It was painful, really, how in twenty two years of life Hatori hadn't learned how to dress himself properly.

"Change. Now." said Suzuki. Normally he wouldn't have care what Hatori wore, even that godawful sweater with the pigeon on the front, but these were not normal times. Well the event was normal, expected even, but his travelling companion was not. No, normally Tadashi would…he would have gone alone. That was not an option. Fukuda was gone and Suzuki had business relationships to keep, make, and maintain. On his own. Normally Fukuda would have accompanied him, or gone on his own, but Fukuda was…in another location. Suzuki didn't care where he went or what he did. They were largely thought with one another…and for good reason, too. Reasons that…that had no bearing on the present.

Reasons which eft Suzuki and Hatori alone together here.

Suzuki knew that he wasn't the best when it came to these things but at least he knew how to dress himself. He owned several copies of the same suit. It was suitable for any and all occasions. It flattered him, too, the cut and color of it. Not that he knew much about fashion. No. That was a woman's game. He didn't care if he looked fashionable, he just had to look good. acceptable.

Everything that Hatori wasn't.

"What?" asked Hatori, pulling one of his earbuds out. Suzuki was giving him that look again. It was just like all of his other looks only this one was a thousand times more pissed off for some reason. What? Hatori was totally ready to go! He'd put on a button down shirt and clean pants and everything! He wasn't even wearing the pigeon sweater or the gal game hoodie. He'd even scrubbed under his nails.

What more did Suzuki want from him?

"First of all stop deafening yourself. I can hear…whatever that is, from all the way over here." Said Suzuki as he pulled Hatori's other earbud out with his powers and shoved it into his hand.

"It's not that loud." Said Hatori

"Like I said, stop deafening yourself." Said Suzuki

"Fine, fine, I'll turn it down…but even if it was that loud Fukuda could just fix me up. That is his job after all. One of his jobs." Said Hatori. Suzuki's aura got brighter before dimming back to normal…damn it. Were they fighting again? Hatori was never falling in love with anyone, and not just because he didn't know any girls. He didn't know what he would have done if the girl he wound up being with, maybe even for years, turned out to be like Fukuda.

Plus all the stress….

Nope. Not for him. He was going to die alone and he was happy about it…well, nearly alone. Suzuki had brought him with. He didn't even need to be here. He could have just stayed behind with Mob and the others...and it wasn't like he would have minded…but this was…this was something. Suzuki wanted him around…well Suzuki had wanted him around for a while. They were friends, whatever that meant to Suzuki, and had been for a while.

It was pretty great, actually, aside from when he treated Hatori like a kid…like more of a kid than his own kids.

"Tadashi…Fukuda will not be joining us for some time. So try and be careful with your life." Said Suzuki

"I am careful, it's other people who aren't….are you sure that this is a good idea? Don't people, you know, try to shoot at you and shit? Sorry, and stuff?" asked Hatori

"You know fully well that they do…but I am perfectly capable of defending myself. You don't need to worry about me." Said Suzuki

"What about me?" asked Hatori

"You don't have to worry for your own safety either…not so long as you go back to your room and change your clothes. I know that you have to have something suitable." Said Suzuki. A suit would have been best, he knew that Hatori owned one, but he wasn't sure if he'd packed it. Hatori's packing skills had never been the best. Suzuki still shuddered at the memory of the time Hatori had forgotten to pack socks…

He should have had Shigeko pack Hatori up. It was more inline with her skillset.

"What's wrong with my clothes? I'm not wearing the pigeon sweater or the gal game hoodie." Said Hatori. He didn't think he looked too bad. He had on a button down shirt, black pants, and the most plain sweater he owned. Just plain blue, no stains, and Vault Boy was on the back. Nobody was going to be looking at his back so he was fine. He actually thought that he looked pretty good…

And anyway what did Suzuki know? He wore the same suit every single day.

"You can't possibly think that I'm going to let you be seen with me dressed like that." Said Suzuki. He looked terrible. He was dressed like Sho…and that wouldn't have even been acceptable on Sho. That sweater was too bright and had one of his character's on it. His pants were denim. His socks had holes in them….well it wasn't as though people would be looking at his socks…but the point still stood.

It was important to dress well.

It had taken Suzuki some time to get that fact hammered into his mind. When he'd been a child he had dressed in much the same way Hatori did. Shirts with characters on them, denim pants, that rocket ship sweater mother had made for him when he had been small…it had taken him a very long time to grow out of that rocket ship sweater…well no, he hadn't even grown out of it. Tadashi had just told him that he was thirteen years old and that thirteen year olds in middle school did not wear sweaters knitted by their mothers.

