At some point Sho had gotten his hands on an actual tattoo gun.

Shimazaki's doing, of course. Who else would have thought that this was a good idea. Sho loved art and he could do all the art he wanted…on paper. Not human skin. Actual paper. And not with a needle, either. It wasn't the pain that bothered Fukuda so much as the fact that he had no choice in the matter. It was either Sho did this to him or he did it to himself…and neither of them needed to go through that again. Fukuda had no choice but to lay down on his living room floor, which he hadn't vacuumed in a while, and let Sho tattoo what felt like a very large penis right onto his back.

The things he did for Sho.

Better him than Sho. He would get this out of his system eventually. Fukuda just had to bear with it until he was done. He didn't get a choice about this. He very rarely got any kind of say in his life at all. It had been like this for as long as he could remember. His parents, when they'd been alive, had tried to turn him into the person that they saw in their minds. A straight A musician of a son who would bring home a nice girl, start a family, and carry on the family name for another generation at least. What they had gotten was a second chair clarinet player, high ranking member of the biggest cult in the world, and something of a father to the son of the kid who Fukuda had dragged home one day and…and declared to be his best friend.

He hadn't even had a choice back then, too.

Suzuki had been the only other esper that he'd ever met in his life. There were more espers in the world now, more naturals, than there had been when he had been a kid. Maybe something to do with pollution or whatever. He hadn't had a choice back then in being friends with Suzuki, no other option, and then here they were thirty something years later. He had been such an idiot back then. He had known what Suzuki was like, even on that first day he'd been such an asshole, and he had known by the end of the first week of school that Suzuki was a complete and total weirdo…but they'd stayed friends.

He hadn't had any other takers.

No other esper takers. That had been important, then, knowing that there was someone else in the world like him. He had always thought that he was blessed or something, like Mom had stolen him from a God or something. Suzuki had thought that he was an alien. They had both made each other human…and then Suzuki convinced himself that he was better than human…and then their game was born. Their 'if I ran the world' game. Their 'when we run the world game'. Their 'how to run the world' game. Their game that, at some point, stopped being a game and started being life. A game that he'd had no choice in playing in the first place.

A game that he still had no choice in playing.

It was never going to end. Not unless he took Suzuki down…if he could. Their best bet was Shigeko. She was nearly as strong as Suzuki was and a lot younger, too. If they fought she would win…he had no idea what she was planning to do. She was a lot like him, more so than his actual children, and she would have wanted this whole thing for herself…whatever she was planning she was keeping it close to her chest. Sho said that he was working on getting her to see that she was the only person suitable to run this insane asylum. That everyone loved her more than they feared Suzuki. That if she wanted to it could all be hers, hers and Sho's, and maybe that was the thing that kept her from siding with Sho. Maybe she just didn't want to share power…or something.

Who even knew with Shigeko.

She was unpredictable at best. Suzuki, for all of his faults, knew to never drink. He made bad choices when he drank and he lost control. That wasn't even getting into the other things that were out there. The things that Shigeko did…that she should not have been doing. Masami would have killed him if she knew…but she didn't know. She was gone and he was here and, yes, he'd failed her when it came to Shigeko. She was…the person that she was now. If Suzuki dropped dead and Shigeko inherited then Claw would fall within a week. Everyone loved her but her judgement was just terrible…

Not that thing that he should have been happy about at all.

If Masami had walked right through his door at the moment she would not have recognized him…and not just because of the mural her son was tattooing on his back. She would have looked at him and seen someone so alien to the man that she knew that she would have turned around, walked right out the door, and never come back…and he would have deserved it, too. He had broken his promise to her, all of the promises that he'd ever made her, but…but it wasn't like he'd had anything even resembling a choice. He had no control over anything…not Suzuki's plans, not his own life, and not even…not even whether or not he got what felt like a penis tattooed right into the skin of his back.

The flesh of it.

"Sho, do you have to press so hard?" asked Fukuda as Sho tried to run him through with that tattoo needle.

"Yeah. The harder I press then the longer it's going to last and I have to figure out how to make this last a long time." Said Sho. He whined, sort of, but nothing that Fukuda couldn't handle. He was going to cherish the whining while he could. Sho was older now, thirteen, he was going to soon be at the age where he wasn't going to want anything at all to do with Fukuda or anyone else for that matter.

