Suzuki Touichirou was no stranger to attempts on his life.

They were just a part of the life he led. Ever since he had come into power, ever since Claw had grown beyond him and Tadashi's big dreams and grand plans, people have tried to kill him. At first it had just been a few hits taken out on him, yakuza firing on him in public and such, and then as the year went by people got…smarter. Sneakier. Sure he still got the occasional gun pulled on him but now there were bombs. People usually sent them through the mail, he couldn't count how many letter bombs he'd gotten over the years, but car bombs…well people had tried car bombs before…

Not for a while, though.

To plant a car bomb took time. He may not have been a master bomb maker but he'd done his research. He always took unmarked cars wherever he went. He wasn't the head of a yakuza family, he knew when to be nondescript, and that last car had been the most nondescript car he could have thought up. A common make and model, midrange in terms of price, even his driver had been dressed in normal clothing. This building wasn't a true Claw building, his presence in Zurich wasn't much to speak of, and it wasn't as though he stuck out that badly here. There were many more redheaded people in Europe than in Japan. He looked like he belonged…he had tried to blend in…and hardly anyone knew that he was here…

And yet a car bomb had not only been planted but had managed to go off in his face.

"Hold still." Said Suzuki as he held Hatori down with his powers. The worst of it was done with now. He'd managed to put up a barrier…around himself. Hatori, too, but he hadn't been close enough to Suzuki. There had been a split second where he'd been in the middle of…at the edge of it. Shrapnel damage, piece of glass mostly, not fire. Fire would have been worse. Suzuki hadn't had a burn in years but he could remember the pain. Compared to having glass pulled out of your skin and your wounds sanitized it was nothing.

Hatori was just being an overly dramatic child about this, that was all.

"You pulled all the glass out already, I'm fine!" said Hatori as he sat on the edge of the tub. He tried to get up but Suzuki held him down with his powers. In his hand was a pair of tweezers. He'd been poking and prodding at Hatori since the bombing. At first it had been nice, knowing that he cared, but now it was just painful and annoying.

He'd lived. He was fine.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He was fine. His glasses weren't fine, no, there was a big crack down the left lens but…but he was fine. He had been in explosions before. That was just part of life and on the bright side…on the bright side he didn't have to go to the party or anything like that. On the bright side he was fine. On the bright side…um…Mob would have known, she was great at looking on the bright side…he missed Mob. Part of him thought, knew, that she would have been quicker at the whole putting up a barrier thing but…but that was ok. He was alive. That was what mattered.

He didn't have any more broken glass under his skin. That mattered more.

"I have no idea if I'm finished or not. I've never done this before." Said Suzuki. He didn't think that he was done yet. Glass shards were so small and hard to see…hard to sense, too. He couldn't even use his powers for this, not unless he wanted to tear off some of Hatori's skin….it would have been easier with his powers…it would have been easier if he had known what he was doing…

He was doing fine. He didn't need Tadashi.

"You've been picking at my skin since-" said Hatori

"I meant first aid in general. Whenever I injured myself as a child my mother patched me up…and then Tadashi came along when I got older…I know what I'm doing, just stop moving so I can finish. Then we can plan our next move." Said Suzuki

"Is our next move calling Fukuda? Because I think that this is kind of the thing to call Fukuda about." Said Hatori. Suzuki froze and then took a step back.

"No. We will not be calling Tadashi. That is…unnecessary. We can work without him. Now hold still and let me-" said Suzuki

"I'm fine, really!" said Hatori

"Clearly you are not. The swelling has gone down and most of the bleeding has stopped. I can see more clearly now. I just need to make sure that I've gotten all the glass out and then I can put the iodine on and then you can go and do whatever it is that you have to do…but don't summon Fukuda." Said Suzuki. Hatori crossed his arms and shook his head. Why did he have to be so stubborn? Sho wasn't even this stubborn! Masami, when she had been around and the children had been young, used to patch them up by hand the way his mother had patched him up. He had never understood why. That was what Fukuda was for. She had insisted, though, on only calling him in for the big things.

