Shibata was willing to admit that he wasn't the world's best babysitter.
"Sho! Don't run….off…alright then." Said Shibata as Sho disappeared off into the crowd…it looked like he'd made a friend or something. Good for him…though Shibata would have appreciated some kind of warning or even just a 'I'll be back in a minute' and a 'please take Mukai' could have helped too. But it could have been worse, he supposed. At least he had seen Sho run away. Sometimes he just disappeared. Not good. Especially with how things had been heating up lately.
Figuratively and literally.
"Well Mukai, it looks like it's just you and me. You want me to refill your water? And don't ask for soda…please. You Mom said not to give you any more soda and she hasn't been in the best mood lately." Said Shibata as Mukai ran over towards him. He held out a finger for her to hold. She slapped his hand away.
"Sho ran away, I want to go with him! And I have to pee! Over there!" said Mukai pointing at the girl's bathroom. Not the boy's where Sho had wanted her to go. She was a girl. Girls belonged in the girl's room. It was a rule.
"Well do you want to follow Sho or do you want to go to the bathroom? I could probably catch up to him." Said Shibata. If he took long enough strides…yes, he could still feel Sho's aura…though it was getting dimmer in the crowd. Sho and…wait, was that an esper kid he had been with? It was easy to pick a natural esper's aura out of a crowd of Awakened, for some reason all of the Awakened felt kind of like President Suzuki, and that…was not an aura that Shibata could remember ever having had felt before…
Mukai tugged at his pant's leg.
"Gotta pee right now!" said Mukai
"Oh, ok! Alright, come over here and close your eyes. Trust me, you don't want to open them in there." Said Shibata as he held out his finger again for Mukai to hold onto. He didn't dare hold her hand. It was too small and she was too fragile. His index finger was bigger than her entire hand anyway. She just had to take it…
And not be stubborn.
"Not going in there." Said Mukai pointing to the boy's bathroom.
"Mukai, you have to. Either that or we'll find you a tree." Said Shibata. Mukai crossed her arms and danced in place…not good. He did have a change of clothes for her, you couldn't pack light with a three year old, but it wasn't like he could dress her. First of all she wasn't his kid and second of all when he had been small he'd tried to dress dolls…it hadn't worked out. He was better at controlling his strength now but it would only take one slip of the wrist…one mistake…
He would rather have had to hose Mukai down and let her dress herself afterwards than break her apart like a doll.
"I'm a girl! See?!" said Mukai as she tugged at her braids. She was NOT a boy! Boy's had short hair and weren't allowed to wear dresses and smelled bad. Mukai had long hair, wore lots of pretty dresses, and she knew she smelled good because she borrowed Shigeko's perfume that morning. Why did everyone think that she was a boy?!
"I know that you're a girl but I'm not and if I go to the girl's bathroom…well it won't end well for me. Now come on before you have an accident." Said Shibata
"No! I'm not going in the boy's bathroom! I'm a girl!" shouted Mukai
"I-I know that you're a girl but you're too little to use the bathroom on your own-" said Shibata
"I want to go alone! I'm not too little! I'm not a baby!" shouted Mukai
"Ok, ok, ok! You can go on your own but be careful and don't play with the taps." Said Shibata. He could feel people's eyes on him. He wondered if people stopped looking at you with suspicion when it was your own kid. Mukai didn't look a thing like him. Maybe if she had been his…
He doubted it.
He was going to get looks no matter who he was with. He was nearly three meters tall after all. People were always going to look at him and assume the worst, be it with Mukai or his own kid, his own kid that…he wasn't even sure about anymore. Tsuchiya wasn't in a good place. Literally. She had stayed behind to try and talk some sense into Mob. It wasn't going to work. Mob was….she was a great kid but even she had her limits.
Even she could be pushed too far.
He had never heard her threaten to stop being someone's friend before. She had threatened to take Sho and leave the President once, or so he had heard, but that was different. The President kind of over disciplined Sho a lot of the time so she had a good reason then and…and actually it was the same. She didn't take it well when people tried to hurt one of her siblings. Not that Tsuchiya was hurting Mukai, she would have died first, but she was breaking the family up again…
Shibata didn't know if the kids could have made it through something like that again.
