Sometimes it was ok to lie to someone you loved.
Like when Big Sis asked him if he took a bath and, to make her happy, he told her yes. He had been getting better about taking baths on his own but sometimes…well sometimes it was kind of hard. She didn't get it, she would never get it, so it was ok to lie to her about that. It was ok to lie to other people he loved too, like Fukuda when he told him that he was happy that they were sharing a room. He kind of wanted his own room, or one with Big Sis, but not with Mukai because she liked to wake people up at three in the morning by jumping on them and also she liked to draw on people when they slept and mess with their stuff and stuff like that. It was worse than sharing with Fukuda…but sharing with Fukuda wasn't that fun either. Fukuda still tried to read him stories and tuck him in and stuff like Sho was still a little kid.
Sho wasn't the little kid, Mukai was.
She was little and…well that kind of made it ok to lie to her sometimes. He kind of told her, before, that if she tried to use his toothbrush she'd turn into him…but to be fair she liked to use people's toothbrushes not only for her teeth but for her toys and scrubbing floors and stuff. He also may have told her that playing with the lights attracted ghosts…but it was kind of annoying when he was trying to draw and she just kept flickering the lights on and off over and over again. He also, may have, possibly told her that the hamsters wouldn't like her if she kept on tapping on glass…not a lie, they were kind of afraid of her, but they didn't actually say mean things about her in hamster language and have secret parties that she wasn't invited too. Sometimes he just had to lie to her, for her own good, and for his own good too.
It was ok to tell lies sometimes, even big ones like this.
"Happy New Year!" said Mukai before kissing him on the forehead. It wasn't the new year yet, that was in a few hours, but Mukai didn't need to know that. It was actually best for her, and everyone, that she didn't know that yet. She got kind of cranky when she didn't get enough sleep….and when she got cranky she got mean….
Nobody needed to deal with that.
"Happy New Year, Little Sis." Said Sho before he kissed her on the forehead. She pushed his head away and pointed to Tsuchiya.
"Go kiss Mama. You love her." said Mukai, jabbing him in the chest in case he wasn't paying attention. He…kind of didn't want to do that. She wasn't his mom, for one thing, and also he wasn't even a big fan of kissing family on New Year's either. It had just been something Mom had done…he knew he was being ridiculous, Mom had done a lot of things, but this…he was ready to admit that he was being ridiculous about this.
"You kiss her, she's your mom after all." Said Sho
"Yeah…yeah. Ok, you go and kiss your Mama now." said Mukai
"I don't know where she is, I told you that already." Said Sho. She had asked him a couple times before where Mom was, and he had always given her the same answer. She was missing. That was the truth. People who ran away still counted as missing. She just didn't get it…or maybe she was too little to remember things…or maybe she just had a problem with listening. She was cleaning her ear out with her finger right now. Behind her Fukuda gave her a look and passed her a box of tissues. She took one out and threw it. He still had that look on his face…he was going to have it for a while. Like someone had taken a lemon and put it in a blender with a glass of human blood and a carton of orange juice, blended it, and then tried to make him drink it through one of those paper straws. He'd had that look on his face all day, all night, ever since they'd gotten there.
He wondered if Fukuda's face had gotten stuck like that.
"Go and find her, Sho, look over here and over there. You need a Mama." Said Mukai
"No I don't, I have Big Sis." Said grumbled Sho even though he knew it was wrong to grumble at her. She was just a little kid, he could see with his own two eyes that she was just a little kid, but still…he didn't like to talk about Mom. He had told her that, too. He crossed his arms and sat back on the couch. Shibata poured him a glass of sparkling juice. He just glared at it.
He wasn't a little kid anymore.
"Thank you! Now give me more!" said Mukai as Shibata poured her a glass of juice of her very own. She picked it up but the round part and stuck her tongue in it like a cat. Shibata made that 'aww' noise he made whenever Mukai did something weird like that, or maybe it was cute still. That was the rule with little kids, wasn't it? Everything that they did was cute until they got too old…like Sho's age, maybe? He wasn't a kid anymore, he was way too old to be cute.
