Minegishi knew that three hours was a truly excessive amount of time to spend in the tub.
They just didn't care.
"Mine's in there, Mama, taking a bath." Said Mukai as she knocked on the door. Yes, Minegishi was indeed taking a bath. Mukai was a bright kid when she wanted to be. Now all she had to do was go away. Minegishi wasn't getting out of this tub anytime soon. Even the thought of it, getting up out of the warm water and going back to their bed…being at the mercy of gravity again…it nearly brought them to their knees…
Good thing that they were laying down.
"Mukai, go away!" said Minegishi as they curled up in the tub. Stress made it worse, stress had always made it worse. Not that it had ever been good. No. Seven to ten days, each month, of pain. Pain enough to send them to the tub. A hot water bottle wasn't enough. A stiff drink, or four, didn't cut it anymore. Smoking helped. Motrin didn't. A bath did. Not terribly so, of course, just enough so that they could function without falling to the ground and crying…
They weren't getting out of this tub for anything.
"I have to take a bath, it's bath time!" said Mukai through the door, knocking one more time. God, why did she have to be so stubborn? This really was Mob's sister, wasn't she?
"No you don't, now go away!" said Minegishi. Standing was out of the question. Even thinking about it…they were going to stop thinking about it. The worst of it came at night, maybe because they had been laying down for so long during the day. They just had to wait out the worst of it and then they could go back to bed…so they could start the whole process all over again.
Alone.
"I don't have to take a bath?" asked Mukai
"No, you don't. Unless you feel like going somewhere else then you're not taking a bath tonight! Now go away already!" said Minegishi. If Ryou had been there then he would have kept Mukai away. They wouldn't even have had to ask him. He loved hanging out with that kid and he knew what this was like for Minegishi…but Ryou had dug his own grave and now he had to live in it…or die in it…and he was lucky that he hadn't been killed! He had actually thought…he hadn't been thinking, that had been his problem. He hadn't been thinking of Mob's wellbeing or his own…or Minegishi's…they were in enough pain that they were going to factor themselves into this equation. If Ryou had been there then…well he cared about them. Sure he could be a little…himself…but he wouldn't have just let them lay there. He would have made sure that nobody bothered them and he would have done what he could to make them feel better…he would have been there for them….
They could be there for themselves. They didn't have or need him anymore.
"Really?" asked Mukai
"Really, now leave me alone." Said Minegishi as they turned onto their side. The left side wasn't much better than the right but being curled up was better than being on their back…they were in the very worst of it now…it was going to be over soon. Stress made it worse. It had already been nine days…this was maybe going to be one of those two week affairs. Those didn't happen very often…or at least they hadn't.
They had never been this stressed out before.
Not even in the group home. Not when they had first been on their own either. Joining Claw…well, life had been a breeze after joining Claw. Unless, of course, you counted the grief that Mob gave them. She had never put them through anything like this before…and she did have her part in this. Not in what happened with Ryou, that was mostly on him with the rest of Minegishi, but in the fact that every single time Minegishi saw Mob she had to ask them if they were mad at her.
They weren't, but they were certainly getting there.
"No bath time for me tonight, did you hear me? Mama! No more baths for me tonight!" shouted Mukai. Minegishi groaned. Now there WAS someone that they were mad at. Tsuchiya. Minegishi could feel her aura. They closed their eyes and sank under the water…not a good move. It was starting to get discolored, copper colored…
They ran the water.
Tsuchiya was saying something. They didn't hear. They didn't care to hear. They'd heard enough out of her. She had actually been stupid enough to think…selfish enough to think…they didn't even the word for what she was. Thoughtless? No, she'd put PLENTY of thought into it. She had actually told Mob that she was leaving and gotten Suzuki to approve it. She had tried to go above Mob's head to take her sister away.
What in the hell did she think was going to happen?
Air. Minegishi needed air. They came up from under the water. Too fast. Their body had NOT liked that at all. They sat up and curled up…they could hear Tsuchiya now. They didn't want to hear it from her, they didn't want to hear anything from her. They'd all heard enough out of her. Telling Mob that she was taking Mukai away. This was all Tsuchiya's fault….
Well not all, biology had it's role to play, but she was certainly contributing.
"Minegishi? Are you in there again?" asked Tsuchiya, knocking at the door. Hard. Yeah, they got it, she was stronger than them. Whatever.
"What do you think?" asked Minegishi as they slowly laid back down in the tub. That had been a bad one. Maybe they were on a downswing. They just had to stop tensing up…that might have been it, too. When they got stressed out they tensed up…they'd smoke some more when they got out.
Which wasn't going to be anytime soon if Tsuchiya didn't stop knocking on the bathroom down.
