asked Mob

"I hope to God not or I swear-" said Minegishi

"Don't be mad at Mukai! She doesn't know any better." Said Mob

"No, but you do." Said Minegishi. They reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. She took a step away and shook her head as fast as she could.

"I didn't do any of this! Really!" said Mob. Minegishi wanted to roll their eyes again but they were starting to get sore and, really, they didn't need that right now. Mob didn't need this right now either…so they would get to the point. This had been going on for way too long….

"No but you were supposed to be watching her…and normally you're really good about that. I'm not mad at you, I just want to know what's up with you. You've been avoiding me, Ryou-" said Minegishi. Mobs eyes widened and then every single makeshift sticker that Mukai had stuck to the wall fell to the floor and began to fold itself…more like paper than anything. Mob's face was red, very red, red enough that she was hiding it.

Really.

All Minegishi had done was mention a guy, and not even a guy that would make fun of her or make a thing out of it. Mob was still so young, it was easy to forget that she was only thirteen. Of course Minegishi had been done with this kind of embarrassment by thirteen but they hadn't exactly had a normal life…neither had Mob but…but it was nice to see her being normal. That was…it was important to accentuate the positive….

Not that Minegishi had ever been good at that.

"Ok, all done now! Good night!" said Mob before she got up and ran. Huh, who would have thought that Suzuki's would have been such good runners? Minegishi should have been glad that she was getting some kind of exercise…she had been living indoors for that past they didn't even know how long. This was…they needed to figure out exactly what this was. Mob had been hiding something and they had no idea what…but they were going to find out.

Right after they put all of these makeshift stickers away…thanks a lot Mukai….