Mukai truly was Mob's little sister.

"I'm Rapunzel now, and you're Mama Gothel." Said Mukai as she tugged on the front of Mob's dress. She was too big for all of her Elsa dresses so she had to make do with a blue puffy skirt and a blue Frozen t-shirt. Mukai, on the other hand, was the perfect age to be wearing costumes. She as in a Rapunzel costume, though not one of Mob's old ones. Mukai was still too big for her old costumes and, anyway, Mob had been kind of rough on them when she had been little.

They weren't meant to be worn as regular clothes.

Even now, after having just gotten this for Mukai, her dress was shedding glitter everywhere. Mob pulled Mukai's hands from her skirt…her skirt which now had purple glitter on it…that was ok. She hardly ever wore this one anyway, bosses dressed like Dad did and she was the boss now, though it would have been nice to wear to the Christmas party…it didn't matter, she could always get another blue skirt.

She couldn't ever get this time back with Mukai.

"Ok, what do I do?" asked Mob as she let go of Mukai's hands. She didn't really have time to play. She needed to get dinner on the table and she had some work she needed to catch up on and also at some point she had to try and text Dad again about when he'd be back. It was getting close to Christmas and Mukai wanted him to come back…it was important to have your Dad around for Christmas. There had been so many Christmases back at the Castle where she had waited up not for Santa, though if she had run into him it would have been a nice bonus, but for Dad…he never showed up. This was the end of the last quarter, a very busy time for Claw, and it had made sense that Dad had missed most of their Christmases together…that he had left Mob and Sho feeling so alone…

Mukai was never going to feel like that. Not while Mob was around.

"You gotta say the song, Shigeko, you say the song." Said Mukai, jabbing her finger up at Mob. Mob nodded, it was best just to listen to Mukai when she got like this…but she had no idea what song Mukai was talking about. There were so many and most of them were so forgettable…the horse didn't even get a song and he was one of the best characters. She didn't even know if the mom even had a song…wait, now she remembered!

"Ok, ok…um…mother knows best, listen to your mommy, on your own you won't survive-" said Mob, doing her very best. She was pretty sure that was how it went…she needed to pay more attention the next time Mukai put this movie on. Even Dad had taken an interest in Frozen. He probably wasn't interested anymore, another Frozen short had come out and he hadn't said anything, but it had been nice when he had been…when he cared.

When he loved her.

"Also large bugs!" said Mukai, tugging on Mob's skirt again.

"Oh, you want me to skip to that part? I can do that. Um, let me just remember…" said Mob. It had been a while since she'd actually sat down and watched Tangled. It was kind of like Frozen but not as good. Frozen had a good story and the best characters that she had ever seen in any movie ever. Tangled just had some good songs but that was it. No Elsa, the story was boring, and Rapunzel ended up cutting her hair off in the end…no, Flynn cut it off for her. It was like someone had cut her powers off, sort of, and she didn't even have trouble controlling them…Tangled was not Mob's favorite movie, she had mostly left it on as background noise, but as much as she disliked it she got the feeling that it was going to become one of those things she had to learn about.

It was Mukai's favorite movie that didn't have to do with zombies and trains to Busan.

"Also large bugs, men with pointy teeth!" said Mukai, she covered her teeth and looked around. Mob did the same even though she wasn't totally sure if this was a part of the song or not. It could have just been a part of the game. She wasn't sure, it was hard to tell with Mukai sometimes. She couldn't remember if she had been like this when she had been little.

Mom wouldn't have let her.

Mom hadn't liked loud noises, especially towards the end. She had been very sick and needed her sleep. Even over Christmas she didn't like her and Sho being loud. They had woken up on Christmas morning to a bunch of presents under the tree but not Mom. They had waited for her for what felt like hours, and might have been she hadn't really paid attention to the time back then, for Mom to wake up but she didn't. She and Sho tried to go into Mom's room and see if she was awake and ok…and she had been…but she had just told Mob and Sho to go and open their presents on their own. Mob had tried to do like Mom would have done and take pictures but Sho had just opened his stuff so fast and…and she could barely even remember that Christmas. Just that she had somehow managed to feel completely alone even though Sho, her own little brother, had been right by her side the entire time….Mob was never going to let Mukai feel like that.

She was going to give her the best Christmas ever, the kind of Christmas that Mob had always wanted when she had been little, the kind that….that was kind of hard to do when Dad didn't text you back.

"Stop, no more! You'll just upset me!" said Mukai

"I didn't mean to upset-" said Mob

"From the song, Shigeko, listen with your ears." Said Mukai

"Oh, right. Stop no more, you'll just upset me." said Mob. She eyed her phone on her nightstand. Dad might have texted her back by now…her screen was glowing. It could have been Dad or it could have been a work thing or it even could have just been her phone telling her what temperature it was outside or something. She didn't know…but she wanted to know. It would have been easy, she could have just reached over with her powers and-

"Stop the drama and stay with Mama! Come on!" said Mukai. She tried to slap Mob's powers away with her aura…right, right. This was about Mukai. Mob wasn't going to waste this time together by being on her phone. There was no way that she was ever going to be able to get this time back with her little sister so she wasn't going to waste a second of it.

