Mob didn't really like to sleep alone.

She could do it, if she had to. Minegishi had told her before, once, that people could sleep anywhere. There were places where people slept on rocks, or in the ice, or even sitting up. Mob could, if she had to, sleep in Dad's old bed all on her own. It was kind of big, and cold, and quiet….but if she had to sleep there all on her own then she would.

She just hoped that she didn't have to.

She wanted to go to sleep. Her hair was dry now, she was in her pajamas, and it was nearly midnight. She should have been in bed hours ago but she'd had work to do. Just because it was nighttime in Tokyo that didn't mean that it was nighttime for the rest of the world. Someone had tried to shoot up the Second Division…she didn't know what was wrong with people sometimes. She didn't know why people kept on trying to stop them when all they had ever done was try to make the world a better place for everyone to live in. Sure they had to do bad things sometimes but Dad had always said that world domination took sacrifice. If he had been there in the house with her then he would have told her not to worry, that these things were part of the job, and that nobody had been killed so at least they didn't lose any of their friends…well he would have said assets but she didn't like that word. Dad would have, in his own way, tried to make her feel better…if he had been home.

And he had loved her again.

But he wasn't home and he didn't love her, not like he used to. His room was empty. This wasn't going to be one of those nights that they used to have when they'd hang out and talk or just watch TV. This was going to be one of those nights where Mob stood outside of her bedroom door knocking and waiting to be let in…even though this was her room too. Not that she could just go and let herself in, of course.

The door was locked from the inside.

"Sho, can I come in?" asked Mob as she knocked on their door. It was locked again. She had been smart enough to bring pajamas with her when she took a bath. She had known that this was going to happen…she had just hoped that it wouldn't. Sho had been locking himself in their room nearly every night since he came back from Universal…and he didn't have to.

If he was mad at her then he should have said so.

She didn't know what he would have been mad at her for. She hadn't said a word about how he ran away from Shibata to be with his boyfriend…or maybe a new boyfriend? His boyfriend lived in Seasoning City, which was closer to Tokyo than Osaka really, so maybe they'd broken up and he'd found someone else….or maybe he'd gotten on a train to Seasoning City…she didn't know what he'd done and she'd made sure not to ask him. She knew how angry he would have been if she had asked him, or worst, gotten upset with him about what he had done.

So she had said nothing. It hadn't helped.

"Sho? Are you still awake?" asked Mob, knocking again. She could see his aura. It looked like he was awake…but maybe she was wrong. Maybe he had locked himself in and fallen asleep…she didn't know why he would have done that…he did all sorts of things that she didn't understand.

"Sho? Can I come in?" asked Mob. She could open the door on her own if she had to…and if he was asleep then she would. She had to get up early in the morning and she wanted to sleep in her own bed.

"No, don't come in!" said Sho the very second she touched the door. She pulled her hand back quickly.

"Sho, can I come in soon? It's late and I'm tired…and it's both of our room, too." Said Mob. There was the sound of scraping and then something hit the door. She hoped that he hadn't barricaded the door. He didn't have to, she wasn't Dad, she didn't just let herself in places anymore.

"Go sleep in Dad's room. It's not like he's using it." Said Sho quickly.

"Well he could come back…maybe…and then he'd want his bed back…and also I like sharing a room with you." Said Mob

"Yeah…I like sharing a room with you too but there's a whole other room with a bed in it and…and just sleep there, ok? You're not going to die if you sleep in another room. We've slept apart lots of times before." Said Sho

"I know that I'm not going to die, I'm not Mukai…and you really shouldn't show her movies like that." Said Mob. Mukai couldn't sleep on her own anymore since Sho had let her watch the movie about the ghost that lived under beds and stole your dreams and also your skin. Mob didn't understand movies like that, she never had, and that was why she didn't watch them. Mukai didn't know any better, she just watched whatever was on, and Sho should have known that she was too little for that…but Sho was still the little brother. He may have been older than Mukai but he was younger than her.

She was the one who was supposed to take care of them, not the other way around.