Tadashi had always known more about those types of things than he did.

Tadashi had always been more concerned with looking nice…fashionable was the word for it. Father had always told him to dress well. Expensive clothing that fit. The way you looked told the world who you were, who's son you were. Tadashi had expressed something similar. They couldn't be seen together unless Suzuki stopped dressed like an elementary schooler. So he'd put away that sweater, his various space themed articles of clothing, and found something new to wear.

He missed that red shirt…looking back it hadn't looked good with his red hair but it had been comfortable.

"What's wrong with this? It's comfortable." Said Hatori. Suzuki was pulling at the collar of his suit with his powers. Hatori hated collars, it was like you were trying to choke yourself. He didn't get Suzuki sometimes. He was the guy in charge, why did he care what other people thought?

"Just change and stop questioning me. My children don't even question me this much." Said Suzuki

"You don't get on them about what they wear." Said Hatori. Suzuki complained a lot about Mob's clothes, Hatori didn't get it, and Sho barely ever changed his clothes at all, but Suzuki didn't….well Hatori was pretty much an honorary member of the family. Suzuki had told him a few times that he wished that Hatori had been his son. Hatori was pretty much the oldest then and, yeah, there was the whole 'good example thing' even if he was continents away….

He really didn't want to have to wear that damn suit again.

"They are never seen with me publicly. I have people to see and they cannot see you like that. We are, and have been, hemorrhaging money. Money comes from donations and backers and we cannot keep receiving donations and backing if we lose our backers. We've already lost Asagiri…even Fukuda hadn't been able to smooth that over." said Suzuki. Shigeko had lost him a very important backer. He loved her, he cared for her, but something she just could not think! She…he did his best to keep calm…though where Shigeko had even gotten the idea that cocaine was an acceptable-

He couldn't afford to lose another backer, especially not someone at the same level as Asagiri had been.

"I can't imagine why." Muttered Hatori

"What was that?" asked Suzuki

"I can't imagine why Fukuda wouldn't want to come to this thing." Said Hatori quickly. Right, right, for as much of an asshole as Fukuda was Suzuki was always going to be in love with him or whatever. The only person allowed to insult Fukuda was Suzuki.

"We are…having a disagreement about certain topic and have decided to take some time apart in which we will both focus on work and not our personal relationship." Said Suzuki quickly. There. That was a perfectly sound and logical statement. One that Hatori had better have let it go.

"Wait…so you guys are separated now?" asked Hatori. Was that even the right word for it? Had they even been together? For real, not just fuck buddies or whatever they had called themselves. Did this mean that he never had to talk to Fukuda again? To even so much as look at him? To share a world with him? Actually now that Hatori thought about it if Suzuki had wanted him dead then he would have killed him, if he was even capable of killing his best friend….but still! At least he didn't have to see Fukuda ever again. Mob was probably going to kick him out too….

This was in the top twenty five best days of his life.

"Yes. We are in separate parts of the world. Now stop asking questions, I don't want to talk about this." Said Suzuki

"Wait, so does this mean that you guys are broken up now?" asked Hatori

"That is none of your business. Now go change your clothes." Said Suzuki. He stared at Hatori, Hatori looked away quickly.

"Fine…I guess…" said Hatori. They were friends but that didn't mean that Suzuki couldn't still get pissed off at him, especially when it came to issues like that. He was amazed that someone like Suzuki could have made someone like Mob. She was all about kindness and friendship, like a magical girl or something, but Suzuki…well he was Suzuki. He wasn't above shoving you or hitting you when he thought he had to…actually he was a lot more like Sho. Sho and Mukai.

She hit hard.

She took the weirdest stuff personally, just like her dad did. Last time he'd tried to keep his glasses away from her she's taken a plastic shovel and smacked him across the face with it. What was it with Suzuki's kids and going right to violence? Why couldn't they all just get along? Ok, now he sounded like Mob….but she did have a point…and things were always so peaceful when she was around.

This wasn't going to be forever.

This argument, however, was unless he did what Suzuki asked. It had been worth a shot. He'd taken his shot, he'd missed and he didn't have any more ammo left. No amount of pounding on the X button would help so he had might as well have listened…damn it. He was going to be so uncomfortable all night. He already was, he didn't like this kind of stuff even more than Suzuki did, but at least he could have been comfortable.

If he had to sit in a room full of drunk, boring businessmen then he at least could have done it in a comfortable shirt.

"Don't prioritize comfort over your appearance." Said Suzuki as Hatori left. He had better have been listening, that was the best advice that he would ever get. Appearances meant a lot in this world whether either of them liked it or not. Hatori needed to find something that he looked good in which could also be worn everywhere. Then they wouldn't have to have these discussions. It wasn't so hard.