He was way too old, too, to just have sparkling juice.
"Hiroshi, don't. One is enough for her, she shouldn't have this much sugar before bed." Said Tsuchiya. She reached out and put her hand on his arm. They eyes and auras met.
"But she wants…ok. One is enough…but she's just so cute. Look at her, she's like a little cat!" said Shibata
"Meow, meow, that means more juice for me!" said Mukai
"You can have more juice tomorrow, Mukai, alright? So enjoy the juice you have." Said Tsuchiya
"But I want it now!" shouted Mukai. Fukuda sighed and opened up the bottle in front of him. That was the good stuff, real champagne. He liked it better than beer when it came to drinking, and wine too, and especially real liquor. It didn't make you as sick so fast, it didn't taste that bad, and it didn't make you sad while you drank it…though that last part might have been in his head. Shimazaki had called him a sad drunk before. Sho didn't think that he was a sad drunk, he was just kind of a little bit sad all the time. He was sad when he got up in the morning and he was sad when he went to bed at night. Not enough to cry just enough to be noticeable a little bit…all the time. Drinking helped, though.
And he wasn't too little to do it.
"Mukai, I said no. Drink the juice you have now and then in the morning we'll talk, alright?" asked Tsuchiya
"But I want-" said Mukai
"Here, you can have mine." Said Sho as he slid Mukai his glass of juice with his powers. Tsuchiya gave him a look and tried to take it but Mukai was faster. She took the glass and held it close to her chest.
"Now I have two, Mama. Thank you Sho!" said Mukai
"That was really nice of you, Sho, you're a good big brother." Said Fukuda. Tsuchiya's sleeved started to make a ripping sound. She glared at Fukuda. He just poured himself a glass of champagne and did that thing where he pretended that he couldn't see you even if you were right in front of him.
"Hiroshi." Said Tsuchiya. She turned her head and flickered her aura towards Fukuda. Shibata looked at her, and then at Fukuda, and then at Mukai. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but then closed it immediately, like he was trying to trap flies. He held juice bottle really close to his face and squinted like he was trying to read, like Mukai did when she pretended to read.
"This is grape juice, Sho, you're allowed to have that, right? Or will it set off your allergies." Said Shibata quickly. Tsuchiya sighed, that angry kind of sigh she did sometimes. Shibata shrugged and looked over towards Fukuda and back to Sho. He wondered why they didn't just talk with their voices like normal people.
"I can drink whatever I want." Said Sho
"Not after seven he can't." said Fukuda. Sho glared at him.
"I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm not going to wet the bed." Said Sho. He didn't wet that bed anymore…that often, and when he did he knew how to do his own laundry. It only happened when he had a nightmare anyway and those hadn't come as often since he'd stolen that pen from Big Sis. If he smoked before bed then his brain would forget how to dream and he could sleep in peace for once.
"Yes you do, you wet the bed. You wet the bed yesterday. You said 'keep going' and then 'fuck' and then you washed your bed. I remember." Said Mukai….or maybe he should have changed her name to nosy. Or betrayer. Or…or little sister who didn't know how to keep her mouth shut…no, no, no. He loved her. She was just little and…and it wasn't like he was going to explain to her…or to anyone! This just…why were they talking about this?
"I don't wet the! Ever! She's lying!" said Sho. Ok, that had come out a lot meaner than he'd intended. He just didn't need people talking about…about that. Fukuda was laughing a little…this wasn't funny! He should have known that it wasn't. Shibata and Tsuchiya were doing that conversation of looks and auras, thing…and there was nothing to talk about!