The President had rehomed Mukai, there was no other word for it, once already. Like she had been a puppy that someone had bought and couldn't handle. Those had always been the worst cases, back when he'd worked at the pet store. Those poor puppies. They used to look up at him with their big eyes and wonder what they had done wrong to be rejected like that. It had been the same for Mukai, probably. She had been so small and she hadn't had any idea why she was being taken away from her family…again…and the kids hadn't had any idea either…
Those had been dark times.
But things were looking up. Shibata knew that it was a treasonous thought to have, the kind of thought that would have gotten him a one way ticket to a traitor hole, but things were better without the President around, and by extension Fukuda too. Sho had been so happy lately and Mob…well she had been working but she was doing what she loved most. Planning parties, making friends, drinking milk, getting high in the middle of the day…if it made her happy then it was alright. Things were so much better for the kids now that their family was mostly whole again, now that their Dad wasn't around to stress them out, and Tsuchiya…she just needed to see that.
But of course she wouldn't.
So there went those plans. It would have been nice, Hiroshi Jr. or maybe…well Yuki was a nice name…and so was Miyo…Akiko…and then there were the spellings, too. He had never given much thought to the way that names were spelled before. He had never had to. He hadn't even been allowed to name any of his childhood pets let alone a human being…he had never even had cause to think of a name for a human being. No woman had ever wanted that with him before. No woman had ever wanted to get that close to him before. No one had ever gotten down to talking to him about having kids and getting together…it had been nice…
But now…now he didn't know.
Maybe Tsuchiya would calm down and see it from Mob's perspective, and maybe she wouldn't. There was nothing that he could do. It wasn't like he could just tell her that Mob was right, she was wrong, and that Mukai needed to stay put with her brother and sister, and the rest of them too. He knew better than to tell Tsuchiya that she was wrong, especially when she made so many good points. It wasn't good that the kids, Sho now too, both drank and smoked. It always wasn't good that Mob had…what had happened between her and Shimazaki wasn't good and there was no way in hell he would ever defend anything like that. Suzuki also did spoil them…this weird combination of spoiling them and acting like a…Shibata couldn't even think that word. Tsuchiya made good points but that didn't change the fact that she was wrong when it came to the whole argument.
But of course he wasn't going to tell her that.
He knew better…like he had known better than to send Mukai into the bathroom on her own. She mostly had it down, she just needed help with her overalls sometimes, but she was in a dress today so she should have been fine. She just tended to play with the taps and the hand dryer and someone, probably Shimazaki, had showed her how to toss wet paper towels onto the walls so they got stuck…she had been in there for a while…and he had no way of getting her out.
He looked creepy enough as it was.
People were giving him looks. This wasn't an all Claw excursion, even Claw didn't have enough money to rent out a theme park for the day during peak season, there were families there too. Families that saw him and ushered their kids away. People with little kids, older kids, even a couple with no kids took one look at him and kept on walking. He needed to move…and now….but Mukai was still in there.
Sho couldn't have waited five extra minutes?
"Mukai…Mukai?" asked Shibata as he knocked on the door. He was in danger of getting kicked out, he knew it. If he got kicked out then…well it wouldn't have been the first time. He used to get kicked out of Wee World all the time…and he'd worked there! Of course that wasn't counting the incident…but that kid had gone on to lead a normal life so it didn't count…not like the time when he'd worked at Pet Palace…
He knocked on the door again.
He hadn't managed to get her attention. A woman exciting the bathroom gave him a panicked look and practically ran off into the crowd…next time he was bringing a woman. Or Mob. Or even Minegishi would have been able to go in there and get her…though of course he would have had to make it worth their while. He wasn't sure if he could get his hands on enough weed…they could grow that themselves…Xanax? He didn't even know what they were into these days…so they were out…
Next time he was going to tie Sho to him or something.
He knocked on the door again. Sho was still young enough that he would have been able to go in….right? He wasn't sure what the cutoff age was but it wasn't like Sho was a teenager or anything like that. He was just a little boy…a little boy who had run off with a friend he made. He so rarely talked to the other kids…Shibata didn't want to pull him away from all the fun…but Mukai could have been playing in the toilet again for all he knew. He pulled out his phone and stylus…he was just going to text him…that was all…
He felt a pair of eyes on him.
"I'm just waiting for my kid, I swear!" said Shibata. The woman in front of him took a step back…right, right. That had been too loud…and he was standing way too tall. He hunched down. The last thing he wanted to do was scare anyone, especially normal people. He had nothing against them, not like a lot of espers did.