"Don't tell Mukai what she can and can't…I mean I'm sorry, you're right. I should have treated her like a baby instead of a kid and only let her watch kitten live streams or something. Ok? Now can you go sleep in Dad's room while I think about what I did?" asked Sho

"Can't you think about what you did while I'm sleeping?" asked Mob

"You can't sleep in here! I need…I need light to draw. I'm, um, drawing too…I can do two things at one. So go someplace else, ok? Go and sleep with Minegishi or something. I have a lot of drawing to do." Said Sho. Sleep next to Minegishi…she had done it before. They used to have sleepovers all the time back when Mob had still been little enough to fit in the bed with them. They had a double bed, though, now, and…and she still fit…

But she couldn't sleep next to them.

Not after what they had said about her and Joseph. She couldn't believe that they thought Joseph liked her…he didn't. He would have said something if he had, right? And even if he had liked her then…then it wouldn't have been their business what Mob did or did not do with him and…and she was so tired of people trying to tell her what to do or…or what to feel bad about and…and she knew what she did was wrong but she didn't need this to turn into a fight, too.

Joseph didn't like her and…and if he did then Minegishi wasn't a part of this so they didn't get a say.

"Oh…but I can sleep with the lights on. So you can draw and I can just-" said Mob. She hated sleeping with the lights on but for Sho she would do it. She didn't know what she would have done being stuck in a bed with Minegishi all night…well not stuck, it was kind of cozy, Minegishi had warm blankets and…and they were warm too. They were her best friend and…and even if they were mad at her all the time now, and even if they had said some Fukuda-like stuff, she knew that they weren't Fukuda. They were Minegishi and they loved her a lot…

And she loved them, too…but they had said…all that they'd said….

But she still loved them.

"No." said Sho

"But I-" said Mob

"I said no, ok? I'll see you in the morning." Said Sho. She may not have been good with tones but she knew that one….and she knew her little brother. He didn't want her around right now. She couldn't think of a reason why…but she didn't need a reason. She just didn't want to be where she wasn't wanted.

It hurt but that was ok

"Ok….goodnight, little brother." Said Mob. She didn't want to fight with him. If he didn't want her around then…well then she was going to give him space. She didn't know why he wanted space, though. They never used to have space from each other…but they had been a lot younger back then. Little, like Mukai was now. She couldn't remember a time when she and Sho hadn't shared a room. Even back when they'd lived in the Castle they had never even thought about sleeping in separate rooms.

They had gotten scared when they got separated.

"Good night!" shouted Sho…even though he hadn't had to shout. They weren't in the Castle anymore, this house was tiny, tiny enough for their family. The Castle had been way too big. Mob had lived in enough houses to know that the Castle had been way too big for their family. There had been so many rooms…most of them empty. Some of them had been full of junk. The room full of Dad's old toys had been fun…but most of the other junk rooms just had chairs and stuff under white sheets. They had looked sort of like how ghosts looked on TV. She and Sho had known, though, that there hadn't been any ghosts in the Castle….but that hadn't stopped them from getting scared.

They weren't afraid of ghosts anymore.

They didn't get scared when they were separated anymore. turn on the timer for three weeks and weeks without seeing each other, they had gotten used to it, and right now he left his right now it wasn't like she was going anywhere. She was just going next door. She was going to be in one room, and show was going to be in another period she wasn't going to sleep on Dad's bed, it was too big without him there, and too quiet, too. She couldn't sleep anywhere quiet…and she couldn't sleep anywhere alone, either.

So she went next door.

But first she had to get her phone, her jacket, and her shoes. If this had been summer she could have just slipped her shoes on and left. It would have been warm enough that she wouldn't have needed a jacket, the heat had left as November came in, and she would have been able to leave her phone, too. She wouldn't have had to worry about when the next bad thing was going to happen, the next fire was going to start, the next mess was going to be made. She would have just been able to focus on having fun with her brother and sister…and her friends. They would have all been together…she missed the times when they'd all been together.

She missed a lot of things.