Of which there must have been many.

After all they had become friends somehow. Friends. Under his very nose. Just friends, of course. He wasn't so filthy minded as to think of them as anything else. Hatori seemed to think that something had come of their friendship but he'd seen Hatori's phone screen background. He had a filthy minded streak…most people did, Suzuki had noticed. Well he didn't. Tadashi and Masami had been friends and the pictures meant nothing and Tadashi…well he had been lying. Suzuki didn't know why he had been lying but he knew a lie when he heard one.

There was no way in hell Tadashi had betrayed him.

In any way. He held Hatori down with his powers and got back to work. There was no way that Hatori had betrayed him either. There were only so many people in the world that knew his movements. That knew them this well. He knew that people followed him, he was a person of interest to just about every single government and criminal organization on the planet, and he even knew about the website…forum…thing where people discussed Claw and it's doings. He didn't exactly hide…not really. He liked to hide in plain sight. He should have just been another face in the crowd. He didn't live ostentatiously, no more than any other company president, and he very seldom got blood on his hands…and yet someone had not only taken an interest in him but also knew his movements so precisely that they had managed to plant a car bomb of all things…

He hadn't been betrayed.

He had just gotten careless, that was all, and now he was suffering for it…or maybe Hatori was the only one suffering. Maybe he had gotten all the glass out…but he wasn't certain. He hated uncertainty in all of it's forms. He needed to get all of the glass out otherwise Hatori would get sick and die. He would just wither away…the microbial world was terrifying. There were tiny little beings that were capable of infiltrating a person's body and completely breaking it down…where was the iodine?

Even if he missed some glass then…then maybe it worked on the same principles splinters did.

He had gotten many splinters as a child. Playgrounds had been made from wood and metal when he'd been young, not plastic and rubber as they were now. He could almost feel it again. The burning heat of the metal slide against his legs…the sting of the splinters that came from the play structure…even the pain of falling down onto hard concrete. He had been so weak when he'd been small. Mother had been there to tend to him. Splinters she had stopped digging out when he got old enough to throw the tweezers from her hands, those things were painful. She had just said…what had she said?

'Fine then, let your body push it out on it's own if you don't need me.'

Or something like that. And then that was what had happened. His body had pushed the wooden splinter out over the course of several days…but wood was an organic material and it did not shatter. He had gotten piece of glass in his feet before. Those had to be dug out or end they would break off into microscopic pieces, enter your bloodstream, and then pierce your heart…at least mother had said so. Suzuki had never been good at biology. He decided to focus on the microbial world for now. That he at least understood.

You didn't have to be an expert to know that iodine killed germs.

"What's that?" asked Hatori as Suzuki pulled a glass bottle out from under the sink with his powers. Hatori couldn't read that language, not without a translator app anyway. Iodine. He didn't know what it was but it couldn't have been so bad if Suzuki was putting the tweezers down.

Anything would have been better than the tweezers.

Suzuki was actually taking care of him. He knew that he should have been happy that someone cared but mostly he was just sort of sore and tired. He hadn't been able to sleep or even relax after the explosion. He had come so close to dying again…but Suzuki had saved him. There was no way in hell Suzuki was going to let him die if it happened again…when it happened again…and he didn't need to be so on edge. At least he hadn't burned to death. He couldn't think of anything worse than burning to death…

Hatori didn't want to think of anything worse than…than burning to death.

"Iodine. It'll help clean your wounds." Said Suzuki

"You already used hot water." Said Hatori

"The water was for the blood. This is to kill the germs. Now hold still and stop talking. This is going to be incredibly painful." Said Suzuki

"What, like Baramycin?" asked Hatori as Suzuki uncapped the bottle. He shook his head and poured some onto a washcloth. Hatori braced himself. Mom had put Baramycin on his scrapes and cuts and stuff back when he'd been a kid. Back when he'd still played outside. He didn't know why she made him play outside if he was just going to end up hurt every single time. It had felt more like a punishment than anything back then…even if Mom and Dad had played with him sometimes.