"We're in the same boat, actually. Have you seen a little blond boy come through here? With another boy a little shorter than him with spiky black hair? And bangs he refuses to brush out of his eyes?" asked Hana. Boys! She turned her back for five minutes and they had vanished into thin air!
"You might have mistaken the blond boy for a girl. He's in a pink t-shirt and lime green shorts." Said Ichimaro. Hana glared at him. What had he said now? Teru dressed like a girl. She knew it, he knew it, the whole world knew it.
"Ichimaro!" said Hana
"What? Hana, come one. The boy wears pink and I think I saw him putting on makeup today." Said Ichimaro
"That doesn't mean that we go off and say…sorry, sorry. Sorry to drag you into this." Said Hana, turning to face the giant she had been talking to. She did some mental math…there had been an unusually large baby born when she'd been a child…she'd worry about that later. Right now she had to figure out what had possessed the boys to run off like that.
"It's alright, I've seen worse, and I'm sorry but I didn't see any blond kids come through here. Not since I've been standing here, anyway." Said Shibata. He definitely would have remembered if he'd seen a blond, no matter what the kid had been wearing. He hadn't seen blond hair since…Europe? Huh. He knew more redheads than he knew blonds…now all he needed was for his little redhead to stop playing in the bathroom already!
"Damn it…they said that they were in the bathroom…kids, am I right?" said Hana pulling out her phone. She asked the boys, again, where they were. Silence. If they had been younger she would have been worried…not that she wasn't worried now…but Ritsu was twelve and he knew better than to pull another disappearing act on her…but also he was twelve and twelve year olds didn't always have the best judgement.
"I know exactly what you mean. Mine, well my girlfriend's, won't come out of the bathroom. She's only three so I don't hold it against her, of course." Said Shibata pointing to the bathroom door. He could have sworn he heard Mukai laughing in there…that wasn't always a good thing…
"My husband went through the same thing with our…first born. I'll get her out for you, don't worry." Said Hana. Eleven years ago Ichimaro had called her at work to come and get Shigeko out of the bathroom at the park. She had insisted that she could go in on her own and outright refused to go into the men's room…not that Hana had wanted her daughter in the men's room, of course. She'd had to drive all the way down from work, outside of her lunchbreak, and get Shigeko out. She had been so pissed off, Ichimaro should have just taken the kids home, but…well it was a cute story…
It was important to make cute stories with your kids whenever you could. You never knew how many chances you'd have to make them.
"Thank you so much. Her name is Mukai, she's three, and she has red hair and four braids." said Shibata. Ask a woman…why hadn't he thought of that? Well mostly because women tended to be afraid of him. That was…yeah, that was a good reason not to go talking to random ones out in the world. After this he was finding a family bathroom, he doubted he would find another woman willing to help him with Mukai…
He felt kind of bad about this woman's kids, now.
He stood at his full height and scanned the crowd. No blonds. None. Lots of black hair, some brown, even some crazy colors like blue and green. No blonds at all…poor lady, and poor guy, too. Losing a kid was the worst feeling in the world. He knew that if he'd lost Mukai then there would have been a hole in his heart that nothing would ever be able to fill…and not just because Tsuchiya would have probably punched him in the chest clean through to the other side.
But Mukai was safe so he was safe. She was all wrapped up in toilet paper and her pockets were stuffed with paper towels but she was fine.
"Is this Mukai?" asked Hana. She hadn't seen any other redheaded girls in their with four braids…what even was this hairstyle? Not that she went around judging other people's children…though this was really why men shouldn't have been trusted with their daughter's hair. She had left Shigeko with Ichimaro once and come home to her daughter with three uneven braids in her hair…apparently it had gotten away from him somehow…those were the days…
She let go of the little girl. This was not Shigeko.
"Yes, I'm Mukai! You're a Mama and I'm a Mukai." Said Mukai as she pulled her hand away from the lady's. She needed to go the where the lost Mama's went. Mukai already had one, she didn't need two.
"Holy shit, that's-" said Ichimaro. He had never in his life seen red hair before. Not natural red hair…and what in the hell was up with that scar? It took up nearly the whole side of her face…and how could one person have had so many freckles?
