Mob loved Christmas parties.

Well, she loved all parties, really, but Christmas ones were the very best. The decorations, the food, everyone being in such a good mood…it was nice. It wasn't completely a Christmas party, since some people didn't celebrate that. Officially on the invitations it was called an annual Claw winter holiday or just winter party. It was kind of a long name but nobody seemed to mind, or at least nobody said so. She wasn't too worried about what people thought of the name, just that they had fun.

That was the point after all.

That was why this was an internal, Claw only, party. She hadn't invited any of the backers even though she knew that Claw needed their money. What was the point of having more money if everyone was miserable? She had been to a Claw and backers Christmas party once, it had been boring. Aside from the champagne, anyway. There hadn't been anything fun like karaoke or games or chair jousting…the chair jousting actually might have been a bad idea…but at least everyone was having fun. Mob knew that she was, mostly. She had a glass of champagne in one hand, a glass of milk in the other, and a slice of cake in front of her being held up by her powers. All of her friends, the ones who had come, we having a great time.

This really was a great party.

Everyone was laughing and having fun, everyone was eating, and best of all Sho was having a good time. He ran past with Mukai on his shoulders, and she had a nerf gun. They were probably doing the Christmas hunt. The rules said no partners but she was going to bend the rules a little for her little brother and sister. She knew from before that Sho'd had a terrible time at the last party. She was going to make sure that it never happened. No spin the bottle or other kissing games were allowed, Sho had a boyfriend but still this wasn't that kind of party, and everyone had to be nice to everyone else. No Minori, either, which was good. She liked parties and she would have liked this…but also she was really mean and she would have probably ruined it…or at least made it terrible.

Mob knew that she was being mean but it was the truth.

Mob knew her friend and, yes, she felt sorry for her but that didn't make it ok to…to be the way she was. Mean. She had been mean enough to tell Mob that they weren't friends anymore, and that was even after she'd gone through everything at Minori's not very fun at all party. Mob hadn't liked being her friend but…but it would have been nice to know if she was at least having a merry Christmas…probably not since she'd been posting all of that weird, sad, stuff lately…for most of this year…

It had been a long year.

"Hey! No shoving!" said an Awakened. A slight shoving match started in the line up ahead of her. She reached out with her powers and pulled the Awakened apart. This cake line was too long. There were other desserts, though nobody was touching them, not even the Frozen sugar cookies. Everyone wanted this cake. It was good, really. She couldn't decide between an ice cream cake, a yellow cake, or a jello cake so she had just decided to combine all three into one big cake…which now that she stood in line for it she realized that it might not have been the best idea. No wonder Sho and Mukai would rather hunt whichever person had dressed up like the Grinch, this line was way too long…she would do better next time.

The next party would be even better than this one.

The next party would have shorter lines. It took her and Serizawa nearly another ten minutes to get to the front of the line…and now she saw the problem. Everyone wanted an end piece because those were the ones with the most frosting. Also everyone wanted a frosting flower. Minegishi had said that the poinsettia and mistletoe frosting flowers were a bad idea, because those plants were poisonous, she so had told the baker to go easy on the frosting flowers in case she scared people away. She should have taken into account that the awakened loved frosting and weren't smart enough, mean but true, to know about different kinds of plants. Next year she would get more frosting flowers done.

Though, really, aside from frosting the sides of middle prices on the spot like they were doing now she had no idea how to even start baking a cake that was nothing but end pieces.

"Merry Christmas, um, you don't have to give Serizawa and I-" said Mob

"Here you go, Vice President Suzuki! I saved an end piece just for you!" said the server as he handed her a cake with an endpiece and the biggest frosting flower she had ever seen. Serizawa got an end piece too, a real one, though his frosting flower was a lot smaller. She didn't really want a piece this big, and this much frosting at once was too much sugar for her, but she didn't hand it back. That would have been mean and she wasn't a mean person…or at least she tried not to be.

"Thank you so much! Merry Christmas!" said Mob as she held her cake with her powers. In her hands she had drinks….drinks that she maybe should have been drinking. Maybe then she wouldn't have thought such mean thoughts. She had promised Minegishi that she would go easy on things tonight, and Tsuchiya too but mostly Minegishi, but…well it was a party…

But like Minegishi had said before, drunk people didn't usually make good choices.