"There's no way that thing is going to last a long time, I'm getting rid of it as soon as you're done." Said Fukuda

"Why?" asked Sho, whining again. This time angrily…though he'd been moody for a while now. Knowing Sho it could have been anything…and it would only be getting worse as the years went on. Teenagers. If there was a way to skip past this stage of life he would have. He could only remember what he'd been like…what it had been like to live through being thirteen. If there had been some way to get Sho past it then he would have in a heartbeat…but there wasn't, so all Fukuda could do right now was help him make it through to the other side.

"Because I know what you're drawing on my back and I can't walk around like that. I'm not in the yakuza…and I don't think that the yakuza would take kindly to one of their own walking around embarrassing them like this." Said Fukuda. Claw was many things but it wasn't the yakuza…though they were involved in some shady dealings. Though that was just a necessary evil and, anyway, it wasn't like Fukuda had ever had a choice in the matter.

"Hey! It looks really good! And I didn't even do the color yet." Said Sho

"There's going to be color?" asked Fukuda

"Yeah, tattoos without color are just skin pictures." Said Sho

"I'll have to take your word for it." Said Fukuda with a laugh. That earned him a nice stab of the needle. He had no idea why people would have done this to themselves voluntarily. His back felt like it was shredded. He knew that he smelled blood. He couldn't wait for Sho to be out of this phase.

"Stop moving, you're going to make me mess up." said Sho

"Better?" asked Fukuda as he tried his best to lay still…not easy at all when he had a needle being stuck right into his back.

"Don't talk either, you're going to make me mess up and then it'll look weird and then when people see it they're going to think that I don't know how to do tattoos." Said Sho

"You're thirteen, I don't think that anyone expects you to be a professional level tattoo artist." Said Fukuda

"I just said not to talk!" said Sho

"Ok, ok, I'll be quiet…but you need to know that this isn't going to be a permanent thing." Said Fukuda

"Why not, it's a tattoo." Said Sho

"Because I can't walk around with…one of those…on my back." Said Fukuda

"It's not one of those." Said Sho

"Oh, well in that case-" said Fukuda

"It's two dicks fighting each other." Said Sho

"….it's what now?" asked Fukuda

"Two dicks are fighting. One of them is biting the other but the one being bitten has a knife and it's stabbing the other one in the balls and there's going to be a lot of blood and-" said Sho

"Sho! For the love of…just…stop talking. Please." Said Fukuda. He had no clue where Sho came up with these things…the mind of a thirteen year old boy was not a good place, not for the faint of heart at all. Fukuda wondered if he'd ever been that bad. There had been a time in his life where he'd had to draw them on every single surface he could find…but never in such an intricate way….though to be fair he couldn't draw to save his life.

"You asked so don't get mad at me because you don't like the answer…and don't get rid of it, either. I'm not going to be able to finish it all at once and if I you erase it then-then all my progress is going to be gone and I won't ever be good at anything!" said Sho

"Whoa, whoa, calm down…ok, ok." I'll leave it be. How's that sound?" asked Fukuda

"Until I'm done?" asked Sho

"Until you're done." Said Fukuda

"And then for the rest of your life?" asked Sho hopefully. Fukuda closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Sho…we'll talk. Ok? We'll talk about this later. Right now I want to know what you've been so upset about. Maybe I can help." Said Fukuda. He hoped that it was something like he wanted to sneak off and see that boyfriend of his. A dangerous game if there ever was one but Fukuda's whole life had been a dangerous game up to this point. Maybe he wanted to get caught, maybe he wanted out, or maybe he just wanted Touichirou to just talk to him and-

-and he had lost a lot of blood. That was all.

"There's nothing to help with, unless you want to fight Hatori to be Dad's best friend again, but then he'd probably just try and make you his son so there's no point." Said Sho. Fukuda rolled onto his side.

"Sho, have you been drinking again?" asked Fukuda. He made eye contact with Sho. Sho held it. His pupils looked the same…eerily like Touichirou's, actually. The two of them both had the same tiny, super fixed, pupils when they were excited about something….or upset about something.

"Not today…and don't tell me that I can't. You're not Big Sis, you don't get to tell me what to do, and she doesn't even do that anymore either." Said Sho

"Sho, I'm not…I'm going to try my best not to seem bossy. I just want to know if you've been drinking or smoking anything today, ok? Because what you just told me doesn't make a lot of sense and I'm worried about you." said Fukuda

"It doesn't make sense to you?! Well how do you think I feel?! I just…it's like…I just wanted to hang out with Big Sis, that's all, and she just told me to listen and then…and then she told me that Dad adopted Hatori! Like he's a stray hamster or something!" said Sho. Fukuda put his hand over his ear…he wasn't deaf…maybe he was crazy. He could feel the blood running down his back. Maybe it was blood loss or a reaction to the pain or just…maybe he was just losing his mind.