He still always ended up falling down, though…but that was before they realized that he needed glasses.

After he'd gotten his glasses he'd hardly ever hurt himself, and nearly never outside. He mostly just cut his fingers up helping Dad work on computers and stuff. Nobody ever said how sharp computers were on the inside…or how hot soldering irons could be…or how sharp tools were. Mom had always been there to fix him up, though, no matter how many times he told her he didn't need a coat of Baramycin over his cuts. That shit had hurt!

But not as badly as iodine.

"What the fuck!? Touichirou! What the fuck is wrong with you!? What the fuck did I ever do to you?!" screamed Hatori as he tried to get away. Suzuki was strong, though, very strong. He held him in place with his powers like it was nothing…and then he just kept on going with the fucking iodine! It was like liquid fire! Real fire would have been a hell of a lot less painful!

"Is the cursing truly necessary, Nozomu? You sound like Sho right now." said Suzuki

"Yes! Yes it is! That shit burns! It feels like you're pouring liquid fire or-or like, acid or something right onto my cuts! It's worse than the tweezers!" said Hatori

"Stop being so overly dramatic. It's just iodine, it's not carbolic acid." Said Suzuki as he tried his best to imitate Mother's handiwork. He dusted off some long forgotten memories of sitting on top of the laundry hamper trying not to cry out…not to scream…and not to lose control as mother burnt the germs out of his wounds. If he lost control then Mother…well she would have taken it personally…and there had been the one time when she poured iodine directly onto a massive patch of missing skin…

Suzuki stopped pressing so firmly.

"What the hell even is iodine?!" asked Hatori. He had never once heard of this shit…and maybe for a good fucking reason! This was torture. Forget the Awakening chambers, they needed to start dipping people in this! He couldn't think of a worst form of torture…and he'd sat through a Saw movie marathon with Sho!

"The heaviest of the stable halogens." Said Suzuki as he tried his best to be gentle. He had never been good at this. He had never had a gentle hand in anything he had done. Not even holding Sho when he had been born. Too tight…that was what Masami had said…but he hadn't had a choice. If he had dropped Sho then it would have been over. Even catching Sho with his powers would have snapped his little neck. He had been so fragile when he'd been born…so tiny and fragile…of course now it was a whole other story.

He was a very resilient boy.

Not like Hatori. If Hatori had told him that he was secretly a woman this whole time Suzuki would not have been surprised. He was very…soft was a word. He had no sense of resilience. Not to pain or frustration or anything. He was a lot like Shigeko…no, actually Shigeko had a high pain threshold. When he thought about it most woman must have. He'd seen Sho being born, he knew very well how painful that was, and then there was the fact that they went through the process of menstruation every twenty to forty days…he shuddered at the thought. Ping pong ball sized…he got back to work. Hatori was very soft, if he'd been a woman he'd have been soft by woman standards, so by men's standards he was…he might as well have been made of glass.

Glass shattered all the time.

"What's a halogen?" asked Hatori. It still hurt but at least it didn't feel like Suzuki was trying to scrub his skin off with that washcloth…Hatori reached for his phone. This stuff was terrible. He knew that this was going to keep on happening again…and again…and again…and he knew for a fact that Baramycin didn't hurt nearly this much. He looked down.

Ok, Baramycin was going to be standard in all Claw houses…and just to be safe he was going to cause a shortage on iodine. Some hospital was about to get very lucky…

"How do you not know?" asked Suzuki as he did his best not to aggravate the wounds any further. He seemed to have been doing a good job. Hatori was buried in his phone again…young people…not that he was old. He simply had the attention span to be able to focus on the task at hand and not the infinite information machine in his pocket.

"I never went to high school." Said Hatori as he scrolled through his phone. Ok, iodine shortage was a go…while he was here he could look into other things…Claw was pretty invested in heavy metals, those he knew about, and they did need more money…but Suzuki didn't like him blatantly fucking with the stock markets that badly. He was worried about people noticing…but they did need more money.