"We really must be going now, got to find the boys. Come on, Ichi!" said Hana as she practically dragged her husband away. Later on they were going to have to have another long talk about keeping certain comments to himself.
"Thank you!" called Shibata after them. Such a nice couple. He wished he could have helped them…he did another scan of the crowd. No blonds, no spiky haired kids with bangs, just a lot of black haired people…and two Awakened fighting over a map…and someone who really should have hit the gift shop last…
And a kick to his foot.
"Come on! Gotta find Sho! Start walking!" said Mukai as she kicked Shibata's shoe. Sho had promised to take her on the Minions ride and to Mario Land and also to get her a churro. None of those things could happen if he wasn't around!
"I don't think Sho wants company right now." said Shibata
"I want Sho. I want to ride Minions and I want a churro and I want Mario Land and I want Sho." Said Mukai, kicking his feet a few more times. Lots of people were stopping and staring…some of them should have helped. It was important to be helpful, like Shigeko had said.
"I…I know you want your little brother…tell you what? How about I call him and ask if he can take a little bit of a break from his new friend so he can take you on the Minions ride…but maybe we can hold up on the churro thing. I packed you a nice bento-" said Shibata
"No bento! Churro!" said Mukai
"Are you sure? It's Tangled themed. I made the princess out of rice and purple sweet potato, her hair is made of noodles, the lizard is made from an apple-" said Shibata
"I want a churro and I want Sho! Now!" said Mukai, stomping on Shibata's foot. She hoped that she'd hurt him, maybe then he would have listened to her.
"Ok, ok, I'll get you a churro and I'll call Sho." Said Shibata. He had never been good at saying no to kids. If he had been then maybe things would have turned out different with Mob…and Sho…but things were what they were and all he could do was make the best out of the situation he was in. He was in an amusement park with Mukai and they were going to have fun…
If Sho ever picked up his phone.
It rang once…twice…and then on the third ring it went right to voicemail. He tried it again. Only two rings until I went to voicemail that time…Sho was screening him. His phone wasn't off and he hadn't lost it. Sho was screening him…or someone else. This was Osaka. Not as dangerous s Tokyo, not by a longshot, but still not the place for a twelve year old boy to have gone running off into…he expanded his perceptions again…
Nothing.
"Where's Sho?" asked Mukai
"I…I don't know…but I'm going to find out." said Shibata as he tried dialing Sho's number again…nothing. Straight to voicemail that time. He'd turned off his phone…or it had been turned off for him. He wished that Hatori had been there. He could have found Sho, or his phone, without even trying. He wished that Mob had been there. Her range could span a city of she really tried. He even wished that Shimazaki had been there. He may have been a truly disgusting excuse for a human being but he was useful…
Shibata was going to hate himself for this later.
He pulled Shimazaki's number up and texted him. He knew that Shimazaki had been stationed here for some mission or other. He had been worried about running into him…or rather Shimazaki seeking him out. Shimazaki had sworn up and down that he thought of Mukai and Sho as his kids…but Mob actually was a kid. There was no way in hell…
Well, there was a way in hell.
As soon as he finished his message, the very second his phone said 'read', Shimazaki appeared in front of him. Mukai tried to run to him but Shibata held out his hand. Nope. There was no way he was letting Mukai anywhere near him. He didn't care what Shimazaki had said. He hadn't been able to protect Mob but he could be there for Mukai.
And Sho, once Shimazaki found him.
"Ryou! You came back!" shouted Mukai. Shibata picked her up with one hand…and wouldn't let her go. She tried biting his hand but it wasn't working….why did he have to be like this?! Ryou was right there and now they could have fun without Sho and ride all the rides and trip people and eat churros until there weren't any churros left to eat!
"Mukai, stay still and stay away from him." Said Shibata as he struggled to keep a grip on her. If he dropped her from this height…well then he just wasn't going to drop her. He had to look after her and that meant keeping her safe. Safe from getting hurt and safe, too, from people who would hurt her.