Like a step as she left her house. She missed the bottom step and nearly feel down. She caught herself with her powers before she could even think…not good. Thankfully all the normal people were sleeping. This was a place where families lived, people who worked and stuff. This neighborhood went to sleep at night. There were neighborhoods in Tokyo, though, that never slept. Fun places where you could drink and play arcade games and there was music and good food…places that Mob wasn't going to be going to tonight…or even again. With Shimazaki gone there was no one to take her. Those had been fun times…

But even if he'd been around then she wouldn't have had time to hang out with him.

She had to get to sleep…and that meant sleeping next door. She didn't want to be alone and…and she and Minegishi had been fighting for a while now even before they said all the stuff about Joseph…but they were still Minegishi. She could sleep next to them…it was better than sleeping alone. They might have been asleep right now…she felt with her aura.

Everyone was asleep right now.

She could feel them with her aura. Everyone was either sleeping or just really calm. Serizawa might have been away, though, since it was hard to tell with him. His aura was never calm, not even when he slept, and he was as restless as Sho. Tossing and turning and muttering things…she hoped that he was having a good night. She hoped that everyone was having a good night.

She made sure not to wake anyone.

She opened the door with her powers, making sure to be as quiet as possible. She felt kind of like a burglar, but a nighttime one. Shimazaki said that a lot of stealing happened during the day when people weren't home. He had said that she needed to watch out for people following her. They would follow her to learn her day, the things she did, and when she'd be the most distracted. Then they'd strike. He knew a lot about stuff like that…and Mob hoped that she wasn't being followed…now that she thought about it…she couldn't feel anyone, just her friends sleeping.

Shibata was back on the couch.

That was the first thing she had noticed when she came in. The TV was on, loud, and Shibata's snoring was shaking the whole house. She slipped her shoes off in the genkan and hung up her coat. She put her phone in her nightgown pocket, careful not to wake it up. She didn't want to wake Shibata. He must have been having a really hard time right now.

He was sleeping on the couch.

She had seen enough TV to know that it was bad when your wife or girlfriend made you sleep on the couch. Mob hadn't ever thought that it was fair when that happened in shows, since half of the bed belonged to the boy and the other half to the girl, and really that was why people should have slept in twin beds like she and Sho did. Tsuchiya had kicked Shibata out of their room. Even Mob could see that and she was incredibly clueless.

This couldn't have been good.

He and Tsuchiya must have been fighting worse than ever now! She took a deep breath. Her aura was beginning to look like Serizawa's…maybe there was another explanation. Like maybe the bed had broken or….or maybe he just liked the couch better. She hoped that he and Tsuchiya had stopped fighting and their bed had just fallen apart or something…or maybe that would have just given them more to fight about. Tsuchiya seemed to really like fighting…

At least then, if the bed had broken or something, Tsuchiya would have had something real to be upset about.

Mob knew that she could be very clueless about things but she really didn't know what Tsuchiya was so upset about, upset enough to try and take Mukai away over. Things were finally good around here. Dad was away, she loved him but he could be really mean sometimes, and Fukuda was gone too. She didn't love Fukuda, or like him all the much, and it would have been nice to have a healer around but he was just as mean as Dad was…only in a different way. Things were good and Tsuchiya shouldn't have been fighting with people and trying to take Mukai away. Mob wanted to tell her that…but she was asleep.

It would have been mean to wake her.

So she crept quiet through the living room, as quietly as she could until she got to the stairs. Mob didn't want to wake anybody up, she just wanted to go to sleep…or maybe she just didn't want to be on her own. Dad had told her that he had decided, when he was her age, that he was a full and complete person all on his own and that he didn't need anyone. But then also he used to love her the most out of anyone else in the world…so she wasn't so sure about that. Dad didn't like to admit, not really, that he needed people…not unless they were named Shiori and wore all black like it was Halloween all the time….but Mob could admit when she needed people. When she didn't want to be alone.

When she needed her best friend.