"You're the liar, Sho, you're a liar bird and I'm a normal bird and Mama's a mama bird and Shibata is a penguin and Fukuda is a ham-ham." Said Mukai
"Hamsters aren't birds." Said Sho, grateful for the change in conversation topic. Animals…he knew about animals. He could have talked about animals all night if he had to. In fact he would. He'd talk about them until it was time to put Mukai to bed and then everyone would go to the party. He was supposed to be watching her, Tsuchiya had said that it was an adults only party, and…and she could be on her own for a little bit. Just a few hours. It took about an hour and a half to get to Ritsu's house from here, if he walked, and then…well he had to be back by morning, of course, so people didn't know that he left Mukai alone…actually he had to be back by three or four in the morning because Mukai liked to get up then to play…and he didn't even know if Ritsu was going to be home, too. He might have been visiting his family again, he had someone other than his parents like most people did…and then if he was away then Sho would have come all the way here for nothing…
He needed a drink. Right now.
"I know my animals, Sho." said Mukai
"I think it might be time for bed. Say goodnight, Mukai." Said Tsuchiya
"Goodnight Mama, I'll see you in the morning. Don't let the bed bugs bite you with their teeth." Said Mukai, waving at Tsuchiya. Shibata made the 'aww' sound again…and ok, that was kind of cute. She was cute even though she had practically betrayed him back there….though that hadn't really been her fault. She was only three and she didn't even know what the word 'betrayal' meant. She was just a little kid and he had to remember that.
Even if she could be kind of annoying sometimes.
Like when she yelled. Tsuchiya picked her up and she started kicking and yelling that it wasn't her bedtime yet. It kind of was, it was seven thirty, and she got really cranky if she stayed up past eight. Little kids needed a lot of sleep since they grew so fast and stuff, but she didn't get it yet. Big Sis would have let her stay up, of course, but Big Sis wasn't there right now…and also as much as it hurt him to hear Mukai cry it was for her own good. That was what you did when you loved someone, you put aside what you wanted and did things for their own good.
Someone needed to tell Fukuda that.
"You're not getting any of this." Said Fukuda as he held the champagne bottle in his hand. Sho grabbed it with his powers and pulled. He was stronger than Fukuda, or at least his telekinesis was. When he had been little, when he had just figured out his powers, he hadn't been able to yank things out of Fukuda's hands. Fukuda had been stronger than him…but things had changed. Sho was thirteen now, bigger and stronger, and he could have even picked Fukuda up if he wanted to…not that he would ever do it, of course.
He wasn't that much of an asshole.
"Sho, what did I just say?" asked Fukuda
"That I wasn't getting any of this." Said Sho before he took a drink right from the bottle. Fukuda gave him a look that was a mixture of mad and grossed out. What? Big Sis drank from the bottle all the time, and not just champagne too. She thought that because she liked milk the best then that made all of the milk in the house her personal milk.
"Sho, no. I know for a fact that you know what you're doing is wrong. Come on, I raised you better than that." said Fukuda. Sho took another drink. What was his problem? It wasn't like this was the only champagne in the whole universe.
"What? There's going to be more at the party, you guys can just drink there." Said Sho
"It's not about that, Sho, and you know it. You're only thirteen. You're too young for all of that." Said Fukuda
"I've been drinking since I was ten." Said Sho. Fukuda made that sucking on blood and orange juice face again. What? Drinking wasn't that bad. Everyone did it.
"That's…not a good thing, Sho. You shouldn't be drinking at all. Do you want to end up like your sister?" asked Fukuda. Sho didn't get it, Big Sis kind of had an awesome life. She was in charge and, yeah, it was a lot of work but she also got to do whatever she wanted. Not only that but she could tell other people what to do, too. Also everyone wanted to be her friend since she got put in charge…and even before that, too, since she was so nice all the time. Also she got to sleep with Shimazaki and…and Sho didn't want to in life but…and he was kind of a coward…but he was still really cool and tall and…and Sho was NOT going to talk to Fukuda about stuff like that!