"How rude, Shibata, for shame. First you call me away from my post, which Suzuki assigned me to personally by the way, to bring me all the way out here and you won't even let me say 'hi' to my second favorite kid in the world?" asked Shimazaki. He was being sarcastic but in every bit of sarcasm there was a kernel of truth. He had been meaning to swing by this thing as soon as he could have been reasonably assured that the woman he was stalking wasn't in immediate danger. He had been planning on hanging out with Sho and Mukai…
And Mob, if she had been there…
But she wasn't. She was back in Tokyo, probably. He would have been able to sense her if she had been in the city. She was loud, like bells, the kind that meant you had to donate to a temple or whatever. She was just…busy…busy ghosting him. At least he'd had Sho and Mukai to look forward to…or just Mukai, since Sho was apparently missing….
Not even Mukai, since Shibata apparently thought the worst of him.
"You can say 'hi' to her but that's it…and don't try and pick her up or anything." Said Shibata
"You say that like you don't trust me." said Shimazaki
"I don't! How the hell do you expect me to trust you when you…you know what you did!" said Shibata. He was getting looks…he had to calm down. He could feel his t-shirt straining. He was not going to get into it with Shimazaki right here and right now…no matter how badly he wanted to crush Shimazaki's bones into dust. People were watching, including Mukai. She was too young to know what any of this was about….and the last thing he wanted was for her first memory to be of him killing Shimazaki right in front of her.
"Yeah, I know exactly what I did. I was one hell of a boyfriend to Mob. I was more on my game than ever….if you think that I want anything like that with Mukai then that says a lot more about you than it does about me." said Shimazaki. How did HE look like the weirdo here? Shibata was the one going around insisting that Mukai and Sho were fuckable and yet Shimazaki was the one who was being ousted from the group? In what world did that make any sense? Mukai and Sho were kids, Mob wasn't. How hard was that for people to wrap their heads around. He didn't even have eyes and he could see the difference!
"I…am trying my best not to kill you." said Shibata
"Yeah, I can hear your aura. Maybe put Mukai down if you're going to lose it like that." Said Shimazaki. If he put her down then he could just take her to wherever Sho was and then they could raise some hell like in the old days…fuck, had it been that long already? It was nearly Halloween…his birthday had already passed…
Time sure did fly when everyone you knew hated your guts and/or wanted you dead.
"I'm not going to lose it. I can't lose it right now. I am going to ask you, nicely, to find Sho and bring him back. I can't take care of Mukai without him and she's really missing her brother." Said Shibata in his calmest voice.
"Yeah! I miss you!" said Mukai reached over for Ryou. Was he coming back now? Were they all going to be friends again? Did this mean that Hatori and Fuckuda and Caterpillars were coming back too?!
"I miss you too, Mukai. You have no idea how much I've missed you both." Said Shimazaki
"Just go and find Sho." Growled Shibata. Shimazaki put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Fine, fine, let me take a break from my busy life and hunt down the kid you were supposed to be watching." Said Shimazaki as he teleported away. He needed to put some distance between him and Shibata before he did something that he wouldn't be able to take back…that Mob wouldn't be able to forgive him for. No. There was no way in hell she would have forgiven him for killing Shibata, or even wounding him a little.
Though at least, if he did hurt or kill Shibata, she would have at least talked to him…
He teleported to the highest part of the park….and no Sho. Sho was a no show. It was hard to pick out one aura in this sea of people, this was somehow worse than staying at a division, but he would have known Sho anywhere….Sho wasn't here. He got down into the thick of the crowd, making sure to teleport when nobody was looking…nothing. No Sho…
He was going to have to expand his search efforts.
There was a non-zero chance that Sho had been kidnapped. There were at least two groups working in this city that he had noticed and both of them seemed to have it out for Suzuki. Why else so consistently go after his girlfriend? At least Shimazaki figured that was his girlfriend…or maybe she had just pissed people off? No, no, no. Sho was a target no matter who was active in this city…
Shimazaki expanded his search.
He left the park. It was quieter out here. Sure the traffic was loud but without all of the auras he could at least think. He expanded his aural range out as far as it would go, touching Suzuki's girlfriend along the way. She felt kind of like a wet rubber glove…but no time to dwell on that now. Sure, he had probably blown whatever cover he'd had but this was for Sho so it was worth it…he just had to keep on looking…once he found Sho then whatever vicious beating he had coming to him would have been worth it…
Where the fuck was this kid, anyway?
Shimazaki checked the area around the park. He could faintly feel…there, that was. Sho was here and…with someone? That wasn't good. Another esper, an aura that he didn't know. Well, it wasn't like he had gotten up close and personal with every single member of Claw or anything like that but he at last knew the big guys…and that felt like one of the big guys…
Big aura. Small container.