She did need them and…and maybe if they didn't wake up then no fights would happen. She knew that they had said something that….that they shouldn't have said…but they were still Minegishi. She didn't have a lot of people left. First mom had run away and then Dad had left and taken Hatori…and sent Shimazaki away though Mob had no one to blame but herself for that one, and now Sho was kicking her out of her room and Shibata and Tsuchiya didn't have much time to do anything other than fight, and Serizawa didn't need to deal with all the things that she had going on. He had his own things to deal with…and even if he hadn't he wasn't…he wasn't Minegishi.

There was only one Minegishi.

Minegishi was Mob's best friend and they always would be…even though Mob kept on messing things up. There was a chance that they might not have wanted her around…but there was a chance that they would, or that they wouldn't have even noticed her. Sometimes they were a very heavy sleeper. Maybe they'd be so deep asleep that it would be like when Mob was little and she used to sleep next to them sometimes…she had to keep it that way if that was the case. Mob made sure not to make too much noise as she walked across the floor and climbed the stairs.

She walked carefully.

As carefully as she could, anyway. The stairs were covered in toys, Mukai's toys, and some clothes too. Also Mob wasn't the steadiest on her feet right now…she made sure to grab the railing and hang on to it as she walked. She'd had some more milk before her bath. Milk with vodka, the strawberry vodka may not have tasted like real strawberries but it was still pretty good once you got used to it. Mob had gotten plenty of chances to get used to it. It seemed like no matter what she did something always went wrong. Someone was always either trying to send them bombs, or shoot them, or set them on fire, or just get people to run away. Everywhere she looked there was another mess to clean up.

Sometimes for real.

Mob was used to cleaning up other people's messes. She'd clean the stairs off later…and the rest of the hallway, too. It was like the mess was making a train to Minegishi's room…which was also messy. Mob didn't even have to wait for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The minute she opened the door she saw what Minegishi's room had turned into.

Minegishi's room was a mess.

They weren't living with Shimazaki anymore, that might have been it. He had to keep his things at least kind of neat or he'd never be able to find them again. Minegishi didn't have to worry about that anymore…Mob wasn't sure if this was the time when she should have looked on the bright side or not…maybe not, since it was so dark out. It was nearly midnight, too dark to be putting on lights and cleaning up…and Minegishi wouldn't have liked that anyway. They usually didn't really like it when Mob was in their room at all without permission…but also they'd given her permission before so…so this was ok…

She had knocked.

Mob had no choice but to knock, of course, since this was their room after all. On the chance that they had been awake, then they wouldn't have been happy to find her in their room. They would have been mad…they had been mad at her for a while now. They were always so mad at her even if they didn't admit it. Mob didn't want to make them more mad. She had knocked once and then come in…and stepped on a pile of clothes. Even in the dark she could see how messy their room was. Books, clothes, and plates all over the floor…she stepped on a spoon…even the plants were started to get overgrown. There was ivy hanging down from the ceiling, and spider plants all over the floor. It felt like walking to a jungle, getting to Minegishi's bed. A jungle where the floor was made out of books, plants, and dirty dishes…

It wasn't so bad.

Minegishi was here. Mob would clean their room up for them later. Sometimes they got too tired or clean. Sometimes they got so tired that they forgot to clean or do laundry or take care of their garden. Sometimes they even forgot to take care of themselves…sort of like Mom, when she had gotten sick…but Minegishi wasn't sick, they had said so. They were just tired.

And so was Mob.

They were taking up the whole bed, though, they were sleeping diagonally. Mob pulled back the blanket and tried to climb on but Minegishi just pulled the blanket back down. For a second Mob was worried that they'd woken up. In another second she was happy that they'd woken up. In the second after that she was glad that they had stayed asleep. They didn't like being woken up and…and they were mad at her…and also they'd said all of that weird stuff about her and Joseph.

Sort of like what Fukuda had said.

Fukuda had always accused her of doing stuff with boys, mostly Shimazaki. It had been weird, him thinking about her doing stuff like that, and it wasn't like she had been doing anything anyway! It had just been so…so weird. That he would have thought of her like that…and that he would have thought that she would have done something like that with one of her friends….well he had been right about that. Maybe he could tell the future or something…he should have kept it to himself. It had been weird then, coming from him, and it was weird now coming from Minegishi…but less weird, maybe, or more weird…

Wrong, though.

