Minegishi didn't normally hate people.

Hating people took more effort than they were willing to give. The last thing that they needed to do was to make their life worse than it already was…worse than it had to be. Hating people involved a lot of effort. You had to go out of your way to hurt them, to sabotage them, to make them feel twice as bad as they made you feel. Minegishi was done expending that kind of effort on people.

They'd been done for a while now.

There had been a time in their life when they hated the world and everything in it. One they'd been a scared, lonely, hungry little girl lost in a world that didn't understand them. That didn't want them. They thought that they were crazy. Minegishi knew that they weren't crazy now, and they didn't hate the world anymore, they were largely apathetic to it. It was a world. It was full of people. They didn't need the people in it to understand them. They didn't even need the people in it to acknowledge them. They run adult now. They weren't always an adult though, there had been a time, a long time before this period of time one day had been full of their hatred had been directed at everyone. Other kids at school, adults in their lives, but especially their parents... there was no need to hate their parents anymore.

No point in hating trees.

That was what happened to people they hated, they became trees. they were ground up into fertilizer, put in the ground and fed the seeds which would later become trees. It took a lot of effort. Murder always took a lot of time to plan. When they had gone back for their parents it had been years, they've been planning their revenge for years, and even with their planet had taken awhile. It had to get their parents alone together, had to make sure no neighbors were watching, and they've had to pick the perfect species of tree... the last part may have taken up more time than was necessary. But it had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. Their entire life had been leading up to that moment…or least that was what they had felt like at the time….

They didn't know what to feel anymore...

"Minegishi? Are you ok? How…how do you feel?" asked Mob. She was sitting on her own bed, thankfully. They didn't know what they would have done if Mob had been sitting right beside them, listening to both side of…of whatever that had been. They had thought, hoped, that Ryou had finally had it in him to apologize…

Of course they'd been wrong.

He hadn't said sorry. Not that sorry was good enough. He'd slept with Mob. He'd had actual sex with the real life actual Mob. Not her evil twin or a body double or a clone or whatever. He'd slept with the person sitting on the lumpy hotel bed across from theirs…and what was even worse was that he'd called them up to justify himself to them! Like there was something that he could say or do that would make this ok…

There was no defending the indefensible.

"I'm fine." Said Minegishi as they tossed their phone onto the bedside table. They knocked over someone's light up fan thing…they didn't care. Let Sho or Mukai or whoever freak out when they were done playing with the ice machine. They didn't care….they could have used some of that ice thought…something for their aching feet and head and…and self.

Everything hurt.

"Are you sure? Because you were being really mean to Shimazaki, mean for real, and you're only mean for real when something's wrong and…are you…are you mad at me?" asked Mob. Minegishi turned to face her. Again with this?

"Mob…you know why I'm mad and you know that it's not at you." Said Minegishi. They held eye contact with Mob. She broke it first. She looked down at the bedspread under her, fascinated by what must have been the most banal shade of blue ever made. She dug her fingers into it, a fleck of blue nail polish coming off…

For the love of…not this again. Anything but this.

"But…but it just seems like you are…that's all." Said Mob. That's all…that was all she ever said. It just seemed like they were mad…of fucking course they were mad. Who wouldn't have been mad in this situation? Their boyfriend had slept with their thirteen year old best friend. Not only that but now he was trying to justify himself…they took a deep breath. That deep breathing shit Tsuchiya was always preaching about.

It didn't work.

Mob was still looking at them. Her eyes were watering again…why? This had been a good day. Aside from them whole 'Mukai almost dying in an easily predictable rollercoaster accident' thing it had been a good day. Mob had gotten Elsa's signature again, ridden all of her favorite rides, drank her weight in milkshakes, eaten enough churros that it was a miracle she wasn't rolling down the street, and Tsuchiya had even let Mukai stay at the hotel with them after a cryptic remark about the powerlessness of them all.

There was no need for Mob to be carrying on like this again.

"For the last time, I'm not angry with you in any way, shape, or form. For the last time, this was not your fault. For the last time, we are still friends. Ok? Best friends. We're totally besties with the bracelets to prove it. Do you get it?" asked Minegishi through clenched teeth. What did they have to do? Dress up like Elsa and plan a song and dance just to get her to listen? They were getting close to that point. Mob had never been a good listener. She had always been stubborn even for her family…Minegishi missed the days when she'd been stubborn about things like playing with dolls or watching only cat video compilations on YouTube…hell, they'd take another Mob makeover at this point! Why did she have to be so stubborn about this of all things? Why did she…

Why did she have to go and grow up?

"But then…then why are you still mad? I heard you talking to Shimazaki…your phone is kind of loud…and he said that he was sorry. I mean he sounded sorry-" said Mob

"I don't give a fuck how sorry you think he is! I know for a fact that he's not…and he should be! He's going to be! When I get my hands on him he's going to wish he'd never even though about-never even-God!" said Minegishi. The plant beside them, a little potted daisy, grew a head. A Venus flytrap head…too good for Ryou. Much too good. He needed to suffer. He needed…they didn't hate him enough to turn him into tree food…they didn't hate him at all….