Shimazaki focused and teleported…back to his house. It had been a blind faith teleport, Toshi had named it. Unlike what few other teleporters there were in the world Shimazaki didn't have to see where he was going. He just sort of sensed it. He had never in his life wound up inside of a wall. He just sort of…appeared places safely….though he did like to have some idea of where he was going.
His own house, of course, should not have come as such a surprise to him.
"Alright, who's in my house?" asked Shimazaki as he teleported into the living room…yup. There was the couch, the TV, the record played, and his crate of records…and Sho. Sho and company…small company. He had been right, that was a tiny esper with Sho….a tiny natural esper…
A tiny, jumpy, natural esper.
"What the hell!?" shouted Sho. He put his hand over Ritsu's mouth. Ritsu couldn't talk. Shimazaki couldn't see but he could hear and he never forgot a voice…or an aura…fuck! What was he doing home in the middle of the day?! He only came home to sleep and smoke…and Sho knew that Shimazaki could tell that the sun was out!
"What?" asked Ritsu as Sho tried to suffocate him. It had been a reflex…but now he could see that Sho was right. That guy had his eyes closed…Ritsu stayed perfectly still.
"What the hell me? What the hell, you? Or…or ok, that didn't make sense. What the hell are you doing in my house? Ok, that makes more sense." Said Shimazaki. Sho was here with a…a kid? Yeah. That was either a kid or someone had kicked this guy way too hard in the balls. That was weird, Sho never hung out with other kids, and certainly not esper kids. That guy was short. People usually started showing powers around their mid-teens…so maybe it wasn't so weird that Sho had found another esper…
Though an esper that powerful, he would have thought, would have been on their radar already.
"Uh…what are you doing here?" asked Sho. Ritsu gave him a look. Even with Sho's hand over his mouth he still managed to look way too serious…it was kind of cute…but there was no time to focus on that now! Right now he had to-to-to find a way out of this without something horrible happening to Ritsu!
"I live here, temporarily. That's my couch you're sitting on and my beer you've been drinking…and you had better have put everything back in that kitchen if you moved things around." said Shimazaki. He felt the energy around him shift. Two auras, loud ones, argued with each other…Sho won. He felt Sho get up. The other kid stayed there, frozen, on the couth.
Shimazaki didn't think he looked THAT scary.
"I did! I moved a shit load of stuff. Everything's upside down…you should probably come with me and tell me where everything goes." Said Sho as he took Shimazaki by the hand. He wondered if this was ok. Ritsu was right there…it was for Ritsu's own good and, anyway, that goldfish wasn't even for Shimazaki.
"Well, Sho, I guess that you're a dead man now." said Shimazaki as he let himself be dragged into the kitchen. What was with Sho? Shimazaki wasn't mad at him, that should have been obvious. He was, at best, mildly annoyed. Mostly intrigued. Sho had, somehow, found himself a natural esper around his age…or at least his size. One that Shimazaki hadn't sensed until now. One that Claw might now have even known about…he didn't even know how to begin to unpack this.
Maybe by being happy for him…after he kicked Sho's ass for moving shit around in his kitchen.
"Kill me but let Ri…but let him go." Said Sho as he let go of Shimazaki's hand. Shimazaki shrugged and went over to the cabinets. He ran his hand up and down the boxes.
"Cookies…crackers…poptarts….huh, the box is still full, what do you know…." said Shimazaki as he went through his cabinets. He couldn't feel anything out of place…huh…Sho had even put the boxes back out label first. His little boy was growing up. Sunrise, sunset, cats in cradles and all of that…
"Seriously, don't-" said Sho
"I can't believe you actually put everything back where it goes. I'm weirdly proud of you." said Shimazaki
"Are you listening to me?!" asked Ritsu
"No, not really." Said Shimazaki as he closed the snack cabinet. He didn't think that Sho had been in his ingredients cabinet…but it couldn't have hurt to check. Otherwise he might have wound up making cake mix waffles again. He ran his hands across one box, one, before he felt the door getting ready to slam around his fingers. He pulled his hand back just in time.