That was what all of this travelling was about, money and manpower, and the sooner they had everything they needed the sooner they could go back to Mob where things were safe…safer.

"Oh…right, I had forgotten that fact. A halogen is any of the elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine…those mean nothing to you…hold on, let me…alright, I've got it. They are reactive nonmetallic elements that form strongly acidic compounds with hydrogen. Simple salts can be made from them." Said Suzuki as he finished up. Iodine looked too much like drying blood for his tastes, he wasn't use to the sight of Hatori's blood yet, but he was confidant in the fact that he'd been very thorough. There. That hadn't been so hard…almost rewarding too, in a way. No wonder Masami had been so interested in caring for the children's wounds…mostly Sho's. Shigeko hadn't been nearly as accident prone.

Of course Sho would have made more work for Masami.

He couldn't see himself caring for Sho in this way, not without causing more wounds for Sho along the way. It couldn't be helped. That boy…he was a trial. He would have been kicking and screaming the whole time and Suzuki couldn't deal with that. If it had been Sho in the explosion instead of Hatori then he would have just trusted the boy to clean his own wounds or go to Tadashi or Shigeko. Suzuki didn't have the patience for him.

Hatori, for all of his weakness and carrying on, was at least grateful.

"Wait…are you saying that you just rubbed SALT in my cuts?" asked Hatori

"No, I did not. If I had wanted to rub table salt into your wounds we would have been in the kitchen, not the bathroom. I would never do that to you, it's pointless, I can't see any reason to cause you pain. I put iodine on because it acts as an antiseptic. It's used to precent infections." Said Suzuki

"Thanks…I guess. I still think that Baramycin would have worked better…or just calling Fukuda. I mean you guys are broken up now and it's going to be awkward but…I don't know. It'll be more awkward if he sees you at your funeral or something?" asked Hatori. Suzuki shook his head and put the first aid kit back with his powers. He stood to his full height and cracked his back…loudly. Another reason that they needed Fukuda. Suzuki was old, nearly fifty, and he'd already had one heart attack. If he died then Hatori…he didn't know what he would have done…

He didn't know if he could have handled it, being alone in the world again…if Fukuda could make sure that never happened then Hatori would put up with him for however long this world tour or whatever lasted.

"What are you even…I have no idea if it would have been awkward for Tadashi to attend my funeral or not and…and neither of us are going to be dying anytime soon and…and my relationship with Tadashi is none of your business. I am perfectly capable of caring for you in the event of an injury. Now let's go and work out our next move. We either have a mole or a very dedicated team shadowing us…and I would have noticed a mole…so come on, let's get back to work before someone mails us anthrax again. Then we'll have no choice but to contact Tadashi." Said Suzuki. He used his powers to pull Hatori to his feet and drag him out of the bathroom. There was no need to linger in that room. Their work had been done for some time.

The iodine would work.

The burning meant it worked, mother had said so. Hatori was going to be fine. He didn't know what he would have done if…if he hadn't been. He didn't know if he could stand to lose such a good friend…such a useful asset. The modern world was made for Hatori. Everything worked on computers and had for some time. He couldn't lose the person who could destroy any photographs and security footage in a an instant, a man who could blackmail politicians at the highest level, a man who could with a thought bring the modern world to it's knees. He couldn't lose someone as useful as Hatori…

He couldn't lose a companion like Hatori.

He could admit that to himself now, that Hatori was a companion, the son he'd never had. Even if it made him weak. Hatori was a glaring vulnerability. If he had been just a second sooner…or if Hatori hadn't been dragging his feet, or even if…there were too many variables. He could have lost his closest friend and dearest companion…but he would just have to be more careful from now on. He would root out whoever had done this and then…and then there would be no helping them…there would be no mercy.

Iodine was painful…but what Suzuki would do to the men responsible for this…it would be pure and utter agony.