Minegishi was just…mistaken. Joseph didn't like her like that, he would have said so if he did. Boys were very straightforward about that, she'd noticed. She didn't like him like that either. Sure he was tall and nice but there was more to it than someone being tall and nice. There was love…she wasn't sure if love was real or it lasted…but there was love. There was also…also she just…she didn't want another boyfriend! She wanted…she wanted…

She wanted to go to sleep.

She took her phone from her pocket and put it on their nightstand. Her phone was right next to their phone…she hoped that she didn't get them mixed up. Minegishi didn't need to know how bad things were getting…not bad but…tiresome. A Dad word. They didn't need to know how tiresome things were going with all the Divisions. They had enough to deal with as it was…she had given them enough to deal with. She would have completely understood if they hadn't wanted her to sleep next to them.

Maybe that was why they were sleeping diagonal.

No room. Even with the double bed she didn't fit. She pulled more of the blanket away…no room. She tried to lay down next to Minegishi….but they were too much on an angle. Mob only had a tiny sliver of bed to sleep on. They had their back to her, now, so there was some room…but not enough. Mob tried to sit down, if she could sit down then she could lay down. She moved slowly. The bed dipped.

Minegishi turned around. Mob froze.

"Leave me alone, Ryou….no knives in the bed…" muttered Minegishi. They waved their hand in the air. Mob handed them the blanket quickly. They took it and covered themselves…they didn't want Mob there. Well they didn't want Shimazaki there and…and if she stayed then Minegishi would wake up and maybe they would be extra mad since not only had she woken them up but she reminded them of Shimazaki…Mob got up.

The bed creaked.

She froze again. Minegishi kept sleeping. Mob took a step…and knocked something over. The room smelled like oranges and liquor. That sweet sort of smell…strong, too. Mob picked the bottle up with her powers. Her eyes had adjusted now. She made a path for herself. She pushed the clothes to the side and stacked the dishes as she walked across the room. The whole time Minegishi stayed sleeping.

Good.

She closed their door as quietly as she could, grabbing her phone with her powers as it closed. They were still sleeping….what she should have been doing right now. She had to go back home. There wasn't anywhere to sleep. Not unless she wanted to sleep next to Mukai…she didn't want to sleep in the same room as Tsuchiya. Also Mukai got up in the middle of the night sometimes to play and Mob, well she loved playing with Mukai, but she didn't want to get up in the middle of the night to do it. She was just going to have to sleep in Dad's room….

Alone.

All alone, in the cold, and the dark. With a whole side of the bed without someone. So quiet…she wondered if Serizawa was awake. He was a friend too and…and she didn't want to wake him up but…but she didn't want to be alone. She knew that he didn't need to worry about the stuff that bothered her, the stuff she worried about, so…so she just wouldn't tell him what was bothering her. That was all…nothing was bothering her. Nothing bad…she could handle this. She could handle anything.

She had to handle anything, everything, otherwise nobody else would.

It was kind of a lot sometimes. There was always something new to do. Just when she thought that she had gotten to the end of her work pile it just got bigger. Something else happened. Someone else needed her. Something else caught fire or exploded or got shot…it just never ended. She didn't know what she would do sometimes…maybe it would get easier once Dad took over the world.

Whenever that was going to be.

Not tonight. No, tonight Dad was…well she didn't know exactly what he would be doing, but she did know that it wasn't time to take over the world yet. There was still too much going on…more than she wanted to think about…so she wouldn't think about it. She made her way down the hallway, stepping on crayons and toys all the way down. She didn't want to think about that either. She just wanted to rest…and she just didn't want to be alone.

Serizawa was always happy to see her.

"Miss Suzuki!" said Serizawa as Mob opened the door. He had been sitting right in front of his TV…oh, he hadn't been asleep at all. He had just been really calm. He wasn't calm anymore. He had bolted right up from his spot on the rug and now she was shaking. His aura was bright purple…it was all Mob'a fault.