That was why they hated themselves…they were the only person they could hate in this scenario.

"You are mad!" said Mob. The Venus flytrap head turned back into a daisy as Mob took control of the plant…of all of their plants, from them. They'd brought a few. Spider plants, tiny flowers, cacti, even a lima bean plant that refused to grow no matter how many times they threatened it. Mob took control over all of them.

Easily.

What was she so afraid of? It wasn't like they were going to abandon her to go and torture Ryou. No, they knew better than to leave her alone like that. Apparently she couldn't be trusted to be left on her own. Minegishi would have come back to Mob holding a smaller version of herself…hopefully from a boy her own age. That was the worst possible thing, Minegishi had thought before, Mob finding some equally horny and equally dumb teenage boy and then ending up with Shoko or Shigeo or whatever other noncreative name she could think up. That…the thought isn't nearly as horrible as the reality Minegishi was living in….

Still, though, it was clear that she couldn't be trusted to be left anywhere on her own.

"Not at you! I'm mad at-" said Minegishi

"Don't be mad at Shimazaki, it's not his fault! I already said that it wasn't his fault! I'm the one who wanted to….it was my fault. I'm the one who made him fall in love with me-" said Mob. Minegishi literally bit their tongue before they could say something that would have been impossible to take back. Mob….they loved Mob, they really did, but she needed to…she needed to think before she spoke.

She already knew how they felt about all of this.

She should have known what they were going to say, it was the same thing that they had said last time and the time before that. It didn't matter. They didn't care how badly Mob had wanted to sleep with him, they didn't care how head over heels in love he was with her, they didn't even care if they had signed and notarized consent forms. They. Didn't. Care. Mob was still thirteen, he was still nearly thirty three, and it was never going to be ok….they should have seen this coming. This was their fault…that was what they cared about.

The part they played in all of this.

"Mob, this is my fault. I told you before that all of this was my fault…and I'm not going to tell you again. I'm not mad at you so…so drop it already. We need to stop talking about this because I am dangerously close to saying things to you that I know I'll regret later….things that we may not be able to recover from…" said Minegishi

"What kinds of things?" asked Mob, another fleck of nail polish coming off. Minegishi looked away from her. They turned to watch the TV. Some music video on the Disney Channel…Mob had better not have been getting into this dreck…actually that wouldn't have been so bad. Something someone her age should have been doing….something that they could do together in silence. Something that was torture for them…torture that they deserved…

This song actually wasn't half bad. Torture averted.

"What song is this?" asked Minegishi

"It's a mashup dance remix of when will my life begin from Tangled and for the first time in forever from Frozen but sped up…Mukai likes it." Said Mob softly

"It's not half bad." Said Minegishi

"It's ok…I like the original mashup better. Remember, I showed you?" asked Mob

"I remember. From the YouTube channel with the guy and the girl?" asked Minegishi

"Yes but they broke up now…it's sad when people break up…" said Mob softly

"Yeah. It is." Said Minegishi. They were broken up…they had left Ryou. They had…they shouldn't have felt bad about this. They shouldn't have felt anything about this. He had broken their trust. They had asked him not to…they had been too specific and not specific enough at the same time. They couldn't tell if he was playing dumb or not. They had told him not to sleep with her when she was twelve, something that they shouldn't have had to say in the first place, and…and of course they hadn't meant 'wait until her birthday' or anything close to that!

They had meant until she was old enough to make that choice.

It would have been weird if Mob had been an adult. If she had been their age and they had been dead….they had never imagined themselves at forty seven. Even if Mob had been younger, even if she'd been in her twenties, or even in her late teens it still would have been weird. Ryou…he got around and, yes, he had said that he would have been interested in Mob but…but they hadn't taken him seriously. They would have thought that he'd have at least had the sense to wait until she was an adult before even brining anything like that up!

That was their problem, they'd expected Ryou to have sense.

He didn't. He was a moron. He was a being of pure id and impulse…and now he was not their problem. Now he was free to sleep with as many thirteen year olds as he wanted. They were done. There was no other way that they could be. They didn't know if their relationship would have survived this is Mob had been older…but they couldn't stay with him after this. They couldn't love him anymore after this….

So why did they still love him?

Why did they miss him? Why did they want to see his face right now? To see that weird face he made when he heard music he didn't like…and he wouldn't have liked this at all. He didn't like derivative music. He didn't much care for electronic dance music. He had all kinds of opinions about soundtracks not being real music because…they didn't even remember. He'd been drunk when he'd gone on that rant. They'd both been drunk…it had been a good night…

But those nights were over now.

"Um….Minegishi?" asked Mob. They recognized that tone. They had known Mob long enough to know all of her tones. She was apprehensive…she couldn't take a hint, could she? No, no, no, of course not. This was Mob. She couldn't have gotten a clue even if one had walked up and tugged on her braid. They did not want to talk and it looked like they were going to have to spell it out for her…

Or deflect, that could have worked too.