"Ok, ok, stop the drama and stay with Mama…mother knows be-" said Mob

"What are you guys doing in here?" asked Sho from in the doorway. She hadn't even felt him coming…well she had been busy with Mukai….but she should have been paying attention to Sho, too. Even Mom had made time for them, sometimes, after she had gotten sick….though she got the feeling that Sho wouldn't have wanted to play Tangled with them. They hadn't played the Shoko game for a while now and she got the feeling that they were too old for it…or maybe she was just too old for it. She had a real life little sister now, she didn't need to pretend anymore, and she could have even had her own Shoko if she had wanted to…sometimes it felt like she grew up and everyone around her just grew older.

But that wasn't how time worked.

"Sho! Come and be Pascal!" shouted Mukai

"Are you guys playing Tangled?" asked Sho as he stepped into the room. He put his sketchbook down onto the bed. It was closed and she couldn't tell what he had been drawing. It was probably good, though, since he was the one who drew it. Sho was the best artist she had ever met in her life and she was glad that he was good at drawing…on paper. On himself was another story.

She knew that it was his body and his choice but maybe he shouldn't have done that tattoo of the dragon on his leg…or the one on his arm…or maybe he should have finished one before he started the other.

"We are, and you can play too if you want." Said Mob

"No way am I putting on a dress. If you want to play the Shoko game with someone then it with Mukai." Said Sho

"You're not Shoko, you're Pascal, Sho, listen with your ears. Pascal is a lizard and they don't wear clothes, Sho, they wear skin. Think with your brains." said Mukai

"Fine, fine, lizards don't wear clothes." Said Sho

"So will you play with us?" asked Mob

"I guess, I don't know. I mean do we even have time for this?" asked Sho

"You're right, I should start dinner." Said Mob. She should have thought more about how Sho would have been hungry. Did this mean that she had been putting Mukai first? Or was taking a break from their game putting Sho first? She didn't know. When she had been little Mom had tried to make things as equal as she could, which now that Mob thought about it must have been kind of hard since there were two of them and one of her. She was glad that Mukai was the only little kid in the family, she didn't know what she would have done with two little siblings that age…then she would have had to split her attention between three people and that was even harder to think of…

That was a lot of math…she really should have been doing her math homeschool now that she thought about it…but then she would have had even less time for her brother and sister….

"Serizawa already started dinner, he's making ramen, so if the house burns down then it's your fault." Said Sho

"The house is going to burn down?" asked Mukai, looking around.

"No, no, it won't. Serizawa knows what he's doing….I hope…I know. He's going to do just fine and…and this is a good thing, actually. It means that we're going to have more time to play together." Said Mob. Serizawa knew how to boil water, she had taught him, and…and ok, he had freaked out a little bit but it hadn't been anything too bad. He could handle this. She had faith in him.

If you couldn't have faith in your friends then who could you have faith in?

"And more time to put up the Christmas tree." Said Sho. Mob held her hair down with her hands. She didn't want to fight about this…and she could tell that they were getting close to a fight. They had been getting closer and closer to a fight the closer and closer that they had gotten to Christmas. Now it was only a few days away and…and she knew that they couldn't have Christmas without a tree and they couldn't get a tree without her.

They could always ask Minegishi but Minegishi was always going to say no, just like they had for the past five years.

"Come on, please? It's been forever." Said Sho

"Yes! Let's make a Christmas trees, a big one! Big enough to go through the roof and to the sky and then Santa will see it and hit it and fall…but not die." Said Mukai. She tugged on Mob's skirt again…and she was so happy but…but she didn't want to do it now. Dad wasn't home and…and it wasn't like he ever helped but…but it just felt weird to do this without Dad being home. They had always been together for a least a little bit of time and…and maybe it just hurt more because he was mad at her…because he had said all of those things he had said…about hating the person that she had become…

But he still loved Mukai at least….right?

"Um…we should really wait for Dad, though. He still hasn't gotten back to me yet." Said Mob

"Seriously? Come on, you know Dad's not going to show up. Since when does he give a fuck about Christmas? Or anything other than himself? Or I guess Hatori now, too, or whatever." Said Sho, kicking one of Mukai's dolls across the bedroom floor.

"Sho, don't do that! That's my Merida!" said Mukai, kicking Sho in the shin. She tried to do it again but Mob stopped her with her powers. She struggled to get free, her aura was even showing, but Mob wasn't going to just let her kick Sho like that. She wasn't going to let Mukai grow up to be like that, she wasn't.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just pissed off. I shouldn't have done that." Said Sho

"I forgive you, now go grow the Christmas tree!" said Mukai pointing out the door. Mob looked at each of them and….and she did love them but…but Dad was at least going to come back to be with Mukai, right? Dad had to have still loved her at least…he hadn't left them. He wasn't done with them…even though he had adopted Hatori now and had been talking about having a baby with that girlfriend of his…they still had a Dad.

Dad hadn't run away, they mostly knew where he was, so that meant that they still had a Dad.