"You mean do I want a lot of people to like me and to have lots of friends?" asked Sho
"No, I mean do you want to stumble through most of the day drunk or high or…or whatever else she does?" asked Fukuda
"Kind of. It's good for keeping your powers under control, I can do that on my own, but it's good for getting your feelings to listen too." Said Sho
"That's…Sho, no. You should be able to do that on your own without…without any of that. Once you start drinking to control your feelings, to chase the bad ones away, then it's really hard to stop and you can end up making yourself really sick. I know that your sister embarrassed you-" said Fukuda
"You started it…and I don't wet the bed anymore! Not if I don't dream, anyway, and I don't dream when I drink and smoke and stuff and…and I don't want to talk about this. Shouldn't you be getting ready for the party, anyway? I think this one's going to be a dance party or something, Ishiguro had a whole meeting to bitch to the Scars about how it was a waste of time or something so you know it's going to be good. I mean since he hates fun and all." Said Sho
"Yes, he's a joyless little man, isn't he?" asked Fukuda. Sho kept his mouth shut. He wanted to say something like 'takes one to know one' but he knew better. Fukuda would have just gotten back into lecture mode and Sho didn't have time for lecture mode. He could hear Mukai brushing her teeth. She'd be in bed soon and that meant that Sho'd have to leave soon. He couldn't afford to spend the whole night sitting there listening to Fukuda going on and on and on about how Sho needed to be nicer and watch what he said or whatever.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a weird dickhole. Anyway don't you have a party to get to? You should go right now before the food and drinks and stuff runs out and…um…you might miss the New Year. Then you'd have to wait a whole year to see it again and…and stuff like that." Said Sho
"It's not a party if you're not there." Said Fukuda
"Yes it is. There are parties happening at all the Divisions tonight." Said Sho quickly. Fukuda had better not have been about to say what Sho thought he had been about to say.
"Well I don't think that it counts if you're not there, so how about we-" said Fukuda
"I can't go! It's an adult party so…so it'll be boring for me. They're going to talk about adult stuff like taxes and…and politics and…and doing it. Do you want me to be there when they start talking about doing it? Because I don't want to be there when they start talking about doing it. That'd be weird. I don't want to even think about people I know doing it." Said Sho. He wished he knew more about what adults talked about. That was almost everything…right? Maybe enough to convince Fukuda that he didn't belong there and he had to be left all alone up here with Mukai with nobody checking on him until the sun came up tomorrow…right?
"Sho…please stop saying 'doing it'." Said Fukuda
"Ok, they'll be talking about having sex, then." Said Sho
"That's…not much better." said Fukuda
"Fine, they're all going to be talking about fucking because that's what adult means, like in adult books and stuff, and I don't want to be there when everyone starts talking about fucking so-" said Sho
"Sho! Please! That's…that's enough." Said Fukuda
"What? You're the one who told me to stop saying 'doing it'." Said Sho
"I didn't mean…ok, ok, let's drop this right now. Sho, they aren't going to be talking about that, but anyway it doesn't matter. I'm not going either, I've decided to stay and keep you company. We can stay here and have our own New Year's Eve party like we did when you were little. How about that?" asked Fukuda
"No way!" shouted Sho. Fukuda shushed him immediately.
"Sho, keep your voice down. They're trying to put your sister to sleep." Said Fukuda
"Well…just…go to the fucking party, ok?! I'm fine on my own. I'm not a little kid anymore and I don't need you to watch me!" said Sho
"Sho, you know I do. We both know what you're planning on doing the second I turn my back. You've done it before and you'll do it again and I can't let you put yourself in danger like that." Said Fukuda
"I don't know what you're talking about!" said Sho. He held his phone in his hand and tried to feel if Hatori was in it looking through his search history or something. Sending Sho's search history to Fukuda would have been exactly the kind of thing Sho had done if he was Hatori's big brother…fuck him! Next time Sho saw him he was going to kick his ass. You couldn't fight with your sister but you could fight with your brother and if Hatori wanted to start a brother war then, fine, he was going to get one…and Sho was going to end it!