"Thanks! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and-and Valentine's Day and White Day and-" said Serizawa. She let her aura rest on his. He, thankfully, stopped naming all the holidays. She loved him and all, he was one of her best friends after all, but she didn't want this line to be any longer than it needed to be. She could hear people fighting behind her and the last thing she needed is to have a Fukuda situation on her hands. He was at home watching Christmas specials with the cat. He was happy. She was happy. The cat was happy. Everyone was happy.

"Vice President Suzuki, wait, let me just tell you how much you mean to me! If not for you then I would have been cleaning ashes out of the incinerators back at the Seventh Division. If not for you then I never would have known the true value of friendship and I never would have had to courage or resolve to leave my Division. You are truly a God on Earth and may the color blue guide you to-hey! Get in line! I'm talking to the vice President!" said the Server. An Awakened tried to reach into the cake and pull out a handful but he got hit over the head with the serving spatula. Mob pulled the fight apart with her powers before leading Serizawa away quickly.

She really didn't want to have to invite Fukuda to this party.

But it looked like she might have had to. She had to break up another fight with her powers, or maybe that was just the feats of strength. That came after you aired your grievances. It was all a part of that weird holiday the Awakened at the Fourth Division had written to her for permission to celebrate. She had made it an office Claw holiday, though she got the feeling that maybe she had mistranslated the rules…American English was kind of weird sometimes. She didn't really understand a holiday where you had to fight…or air your grievances, either.

That seemed kind of meanspirited.

The last thing that she wanted was for anything mean to happen. This had to be a good party, a great party, and…and so far it was going well. As to be expected with all of the Awakened around and all of this liquor and sugar. They couldn't handle either. She was glad that she listened to Minegishi about giving everyone a Christmas pen to smoke. The Awakened couldn't handle their…anything. She was going to have to cut back next time, maybe…but not so much that the party wasn't good anymore.

This really was a great party…it kind of had to be.

"Great party! One for the ages!" said an Awakened before he fell down in front of her. Beside her Serizawa gasped and dropped his drink and cake. She caught them, of course. It had been a long line to get this cake and she didn't feel like waiting for half an hour again…next time she was going to do a bunch of little cakes instead of one giant cake…

And, maybe, next time she would have a maximum on the number of drinks people were allowed to have.

"Careful!" said Mob as she caught the Awakened along with everything that Serizawa had dropped. It really wasn't that difficult, she didn't know what people were oohing and aahing over. Someone took her picture…well a bunch of people were taking her picture but only one person had left the flash on. She smiled and waved even though she didn't much feel like getting her picture taken.

Or being touched.

"Wow! You really got me! You really can lift a person with telekinesis!" said the Awakened. She had put him back down onto his feet and the first thing he had done was reach out and touch her braid. It felt weird…maybe she shouldn't have braided it. She had been leaving her hair down for work because braids were for kids and she wasn't a kid when she worked, she was a Vice President. She wanted to tell him to stop but she didn't want to be mean…and it was kind of her fault, anyway. People liked to touch braids. She even played with them sometimes when she was bored….or drunk…or high…

But they were her braids…but she didn't want to be mean to anyone.

"I-I can…um…" said Mob as he kept on playing with her hair. She tried to take a step back but he followed her…and people were still taking pictures. She didn't want to be mean to him and she certainly didn't want her moment of meanness saved forever…but she also didn't like being touched by people she didn't know…but did that even matter?

"I can't believe it…you really can do anything. You can give people powers and take them away and fly and control plants and make snowflakes out of construction paper…you're amazing." Said the Awakened. Mob nodded and tried to make her aura listen to her. She could see how bright it was, how visible it was becoming, how it wanted to turn into a barrier…part of it did. Sometimes it flared out and she had to force it to calm down before she threw someone.

"Your hair is so soft, too, you know. I can't believe it…you're so pretty in person….and you smell good, too, like milk and flowers and chocolate…." Said the Awakened getting closer to her. She took a step back. Serizawa took her hand. Her aura met his. She stepped closer to him, and away from the Awakened…she was being mean but he was getting really close….

"I-I took a shower this morning and I conditioned my hair…like normal…" said Mob. She kind of wished that she hadn't. She knew that it was soft and smooth, she worked hard to make it that way, but now she wished that it was stiff and greasy and gross to the touch. She wished that she smelled bad, too, like she had skipped showers and baths for a whole week. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so close.

Way too close.

"I'm never going to be brave enough to ask you this again so I'm going to do it now. Do you want to-" said the Awakened as he leaned in really close. Suddenly Mob was pulled back. Her back was against Serizawa's chest. She was surrounded his aura.