"I'm confused how you're supposed to dance to this. It's like they just took the normal mass up and put generic EDM sounds over it." Said Minegishi changing the subject.

"You can dance to anything if you're drunk enough…or if you take Molly. That's not a person, that's-" said Mob

"I know what Molly is, thank you." Said Minegishi. They didn't even want to think about that….how many pills did they have? Of Xanax…that was what they had been counting. They should have had twelve bars left…Mob had better not have been getting into their pills. She was already into way too much…

But this, like everything else that had gone wrong in Mob's life, was Minegishi's fault.

"Oh…I forgot...hey Minegishi? Maybe if we did Molly then you'd feel better. It makes you feel like-" said Mob

"I know what it makes you feel like and I know that it's a bad idea, a really bad idea, to let you have it. Now don't bring it up again. Ok?" asked Minegishi

"But when me and Shimazaki-"said Mob.

"What did I just say? Can't you listen for once?" asked Minegishi, their eyes staying put and not meeting Mob's. They didn't know what they would have said if their eyes met. Maybe sorry…or maybe something so awful that there would have been no way at all of coming back from it…

"I…I can….but I was just trying to make you feel better. You've been so mad lately-" said Mob

"Not because of you." Said Minegishi, trying their best not to sound as annoyed as they felt. They forced their aura, too, to stay calm…or pleasant…or something that Mob wouldn't take as an attack on her.

"I know that you said that but…but I'm the one who slept with Shimazaki and I'm the one who made him fall in love with me and I'm the one who made you break-" said Mob

"Suzuki, enough. I'm trying to watch TV here. This song is hard enough to follow as it is without you distracting me." Said Minegishi. Maybe the Elsa costume would have been a bad idea. If a Frozen and Tangled mashup couldn't hold her attention…though maybe the Tangled diluted the Frozen or…or something. They didn't know.

The only thing that they did know was that Mob wasn't going to be shutting up anytime soon.

"Minegishi…you and Shimazaki aren't broken up because of me, are you?" asked Mob softly. Minegishi took another deep, calming, centering breath…it didn't work. All it did was make the potted plant on their nightstand explode out of it's vase.

It didn't look like Mob was getting her deposit back for this room.

"What did I say last time you asked? What did I say, Suzuki?" asked Minegishi, not looking at her. They heard her shuffling around on her bed. They watched the TV. It had gone from a music video to an episode of whatever the hell this show was. Sho had picked it out. Apparently there was a dog with human levels of intelligence and it had a blog. How it typed without thumbs Minegishi didn't know…maybe if they watched for long enough they'd find out.

They didn't take their eyes off of the screen.

"I know that you said that you were broken up…and I know that I said that you weren't….but I don't think that you listened to me. I don't think-" said Mob

"I don't think that you listened to me either so, since we're both not listening to one another, let's just listen to the TV. The dog has a blog. At least something makes sense around here." Said Minegishi harsher than they should have…or maybe not harsh enough. They felt like a broken record. They sounded like one too. How many times did they have to repeat themselves before she got it through her head that they weren't mad!

Not at her, anyway.

They were annoyed with her beyond words, of course. Nothing could top their annoyance with her, not even Sho and Mukai kicking the door down and spilling ice all over the floor…ice and Dippin Dots. Apparently they had been down to the hotel food court too. Mukai and Sho were both all hopped up on sugar, and immediately started hopping on the bed…but that wasn't nearly as annoying as dealing with Mob when she got like this.

Nothing was.

"Sho…Mukai…you guys could at least help." Said Mob as she used her powers to pick up the ice and tiny balls of ice cream. Movements too fine even for her, it seemed. Some of the ice was breaking and the ice cream was getting in the rug…or maybe it wasn't too many fine movements. Maybe she was just too upset.

She certainly looked it.

Now that Minegishi had no choice but to get a good look at her they could see the tears in her eyes…the way she carried herself…the way her aura felt. She needed…she needed help. She hadn't meant to be annoying. They had to remind themselves of that fact. She just…was annoying. She was thirteen and she was confused and…and a lot of other things…

She was only thirteen. Minegishi was thirty.

"Here." Said Minegishi, getting down onto the floor beside her. She picked up the ice. She picked up the ice cream. She knew not to say anything, she didn't even get a chance with the way her brother and sister were carrying on like a couple of kids…they were kids, and so was she. She had just…in a lot of ways she had been robbed of that…Minegishi had their part in it. They should have taken better care of her…done more to protect her….had better judgement when it came to…to everything….this was their fault. This was all their fault…the thought wouldn't leave their mind. It rattled around in there like so many rainbow colored ice cream dots all over a rug…just rattling around….grounded in…no way to clean it out…everything they did just making it all worse…so much worse than it ever had to be…..

This was their fault. They had never hated anyone before as much as they hated themselves right now.