"Why the fuck not!?" asked Sho
"Sorry, sorry, I'm listening now. So what's so important that you had to drag me all the way off into the kitchen to tell me?" asked Shimazaki
"I just…don't tell anyone, ok?" asked Sho
"Sho, come on, who's talking to me right now?" asked Shimazaki. He had never been this lonely in his life. Not since…not for a long time. Toshi hardly ever replied, Mob never called back, and he lived her alone. There weren't even other people to torment here…but Sho was back, so that was something. At least Sho hadn't sided against him in this…he didn't even know what word to use when all of your friends turned on you for no good reason.
"I'm being serious! Don't tell anyone or it could get back to my Dad…and that especially means my sister! She and Dad are fighting but I know her. She'll just go back to her and she'll tell him everything and then…and then it'll all be ruined. Ok? Can you just keep it to yourself? You're my best friend, you kind of have to." Said Sho. They were still best friends…right? Even though they hadn't hung out for a while and Shimazaki had turned out to be kind of a coward…it wasn't like they had ever said anything about not being friends anymore….
"Mob and I aren't really talking right now…but even if we were, yeah, your secret is safe with me. It's in the vault." Said Shimazaki crossing his heart. He wasn't in any hurry to spill Sho's business to anyone, even Mob. Not that he was in any danger of spilling anything to her anyway. She had completely vanished on him…well that was why they called it ghosting someone.
He wanted to check his phone. He didn't. That was progress.
"Promise?" asked Sho
"That's what the heart crossing was for. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your friend out there-" said Shimazaki
"He's not my friend! He's just…a person! He's a person who I met today!" said Sho quickly. Nobody could know about Ritsu…he could keep Ritsu safe. He would keep Ritsu safe. He had put Ritsu in danger so, of course, he was going to keep him safe. Sho might have been a bad brother, a bad son, and a bad best friend but he at least knew how to be a good boyfriend.
A better boyfriend then he was a liar, anyway.
Shimazaki was looking at him, now. Sho could feel it. He had one of his eyebrows raised up and he was smiling…fuck! He knew that Sho was lying and now he was putting all of the pieces together and now…now Sho knew what the next words out of his mouth were going to be! He was going to say some bullshit about how Sho needed to-to come clean so he could stay safe and Dad wouldn't kill him and…and shit like that!
He was so fucked!
"Wait…are you telling me that you met a guy today and brought him back here? You. You met someone and-" said Shimazaki. Huh. Kids really did grow up when you weren't looking. Good for Sho.
"I really just met him today! I don't even know his family name or his blood type or his favorite color!" said Sho quickly.
"Wait…and I supposed to know Toshi's blood type? I don't even know mine." Said Shimazaki
"I don't know, I think it's important for stuff…but I don't know that guy's blood type or anything like that! He's not my boyfriend, he's just a guy I met!" said Sho. He hoped that Ritsu wasn't listening…the last thing he wanted to do was rip his heart out. That wasn't what a good boyfriend did.
"Yeah, I've got that…and let me just say one thing." Said Shimazaki. He could feel Sho turtling up in his jacket, tensing up. It was adorable. This whole thing was adorable. Sho was all grown up now…he could almost cry. But he didn't, of course, because crying was boring and he'd done enough of that already. No, instead of drying his tears he used his hand to smack Sho, a little more than lightly, on the back.
Maybe way more than lightly.
"What?!" asked Sho as Shimazaki nearly knocked him to the ground.
"I am really proud of you right now…but next time try and find your own house. I have to live here, you know." said Shimazaki
"…all the other Claw houses were full." Said Sho
"Fair enough. Anyway I'll leave you two alone. You can smoke any of my weed, drink any of my liquor, and…you know what? Since I love you and it's been a while I will let the both of you have at my molly. Half a pill. Each. Ok? Otherwise you'll die…uh…what else…" said Shimazaki
"Wait, is molly the stuff that-" said Sho
"Don't touch anything in my drawer besides the molly. There's some stuff in there that I know is going to kill you." said Shimazaki
"But I don't want-" said Sho
"Hang on…I know I have to warn you about something else…yeah! Be sure to change my sheets when you're done, it's just common courtesy. Ok, what else…it feels like I'm forgetting something important here…" said Shimazaki
"No, no, no. You didn't forget anything important, you can go now." said Sho
"Wait, hang on a second…right! Use a condom first! Right, yeah, never go in unprotected unless you feel like dying." Said Shimazaki. He could hear Sho slowly starting to suffocate. He reached over and smacked him on the back. He was getting all warm…what was with him? He was the one picking up random guys in the middle of the day. If he got too embarrassed to talk about this then he wasn't mature enough to be doing it.