"Go away!" said Minegishi as the pounding on the bathroom door grew louder. They sank down lower in the water and waited for it to stop. What was Tsuchiya's end goal here? Did she think that if she pounded hard enough on the door Minegishi was going to realize the error of their ways and start taking short, normal length, baths? Well she could stand there and pound the door down if she wanted to.
Nothing was getting Minegishi out of this tub. Nothing short of death.
"I have to give Mukai a bath, Minegishi, so can you please just get out of the tub? I'm asking you nicely." Said Tsuchiya
"You've been pounding on the door. That doesn't seem very nice to me." Said Minegishi as they laid back completely. They reached over with a vine and turned the faucet off. Warmer. Better.
"I'm asking you nicely now, ok? Can you please come out of the bathroom so someone else can have a turn?" asked Tsuchiya
"Not happening." Said Minegishi. They were coming down. That had maybe been the last big one…though it might have been too early to tell, that happened sometimes. God. What had they done to deserve this? Aside from the lying, stealing, cheating, and murdering they'd done in their thirty years of life.
"Not…not happening? You've been in there for hours. I need a turn, Mukai needs a turn…you aren't the only person living in this house!" said Tsuchiya
"If you don't like it then leave." Said Minegishi. They'd hit a nerve. Good. That was what they'd been trying to do. She was quiet now. Maybe if Minegishi stayed perfectly still she'd go away and leave them in peace. Mukai was three, she could skip a bath. It wasn't like she was going to stink. Serizawa on the other hand…they'd felt his aura by the door a couple of times…well the only one who would have to deal with him was Mob. He was almost as old as they were, if he wanted to take a bath then he could have just gone next door. Everyone could have just gone next door.
It wasn't like Mob was angry with any of them….even though she had every right to be.
"You're acting like a child right now, you know that, right?" asked Tsuchiya
"I know you are but what am I?" asked Minegishi childishly. Tsuchiya's aura flared. They weren't scared of her. They'd dealt with worse.
"A grown adult who sits in the bath all day just to spite everyone around them." Said Tsuchiya after a moment. Minegishi rolled their eyes. Had she been sitting on that one for a while?
"I don't care about you enough to want to spite you. I'd get out of here if I could, believe me, but I can't. If you really, truly, need the bathroom badly enough that you're actually bothering me about it then take Mukai and go to Mob's house or even Fukuda's, I don't think he's coming back anytime soon or…I don't know, go to a bathhouse or something. Bathe in the river. Open up a fire hydrant. Stand in the yard and wait for it to rain. I don't care where you go or what you do, just leave me alone." Said Minegishi. They didn't see what was so confusing about what they'd just said. They'd given her plenty of very good ideas…what was she still doing there?
"Minegishi…why are you like this? Things are hard enough around here without you making things worse." Said Tsuchiya
"I'm not the one who told the kids that their family was about to get just a little more broken." Said Minegishi
"I never said that, you know I didn't say anything like that. I just tried to explain-" said Tsuchiya
"Explain it to Mob. She's the one who needs to hear it, not me. Now leave me alone, you're making this worse. The more you talk to me the longer I'm going to have to spend in this tub…and it is a 'have to' situation. Right now it feels like my uterus is trying to recreate Sho's favorite scene in Alien and I'd like to deal with this alone. Thank you. Now leave." said Minegishi
"Wait…you're in there because of-" said Tsuchiya
"I was born female." Said Minegishi. If they had been braver they would have had that whole thing scooped right out. They didn't need that whole system. They didn't want children, they didn't feel defined by it, and the whole thing had been nothing but trouble for as long as they could remember. If they hadn't been so afraid to go under the knife then all of this could have been a distant memory…but they were terrified to go under the knife so this was their life for seven to ten days out of every month.
Longer, too, if their uterus felt like making them suffer.
"I knew that already. I just didn't know…do you want a hot water bottle? Some tea? A Motrin?" asked Tsuchiya. It was amazing how quickly she'd gone from angry to concerned. It was like someone had flipped a switch. They hadn't known that they had that kind of power. Now all they had to do was find her off button and they'd be set.
"Some morphine would be great." Said Minegishi, half kidding. They didn't like to mess with that kind of stuff, they knew themselves too well. There were paths that they knew not to go down…paths that were starting to look kind of tempting. Amazingly enough if Ryou had been there he would have been the angel on their shoulders telling them to use their head…he could be sensible when he wanted to be…
He should have saved some of that sensibility for himself.
"Morphine? Like what they give you after surgery?" asked Tsuchiya
"No, morphine like what they put on your ice cream sundae…of course what they give you after surgery." Said Minegishi
"Isn't that kind of…strong?" asked Tsuchiya
"It's up there with heroin." Said Minegishi, mostly just to make her squirm, which they assumed she was. Her pain alleviated some of theirs. They could even sit up again….sort of.