"Miss Suzuki is-is…tired! She's tired and she needs to rest and…and she's going to go and do that now!" said Serizawa. He pulled her close and put his arm out in front of her. He was close, too, but she didn't mind. This was the good kind of close, not the weird kind of close that made her feel kind of gross. Serizawa pulled her in so close that the Awakened had even let go of her braid…

She wanted to go home and wash her hair.

But she didn't go home. She was led through the crowd and over to the elevator. Serizawa pulled her really fast…his legs were longer than hers. She kept up, though, making sure not to hit anyone with the things she held in her powers. Serizawa's cake nearly hit someone on the way to the elevator. She made sure to keep it level. She made sure not to drop it. She made sure to do this right.

She was so tired of doing things wrong.

"S-Sorry!" said Serizawa as he hit the elevator button. Mob nearly slammed into him as he stopped walking. She had forgotten how much crowds scared him.

"It's ok, I shouldn't have brought you into a crowd that big. I should have known that you weren't ready." Said Mob

"N-No, it's not that. I just-" said Serizawa as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. He jumped to the side as a crowd of people, Awakened and Scars, came out. She knew one of those auras and she smelled…she knew those cigarettes. She wanted to follow them, to ask Joseph why he had stopped being her friend, but Serizawa needed her more. She held the elevator with her powers and waited for Serizawa to go first. He did, practically running into the elevator, and she followed him. The door nearly closed on the plate of cake she had been holding. She made sure to keep it safe and held it close. She pulled her glass of eggnog in close too and drank it. It was the good kind, the real kind, not the kind in the store. It didn't have that bad of a kick to it going down, either, not like the kind that Shimazaki made. He just poured bottles of rum into a big storage container of eggnog from the store. It was too much, even for her, but this was good.

Great, actually.

It was enough to make her feel all warm on the inside. She took another sip and offered it to Serizawa. He took it in his hand and turned it so he could drink from the part that she hadn't drank from. He took a sip, made a weird face, and then practically shoved it back into her arms. His powers made the elevator shake and the alarm to go on.

She pushed it upwards.

It was still a few more floors to the top. Serizawa had hit the button. He probably needed to be alone for a little bit. That was alright with her. She did kind of want to go back to the party….but she also kind of didn't. She loved parties but she didn't love being touched by people she didn't know so maybe it was best to just avoid places where there were going to be a lot of people who wanted to touch her. Sho was having a good time, and so was Mukai, and so were the rest of her friends that came so…so she was ok. She was happy, even.

She felt great.

"Th-thank you, Miss Suzuki." Coughed Serizawa. He wiped his mouth and shuddered. Mob looked down at her cup. It seemed fine, she didn't even think that it could go bad in the few seconds that it had been out of her hand. She turned the cup back to her side and drank from it. It was just as normal as it had been the last time she'd drank from it.

"You're welcome…but you didn't have to drink it. I didn't know that you didn't like eggnog." Said Mob. She could have sworn that she remembered him drinking it last Christmas…but then again she couldn't remember a lot from last Christmas. Between all the eggnog and the stuff with Shimazaki she couldn't really remember much else. It was different this year, though, she was going to remember the thing about the eggnog and Serizawa wasn't going to have any next year. Not this kind and not Shimazaki's, either…not that she was going to tell Shimazaki not to make his eggnog…

She didn't really want to tell him anything right now…anything that would have involved speaking to him or being near him in any way.

"I-I do like eggnog, but that had something else in it." Said Serizawa

"It had rum in it, mostly, and cinnamon." Said Mob as the elevator came to a stop. She could feel Shimazaki's aura. She nearly dropped all that she was holding. Shimazaki was near…he was probably on the roof. There was either a spitting contest or a coin drop happening up there, she'd heard about plans for both, but she didn't really want to go up there and find out which one. Either way if they were dropping things off the top or spitting off the top then it was a bad thing and then she would have to tell them to stop and then she would end up having to talk to Shimazaki and then they would end up having to talk about their relationship and then she would have to break up with him and then his heart would be broken and then-

-and then she would have to start walking.

"Did you want to go back down to the bottom, Miss Suzuki?" asked Serizawa as he held the elevator door opened with his umbrella. Shimazaki's aura disappeared. She felt herself sigh. That had been a close one.