Even Sho had.

He didn't know where that jacket came from or how Sho could have worn it year round with how active he was but he was impressed. Not by the uniform of green shirts, blue jeans, and starter jacket since it was much too casual, but he was impressed that his son had come to such a practical conclusion on his own. There were times, even, that Suzuki thought that there might have been hope for his son yet.

But of course there wasn't.

For every single action that Sho took which caused Suzuki pride there were ten more lined up to cause him shame. He hated the way Sho acted, the way he spoke, the way he wasted so much time with his pets, the way he was always so defiant for the sake of being defiant….even the way he ate his rice was deplorable. Not everything needed to be eaten with one's hands…Suzuki'd had better table manners than that when he'd been twice as young…he'd been twice the person that Sho was now when he'd been twice as young.

He hadn't had a choice.

Mother and Father would never have allowed him to act the way Sho did…the way both Sho and Shigeko did. The way Sho spoke…mother would have washed his mouth out with carbolic soap…or made him keep a spoonful of sugar on his tongue for a full minute and another added for each additional instance of profanity. Father would have either left his punishment to Mother's discretion or spared with him….without any armor on. If he had dared act the way Shigeko did then his parents would have killed him…perhaps literally….

The children didn't know how good they had it.

None of them. Not even Hatori…and Hatori wasn't even his son. He wished that he was, of course, but that wasn't the way it had worked out. Hatori was nearly everything that he had wanted in a son…nearly. He could be so stubborn, so incredibly stubborn, that Suzuki had to frighten him back into compliance. If only his other children had been so easy to control….but Hatori shouldn't have even needed to be frightened. Hatori was old enough to know how to dress himself by now…though he hadn't had parents, now had he? Not parents like Suzuki's, or any at all…

Suzuki felt no remorse.

Hatori should have been the most obedient out of all of them due to his age…though Shigeko eclipsed him in terms of maturity. Was he just cursed? Were all of his daughters going to be near perfect, until they grew up, but his sons were going to be terrible from the moment of conception? Was Tetsuro…no. Tetsuro was going to be better than that. He'd made his mistakes already and now he knew how to do better. He would just have to leave most of the parenting to Hatori. He couldn't be both mother and father at the same time, obviously, so he would just have to go back to being father again…he would just have to see how Shiori defined that role…

She always exceled at making her needs known.

And he exceled at…well he was decent at listening. Better than Hatori, anyway. He'd changed…somewhat….at least his sweater didn't have any characters on it, just a golden pyramid of pyramids…that was acceptable. He supposed. It could have been worse, he could have come back in that tasteless hoodie with the women's faces on it…or something that Sho would have worn…or worse. Serizawa.

He had no idea how Shigeko put up with that man.

Companionship. Yes, that must have been it. It was…it was human to seek out companionship. Human beings were social animals and not above their baser instincts. He had thought that he had moved above that…but he'd been backsliding. Maybe just getting older…or maybe just softer. Shigeko had that effect on him. Daughters in general seemed to have that affect, on their fathers at least. Shigeko was so much like him….or maybe he was so much like her. They both had people they put up with for the sake of companionship….they didn't share a drop of blood between them but they were alike in so many ways. In more ways than he and Sho were alike, or he and his own father….maybe his father would have been more agreeable towards him if he'd been female…but then Mother would have been even less agreeable…

It didn't matter.

Mother and Father were long dead. His train of thought had been going towards them for some time now. Maybe because he was planning on having another child. There was something to creating life that made him more introspective than normal…and his living children were growing up…it wasn't easy. Or pleasant. Even more unpleasant than this meeting…social gathering….chance to speak with some backers. Obligation.

One which he could not avoid.

"Come along, Hatori, this isn't something that we can avoid." Said Suzuki as Hatori tugged at his collar. He didn't blame him, it took some getting used to. He was going to get used to it. He was Suzuki's travelling companion now. That was a good word for it. Not as good of a friend as Tadashi was…had been…and not obligated to follow him in the same way the children were. Hatori was a good companion…most of the time.

When he listened.

When Suzuki made sure he listened. He wound up having to drag Hatori with his powers. He didn't blame him at all. This was not going to be pleasant or enjoyable…but they would get through it. Eventually Hatori would be able to do this on his own….hopefully sooner rather than later. Suzuki didn't know how he would get through this without Tadashi. He was much more socially fluid…one step at a time. That was all. He would take this one step at a time until he got through this night…many steps…but he would take them all.

The first step, getting into the car, should have been the most painless. It was not.