"Shimazaki! What the fuck!? We aren't going to-to DO IT! What the fuck is wrong with you!?" asked Sho. The room was way too small…he was way too hot…he needed to be alone. He needed….oh shit!? Ritsu had heard him say 'do it' and now he was expecting Sho to want to…is that what he wanted? Sho didn't want to! Well he did…but only in his head! If Ritsu expected him to want to do it or to be good at it or…or to even know what 'it' was because he still didn't know exactly how it worked with two guys but he was going to have to think of something but not Google anything because Hatori was always going through people's search histories for fun and-and-and-
He was only twelve and a half!
"Hey, do whatever you want, just don't be a moron about it." Said Shimazaki. He flicked Sho over the head as he stuttered something out about being only twelve and a half. That didn't mean anything, Shimazaki had been about that age when he'd started, and he'd been a real moron about it too. For all he knew there could have been grown adult walking around out there that he was responsible for…wait…
He was thirty three now and he'd first been with a girl when he was twelve…
Yeah, there could have been a fully grown adult out there that he had created. That was…that was something to think about…he flicked Sho over the head one more time. That never got old. He could have hung out with Sho tormenting him all day…but he wasn't going to. Sho had company and Shimazaki wasn't about to be a third wheel in whatever the hell Sho had planned. God…they grew up so fast, didn't they?
When you weren't even looking.
He teleported away, back to Shibata…who had moved. Now he was in some…it felt like a playground. Mukai was there, an esper in a sea of normal people. He made sure nobody was paying attention when he reappeared. He had teleported right into the middle of a crowded train car once and nobody noticed. People only saw what they wanted to see…and they only believed what they wanted to believe. If someone wanted to believe that people could appear out of thin air then they saw him…but nobody believed that. Most people had no idea what the truth really was.
Or they willfully ignored it.
"Sho's fine, don't look for him." Said Shimazaki as he flicked Shibata over the head. Not nearly as fun as tormenting Sho.
"Well where is he, then? Mukai's been asking about him-" said Shibata as he picked up his phone…cracked screen. Wonderful. Couldn't Shimazaki just text like a normal per…wait. No, he couldn't. This was Shimazaki, he didn't know the meaning of the word 'normal'.
"He's sworn me to secrecy. Just know that he's fine and he's not, I don't know, dying in a ditch somewhere." Said Shimazaki
"But where-" said Shibata
"Not. Telling. Anyway if you need some help with Mukai-" said Shimazaki
"No." said Shibata
"You know I'm better with her than you are-" said Shimazaki
"I said no, now get the hell out of here before I break you in half." Said Shibata. His phone screen cracked again…as did the armrest on this bench. Wonderful. Fucking Shimazaki. Why couldn't he just listen for once in his life? Shibata had told him to get lost…not invade his personal space.
"You couldn't touch me even if you tried." Whispered Shimazaki as he leaned in close. He could feel how angry Shibata was right now, his aura sounded like a car crashing into a train…that had been a fun day…but this wasn't nearly as fun as staging a double homicide. This was just…annoying. Boring. Not worth his time. This thing with Shibata was getting old. Shimazaki was done explaining himself. He didn't want to fuck either Sho or Mukai…and he shouldn't have had to explain himself! Seriously! Who's mind WENT there?
And yet, somehow, he was the fucked up on in this situation.
"Get out!" shouted Shibata…at empty air. He was being watched, stared at, whispered about now…goddamned Shimazaki…and he wasn't anywhere closer to finding Sho! Why had he even bothered with that guy?! Why did he…he needed to calm down…people were looking…
And Mukai was shouting.
She was imitating him…great. At least he had managed not to curse. He didn't even want to think about what Tsuchiya would have said if he came home and Mukai was goddamning everything…honestly it would almost be as bad as coming home without Sho…he texted again, as best as he could…and Sho actually replied that time. He was fine, didn't want to be found, and was going to meet him at the train station…goddamn it…he stayed calm. He was not going to lose control. He was going to give Mukai a fun day…as well as he could on his own.
He knew that he wasn't much of a babysitter but he was going to do his best. He couldn't do any better than his best.