"No, no, I was just thinking about…nothing. If you want eggnog without rum and cinnamon then I can get you some. I mean with have the kind without rum but it all has cinnamon…but you can just try and get it out with my powers. Somehow." Said Mob. She didn't know if she could see every individual grain of cinnamon…she focused on her cup as she left the elevator. She tried to feel around with her aura…but also she got was a vague wet sort of feeling….

Maybe a strainer would have been better.

"That's alright, Miss Suzuki. It wasn't that bad…it was good, actually. I shouldn't complain. I've done enough. As it is." Said Serizawa

"You didn't do anything, I mean anything bad. You did a lot. You came here with me, you were in a really big crowd, and that's a lot for you." said Mob

"I…I still was mean. I mean pulling you away like that." Said Serizawa as they got to the door. Mob reached forward and opened the office door with her powers. She let Serizawa go in after her, he had been falling behind. He always slowed down when he was worried about things…his body slowed down and his aura sped up. She waited for him to make it inside of the office before she closed the door behind them.

"You weren't mean at all, Serizawa. You're never mean." Said Mob as she put the things that she was carrying down on the coffee/ashtray table. She wasn't sure anymore. Joseph had stopped coming around and Minegishi mostly hung out in their book fort when they felt like hanging out with her. Right now it was a cake table.

"I-I was, though, to those people who were…were trying to talk to you. Before. After we got cake but also before we got on the elevator…but you know that. You were there." Said Serizawa as he sat down on the couch. She sat down beside him and passed him his cake. She remembered. She took a bite of her own cake. She remembered. She had been there. He had been right. She touched her braid…it really was soft…

She still needed a shower, or a bath, but no conditioner.

He had been mean…but he had been mean because of her because she had…she didn't even know what she had done to make it happen but she had done something. Serizawa had been mean on her part but that was ok because…because it was her fault. She couldn't hold him accountable or anything like that. She wasn't going to be a worse friend that she was now…and she was a bad friend. A bad friend wouldn't have been happy that her friend had been mean on her behalf….that someone had noticed and…and it had been nice.

Mob drank the rest of her eggnog.

"I remember…but that wasn't mean. I mean…I mean thank you." said Mob. She knew that she shouldn't have said thank you but she also knew that when someone did something nice for you then…then you said thank you? Did two wrongs make a right or not? She couldn't remember. Minegishi would have known but they hadn't wanted to come. Maybe it was because they were still mad at her, so mad that they hadn't had so much as a haircut day in weeks…or a sleepover…or just coffee. She could have asked them right now but…but they were resting. They needed their sleep, the holidays were tiring after all. Drinking and parties and people being all weird and stuff. She still wanted them…she wanted her best friend….but all she had was her second best friend…her second best friend was just as good as her first best friend.

She started on her other drink.

"You're welcome…I just worried about you, that was all. It just seemed sort of weird to me and-and I know I'm not good at telling what's normal and what's not but I know that you're not supposed to touch girls unless they're your girlfriend, I mean not like that, I mean nobody ever told me that but it's just something that I figured out and…and you seemed worried. That's all…and maybe I was worried about you too. I just…I worry a lot about you, Miss Suzuki….I mean I worry about everything but you're a big part of that…you're the first and best friend that I've ever had in my life." said Serizawa. He didn't touch his cake. She didn't touch hers. She patted him on the back. He was looking down, now, at his cake….she cut it for him with her powers.

He was shaking a little.

She pushed his cake closer to him when she was done cutting it. He would feel better after he ate something. That held her. She passed him some of her other drink, peppermint punch with rum, since that helped too. He didn't like the taste but neither had she when she had started. It was just one of those things that you had to get used to. She just wanted him to feel better, that was all. She worried about him and he worried about her…he worried about her as much as she worried about him.

She couldn't remember the last time anyone had ever worried about her that much.

"Thank you, for worrying about me. I mean I don't want you to worry about me but it's….it's nice. So thank you." said Mob. He took a sip from her drink and made that face he did when he tasted something that he didn't like. She pulled it back and tried to separate out the rum…she just felt more liquid…she put it down. She couldn't do that for him but she could make him feel better.

She hugged him from the side.

"Really, thank you." said Mob. He hugged her back. She wasn't sure, now, who had needed the hug. Maybe the both of them. She knew that he could always have done with a hug. People needed to hug more often, everyone needed love and friendship and caring and stuff. That was what Christmas was about, too, right? Love and friendship and togetherness? All the great things in life? Well….nearly all of the great things in life.

She was going to add good parties with good friends to that list.