"Is that…is that safe?" asked Tsuchiya
"No, but at this point I'd try anything." Said Minegishi
"I-I'm not going to…I have no idea how to even begin to get ahold of that...so, just…do you need to go somewhere? I mean if you're in that level of pain then maybe you should go to a doctor or something." Said Tsuchiya. Minegishi rolled their eyes. It was pointless, she was on the other side of the door, but it made them feel better so they were going to keep it up.
"If you want to buy morphine then head over to Kabukicho, just find the shadiest looking karaoke bar you can find. It's either full of drugs or a brothel…or a brothel where you can also buy drugs." Said Minegishi. They weren't serious, not really, they just needed to be left alone…they sat up all the way. The water was getting kind of coppery…anemia was always a danger when it got this bad…
"I meant to a real doctor, like a hospital or-" said Tsuchiya
"No hospitals!" said Minegishi
"-or a clinic, maybe? There's got to be something opened this late. I can look it up and then I can call you a car…or would you rather I went with you? Can you get there on your own? How much blood have you lost? Can you sit up? Can you-" said Tsuchiya. Minegishi gripped the side of the tub and pushed themselves up.
"I'm fine." Said Minegishi as they gripped the wall with one hand and the shower curtain with another. They reached out with their powers and called a vine over. They were…a little dizzy…but they could stand at least. Good. They looked down…not good. Nobody was going to be using that bathwater after them.
They pulled the stopped up.
"Are you sure? You're splashing a lot in there and-" said Tsuchiya
"What are you going to do? Pick me up and carry me to the clinic?" asked Minegishi
"Do you need me to? I can-" said Tsuchiya
"I'm fine, Tsuchiya! I can take care of this myself. Thank you for your concern." Said Minegishi as they stepped out of the tub. They had to brace themselves against the sink. If Ryou had been there then he could have just teleported them back to their room. He would have probably made a nice 'Toshi nest' for them. A heated blanket, hot water bottle, some books, a bowl, maybe a drink…whatever. They didn't need him anymore, not after what he'd done.
"But-" said Tsuchiya
"Thank you for your concern! Now why don't you go and take some of that concern to your daughter? I haven't heard her do any screaming for a while, that's never good." said Minegishi as they reached out with a vine and rooted around under the sink. They felt around until they got to…a nearly empty box. Damn it. They were going to have to head to a store at some point…or they could ask Mob to…
They didn't have the energy to deal with her right now.
She was going to freak out, they knew her. It was going to be worse than Tsuchiya. Mob didn't do things in half measures. Minegishi got the feeling that she was either going to have a Claw wide manhunt for Fukuda or, even worse, she was going to have them airlifted to a hospital or something. She had that kind of power now…she didn't need that kind of power but she had it…and the rest of them had to deal with it. Minegishi had to deal with it. There was officially nothing that they could do to stop her from doing everything that she did…they didn't even know where to start.
Maybe with themselves, first, before they ruined the bathmat.
"Mukai is just…Mukai? Mukai? Oh no…Mukai! Get down, now!" said Tsuchiya. Minegishi would feel her walking away. Good. It was downright weird doing this with another person right outside of the door. Maye now that they had a minute of peace they could figure out what they were going to do. They had to reup, unless they felt like ruining every pair of pants they owned, but not tonight. They were still shaky…maybe they could go with Mob…just to speak to her, to be around her…
Even if she was just going to ask them, again, if they were mad at her.
They weren't. They knew who they had to be angry at. Ryou, for being a moron. Themselves for not seeing this coming. Suzuki for being a piss poor excuse for a father. The mysterious Missus Suzuki who had decided that abandoning her daughter with Suzuki, the poorest excuse for a father in all of Japan, had been a good idea. This wasn't Mob's fault. She was only thirteen…
She didn't need any of this.
She needed them. They had been gone for too long. Between their own body betraying them, Ryou's incessant calling and texting, and the general malaise of life they had just…dropped the ball…again. This was why they were never having kids. They weren't Tsuchiya, they didn't have a switch that they could just…flip. They couldn't just go to 'parent mode' like that…they didn't even have a parent mode…and they didn't know if they wanted one…
They had to try.
For Mob's sake. Sure Tokyo HQ hadn't bunt down yet, Mob didn't have a little Mob to take care of, and as far as they knew Claw was still marching towards it's glorious future. The biggest thing going on was some company trip that they were skipping…Mob was doing well…maybe she didn't even need them. Maybe she had it all figured out…or maybe they wanted her to have it all figured out. Maybe because they had nothing at all figured out…even though they should have, by now…
They should have done a lot of things by now.
Like standing up. They forced themselves to their feet and stayed there. They swayed in place…they grabbed the end of the sink. They were fine. They didn't need help. They didn't need Ryou, they didn't need Tsuchiya, and they really didn't need Mob…she needed them…and they'd failed her again…that was all that they were good at, wasn't it? Letting her down…letting themselves down….
Spending a truly excessive amount of time letting themselves down.