Something else that she had done wrong.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I can leave now if you want me to." said Mob, from the doorway. She wondered if she should have bowed…no, that was weird between friends. If she bowed, too, then Serizawa would start bowing and she already had enough people bowing to her. She didn't need that from a friend.

"You didn't wake me up at all! I mean I want you to stay! I mean I…I want to hang out with you. I was just hanging out with Hatori, I mean we were playing Rocket League…um…it's a game…but you already knew that." Said Serizawa. Mob decided to step inside of his room. He wanted her around…that was pretty nice, actually. He wanted her around…the door not being locked. The floor being a lot clearer…cleaner.

It was nice in here.

"The game with the cars and the soccer ball?" asked Mob. He smiled and nodded. She had seen that game before, it looked fun…or at least it had. It looked kind of like Serizawa had lost…probably because of her.

"Yes. Do you want to play? I can…well I just lost…but you can be next." Said Serizawa

"Um…ok. If you want me to." Said Mob. She didn't really want to play anything but if he wasn't planning on going to bed, even if it was this late, then she wasn't going to make him. She sat down on the rug, he sat down beside her. He picked up the controller and turned to the TV.

His face fell.

"Oh." Said Serizawa. Mob didn't know what had happened…a part of her said that she had done something wrong…but what? She had just sat down…this was Serizawa. She could just ask. He wasn't like Minegishi, he would tell her if he was mad at her…

"What's wrong?" asked Mob

"Hatori went offline…he's probably busy. This doesn't have multiplayer, I mean it does but not in the same room, and…um…we can play something else if you want to." Said Serizawa

"I'm mostly just tired. Do you mind if we have a sleepover? I can sleep on the floor and you can sleep on the bed." Said Mob

"No!" said Serizawa. Mob shushed him. He could have woken someone up and then everyone would have been too tired for their days and then it would have been her fault and…and she didn't want any other things to be her fault!

"Oh…ok. I can sleep in my own bed, I mean in my Dad's old bed, it's ok-" said Mob

"No, no, I want you to stay here…I mean only if you want to, of course. I just don't want you to sleep on the floor. You can have the bed." Said Serizawa

"But then where will you sleep?" asked Mob, looking around. He didn't have a futon. All he had on the ground was a carpet.

"On the floor, um, I don't mind. I mean you deserve the bed. That's what I mean." Said Serizawa quickly. He had managed to get the words out, and they made sense too. She understood him…right? But then why wasn't she getting up on the bed? He didn't mind sleeping on the floor. He'd slept on the floor before, in his old room. Sometimes he had just laid down and slept…anything to make tomorrow happen sooner…

"That's not fair to you, Serizawa. This is your room and your bed. You don't have to sleep on the floor of your own room. Come on, you can sleep next to me." said Mob. There wasn't a lot of room on the bed…but she would rather have slept in a bed that was too little than one that was way too big…and cold…and empty.

"It's better that way, I-I might crush you on accident, I mean of course it would be an accident! I would never crush you on purpose and-" said Serizawa. Mob took his hand in hers. The last thing she needed was to scare him, to make him freak out. She held his hand in hers until his aura calmed down. Until his breathing calmed down. Until he stopped shaking.

It didn't take very long at all.

"You won't crush me. Here, you can be on the inside. That way you don't have to worry about crushing me, I'll just be able to roll out." Said Mob. She patted the side of the bed. He nodded.

"Oh…oh! That makes sense. You're so smart, Miss Suzuki." Said Serizawa. Mob didn't think that she was that smart. She actually thought she was kind of clueless and dumb. If she hadn't messed up then…then a lot of things that were happening wouldn't have been happening right now and….and she was tired. She needed sleep and…and she didn't want to think about anything right now.

She let Serizawa get into bed first.

She took the outside side…even though she liked the inside better. That way she wouldn't end up half hanging over the side. This bed wasn't big enough for the two of them….but it was better than sleeping alone. At least he wasn't sleeping on an angle. He bent around her, made room for her, and didn't push her away once…he couldn't have been comfortable and she wasn't either but….but at least she wasn't alone. Neither was he…

Neither of them really liked to sleep alone. Neither of them had to.