"See? She wants to grow the tree, too, so what are you waiting for?" asked Sho

"I've just been waiting for Dad to text me back. He might want to come and see Mukai at least…I mean, he can't be done with all of us, right?" asked Mob. Sho got a look on his face and aura that even she could tell meant that he was mad…she took a step back. She didn't want to make it any worse than it was now.

"Sho's mad, Shigeko. Over there." Said Mukai pointing at Sho.

"Sho, are you mad at-" said Mob

"Dad can be done with us, I don't care. I was done with him first. If you don't want to be done with him then…then you can wait for him to give a fuck about any of us. I'm not going to be doing that because it's boring. Mukai and I are going to do the Christmas tree. You can just…play dolls or something in here." Said Sho as he grabbed Mukai by the hand. He led her out of the room…and now Mob was all alone…she didn't even know what she was supposed to do now. Sho had walked away because he didn't want to spend time with her right now and…and she didn't even know where he was going to get a tree…unless he chopped one down in the park or something.

She was pretty sure that wasn't allowed.

But Sho wouldn't have listened to her…but Mukai did look at what Sho did and learn from him. That was how it worked, little people looked up to bigger people, and then they became the bigger people that little people looked up to. It was like the circle of life kind of. She didn't want Mukai to end up like Sho…like Sho could be sometimes. He did dangerous things sometimes and he got mad and threw stuff and he cursed a lot and…and she loved her brother but there were some things that she didn't want her sister to learn from him…their sister. She was Sho's sister too. They all had the same Dad…

The same Dad that was not done with them.

He would have said something if he had been done with them…right? Dad had never been scared of letting them know when he was upset. He didn't care if he hurt people's feelings…he couldn't have been done with them. He couldn't have been ready to start a new family now with Hatori and whatever baby that Shiori was going to have…maybe he was coming back. Sho was right, Dad had never cared about Christmas or any holiday really, but…but maybe he at least cared, for Mukai's sake.

He had cared about Frozen for her sake after all.

They used to watch Frozen together all the time, or something that he liked like the Galaxy Express, and sometimes they had played Minecraft together too. She had been the one to teach him about that game. He had done so much for her sake and…and ok, he could be done with her, she deserved it for being such a bad daughter…or maybe he had just been too mean to her…no, no, she knew that she deserved it. She hadn't done enough to protect Sho from Dad or to make Dad see how good of a person Sho was, so Sho didn't deserve Dad being done with them…and Mukai was only three. She hadn't even had the chance to do anything to make Dad not love her anymore….to be done with her…

She checked her phone.

Still nothing…she tried again. Maybe he had just been out of service or his phone had died or he had lost it or…or something. Maybe he had even been in another shooting fight, those used to happen all the time. They hadn't happened in a while, though, it seemed that even the bad guys took a break on Christmas…she smiled. Joseph would have thought that was funny if he had been there…but he hadn't hung out with her in a while either….Mob didn't have space in her head to worry about two people right now. Her powers were starting to act up, she could feel the bed beginning to float up off of the ground. She was worried…she needed to stop. She just…she asked Dad again…and he still didn't say anything…

But he couldn't have been done with them.

He must have been busy or something…that made sense. Of course he had been busy, it was the end of the year. She had a lot of things to do, too, and she…well she had the chance to do them now. She didn't have to make dinner and Sho was playing with Mukai…she could hear them laughing. They were happy and….and she knew that they could be happy without her but…but she wanted to be happy with them.

She wouldn't be able to get this time back.

She out her phone down, face down, and then left the room. She didn't…she didn't think that Dad was coming back. He was busy and…and that was no reason to stop Sho and Mukai from having a Christmas tree. The had waited long enough. All she had to do was get a pinecone from the bucket and then in a few seconds they'd have a Christmas tree of their very own. She just had to get a pinecone and then fill a bucket with dirt and then get the decorations out of storage-

-or everything would have been done for her already.

"Making Christmas, Making Christmas!" sang Mukai as she threw a string of Christmas lights around Sho….Sho who was standing in the Christmas tree bucket with an angel on his head. All of the Christmas boxes had been put in the living room, as much room as there was left over with all the hamsters around, and there in the middle of it all was Sho.

He made a pretty good Christmas tree.

"Wouldn't…wouldn't 'Oh Christmas Tree' be better? Since Sho's the tree now?" asked Mob as she crossed the living room.

"….it's not like I can grow a real tree…or anything…" muttered Sho

"It's not about that, I just…I think that you were right about everything and now we can have a Christmas tree. I'm sorry I tried to wait for Dad." Said Mob. She wanted to reach over and hug him but she didn't want to ruin the tree, either. Mukai was still decorating him. Sho seemed happy. His aura felt so happy, happier than it had been in a while.

Happier than he had ever been when Dad had been around.

"Big Sis, are you seriously on my si-" said Sho

"Sho Christmas tree! Sho's a Christmas tree!" sang Mukai as she tossed Mob an armful of lights. She caught them and got to decorating. She knew that this wasn't what Sho had in mind when he'd said he was going to make the tree now but this was good one. A good time, a good memory, and a good picture too.

Sho was her little brother, Mukai was her little sister, and Mob couldn't have been any happier. Even if Dad had been there with them.