That was the only explanation for any of this.

"Your Dad did what now?" asked Fukuda as he tested the hearing in his other ear.

"Dad adopted Hatori! Or…or Nozomu, I guess, since that's his given name and-and-and he's not my brother! I always wanted to be a big brother, not have one! And now he's here and it's like…I don't even know why I care. Dad can go choke on a bag of dicks for all I care." Said Sho

"Sho! Language!" said Fukuda. That was all that he could even think to say. What was…what was even happening here? Suzuki had actually adopted Hatori….why? It wasn't like he was completely against the concept but…but what happened to Sho? Touichirou had said, back when he'd been in the process of adopting Shigeko, that if she had been a boy he would have given her to a division to raise. He couldn't let anything get in the way of the line of succession. It had to be clear, like choosing the next emperor. It was even more important, supposedly, than choosing the next emperor since Touichirou's son and grandson had to be the ones to rule the world. He was planning on starting the longest dynasty that the world had ever seen.

This was not the way to do it.

Hatori wasn't a Suzuki. Fukuda had looked into that years ago. Hatori was a Hatori and what he was…well it was kind of useless outside of an espionage/sabotage point of view. He clearly wasn't ever going to father any children so even trying to marry him to Shigeko, if they were going to be thinking like emperors, would have been useless. He was small, too, and physically weak as well as metaphysically. He was also annoying…so annoying…the most annoying man that Fukuda had ever met in his life. Nosy, too. The last thing that Touichirou needed was someone that nosy in his inner circle…as his son…

There was a mole somewhere in Claw after all.

"I'm thirteen, stop saying that." Said Sho angrily.

"Fine, alright, I'm sorry. Just…let's not talk like that, ok? I know that you're upset right now-" said Fukuda

"Fuck you, I'm not upset! I don't…I don't know what I am." Said Sho. His voice took on the far off quality…something was bothering him. Something real was bothering him, not just teenage nonsense.

"It's alright to be upset about this. I know that you and your dad aren't on the most civil of terms but I know that this must still hurt a lot. He's still your dad and he chose someone else. It's rough." Said Fukuda

"…I don't know why…it's not like I care about Dad and…and it's not like I need him…" said Sho softly. He was being mature…maturely immature.

"It's still a lot, but don't worry. You'll always have me. Your dad…he isn't the best person in the world. Or the friendliest. Or the nicest. Or the most thoughtful-" said Fukuda

"He forgot my birthday again. Hatori sent me a gift card and I can tell that he just put Dad's name on it to make it seem like Dad remembered…he can be kind of nice like that…but he's still not my brother!" said Sho

"You're right, you're right. He's not your brother. You didn't grow up with him, not in any significant way, and you don't share even a single parent. Your dad just…can be weird sometimes. He can do whatever he wants but that doesn't mean that you have to go along with it. Hatori isn't your brother, he's just some guy your dad adopted. That's all. He's not your real brother." Said Fukuda

"Yeah…yeah! If he wants Dad to-to yell at him and beat him up and put him through the walls then…then Hatori can have him!" said Sho

"Yes, that's it, that's the spirit. Hatori isn't competition because there's nothing worth compete for there. Now how about you get back to work? Show me what you can do. I'm-I'm curious how it's going to look in color." Said Fukuda as he laid back down on his stomach. He didn't want to do this…but he didn't have a choice in the matter. Sho felt terrible, and for good reason, and…and Fukuda…he was going to do what he could to make him feel better.

As close to better as he could.

He didn't have the first clue as to what he was supposed to do in this situation. Hatori had actually managed to win in this situation. He had managed to…out. Fukuda needed him out. He knew too much…Suzuki would never believe him…Touichirou loved him. Touichirou was in love with him and had been for a while, he was just trying not to be. There was no way in hell Suzuki would believe him about Fukuda…

Fukuda had to make sure of it.

There had to be some way of getting Hatori out. This was so bad for Fukuda…for Sho. This was bad for Sho, too. Suzuki had always shown restraint when it came to Sho since Sho was his only son. But now…now that he had adopted Hatori…and he was still trying for a baby with that woman he was seeing….this was bad. This was so bad for Sho. Sho was the one who mattered here and…and Fukuda had to be there for him.

Even if it meant getting stabbed repeatedly in the back to make a mural that, hopefully, nobody would ever see.