"Yes you do. You're planning on seeing that boy again like you always do when you come to Seasoning City. I know you, Sho, don't try to lie to me." said Fukuda
"Oh." Said Sho, his aura calming down. That was…a lot better than he had imagined…but also it sucked! Fukuda needed to learn to mind his own business. He heard Mukai's door close…good. Now they could have this fight in peace, and it was going to be a fight. It had to be. Fukuda didn't know anything about love, or liking someone a lot, or having a boyfriend or…or anything like that. He'd never even had a girlfriend before, since he didn't like guys, and…and Sho had probably kissed more girls than Fukuda had in his entire life! And he didn't even like girls.
"Yeah, 'oh'. I know you, Sho, and I know that you don't want to hear this but there is no way in hell you're seeing that boy. I need you to think about this for five seconds, ok? I need you to really think this through." Said Fukuda
"I did think it through, I'm not an idiot. I'm going to go and see Ritsu, and I'm going to walk and fly so nobody knows where I went, and then I'll come back before anyone notices that I'm gone. It's not like I was going to be out all night, I know when Mukai gets up to play." Said Sho
"Sho…no. That isn't safe and you know it." Said Fukuda
"Mukai always gets up around three, I can be back by then." Said Sho
"No, I meant for you. Sho, we both know that you're putting yourself in danger by doing this." said Fukuda
"If anyone tries to fuck with me I'll just use my powers to break all their bones or whatever. I'm strong enough to lift a person with my powers, I could probably break their bones. It's not that hard, I've seen Dad do it before without even trying." Said Fukuda
"Your Dad…your Dad likes to resort to violence pretty quickly…but you don't have to. Anyway it's not just yourself that you need to think about. What about this boy? Think about it, is he strong enough to lift a person with his powers? Is he strong enough to fight of the extraction squad when they follow you right to him? Or a Scar? Or whoever else is on duty tonight? Sho, this division is packed right now, they all are, and your Dad…he's getting close to the end. Collecting assets has always been a top priority but now…now he's really serious. Sho, don't do this." Said Fukuda. He was leaning forward in his chair, now, and he had both of Sho's hands in his. Sho looked down…he had a point. Ritsu wasn't as strong as him and neither was that sister fucking dickhole he hung out with. If something happened then….then…
Nothing was going to happen.
"You know what, Fukuda? Fuck you." said Sho, pulling his hands away.
"Sho?!" shouted Fukuda
"Really, fuck you! I have this! I am NOT a little kid anymore and…and I know what I'm doing. You just don't know anything about love or…or what it's like to…to have someone who picked you out of everyone else in the world to be…to be his most perfect person and…and you don't know anything, ok?! So just…shut up. I'm not a baby anymore and I can handle myself and…and you stay here and you watch Mukai if you're so worried about her!" said Sho. Fukuda was staring at him, stunned, like he'd just shed his skin like a baby snake and now he was running around skinless or…or whatever! He looked like he was trying to say something…Sho wasn't going to stick around to see what he had to say.
He took the bottle and got up.
He didn't wait for Fukuda to figure out what he was going to say, he just ran over to the genkan and got his shoes and coat. He didn't even have time to put them on. He just grabbed them with his powers and he left. This was…this was not going to be good. Fukuda was going to lecture him so hard when he got home…but that wasn't so bad. Dad would have hit him. Compared to Dad Fukuda was a walk in the park, but not during summer since summer sucked. A walk in the park during fall…or something. Sho didn't know, he'd think of what he was going to say on the way to Ritsu's place.
If he was even there.
He had to be. Sho had just stormed out of the apartment and pissed Fukuda off, too, really bad. Bad enough that his aura was showing…bad enough that he opened the door and called out after him. Bad enough that…whatever, it was all going to be worth it. He was going to see Ritsu again and Ritsu…he was always worth it. Sho was going to have to pay for this tomorrow, from Fukuda but also Tsuchiya since he'd kind of promised to watch Mukai…it was all worth it.
And that wasn't a lie.