This year Ritsu's New Year's resolution was to find better people.

Five. So far they'd found five other kid espers….and they weren't shaping up to be anything special. Six if he counted Hirai Madoka but he wasn't going to bring her into this. She was just a little kid. She didn't even have much more than an aura. They hadn't even figured out what her powers were. She couldn't move things with her mind, she couldn't create fire, or ice, she couldn't read people's thoughts, she couldn't tell the future, she couldn't even…she couldn't even tie her own shoes yet! She had the brightest aura, though, out of anyone they'd met so far…which wasn't saying much since she was in the first grade. They needed more people. So far they had five…

Might as well have been zero.

"…Shirotori brothers. They're telepathic, but only with each other." Said Teru as he read through the list of espers that they'd found. He bounced his foot as he read. It hit Ritsu's floor with a thump. Thump. Thump, thump….that had been his whole night. They were going over everything that they'd accomplished so far this year. It wasn't much at all. They had done a lot of reconnaissance and found out nothing that Sho hadn't already told him already, and found five other people…and that had just been by chance. Just kids they'd met at the park and the library and stuff…and they weren't much of anything….though at least they had powers…

Though their powers kind of sucked.

"Less useful than email." Said Ritsu with a wave of his hand. What were they supposed to do with that? Being able to read the enemies' minds and see where they were going to strike next was useful. Being able to instantly communicate with each other was useful if their phones ever died or broke. Two guys who could only talk to each other…what the hell was he supposed to do with that.

"They're still only in elementary school, maybe they'll get more powerful the older they get." Said Teru, looking up from the list. He had that look in his eyes, the hopeful one. Ritsu wished that he could have had that kind of hope. He was a realist, Reigen had said, and while realists often had the right idea about things it was the idealists that prospered the most. That was because they knew what they wanted the world to be and they worked to make it better. Reigen sometimes said things just to hear himself talk, Ritsu figured.

How could being realistic about something be a bad thing.

"I doubt it." Said Ritsu. Teru sighed and rolled his eyes. He was the idealist out of the two of them, Reigen had said. Ritsu figured it was because Teru liked to idealize himself as different characters. He watched too many movies. Sometimes he was a delinquent gang leader beating people up for no good reason. Other times he was a spy, spying on the evil organization to bring them down…he even muttered that annoying song under his breath when they did recon missions. Sometimes he was a shoujo manga boyfriend, all smiles and stuff to sweep girls off their feet…he did have a nice smile…but Ritsu didn't need any of those people right now. He needed a partner, someone who could help him take down Claw, and also maybe a secretary. Someone to remember all of these little details so they could plan their move for next year…maybe their last year to be making any kind of moves at all.

Claw had been active lately…way too active.

"Ok, how about this. I met this guy name Gou and he can create and control fire." Said Teru. Oh, him…right. Ritsu kind of remembered him. He was either the blonde kid or the black haired kid that dressed all in white…either way that could have been useful.

"We can work with that. The Seventh Division supposedly has a pryokinetic too. We could fight fire with…wait, no, that's stupid." Said Ritsu, hitting himself upside the head like that would have gotten the stupid thoughts out somehow. Teru was laughing at him a little…he didn't know why. It was just a thing that people said and…and he wasn't actually going to do it!

"No it's not. You have to fight fire with fire." Said Teru

"Yeah, no, that's dumb. Fighting fire with fire just makes more fire and then we have to put it out somehow before we burn to death, and I hear it's a really painful way to go. We don't need someone that just makes more fire. We need someone who can control water…or ice….or something." Said Ritsu

"Beggars can't be choosers, Ritsu, and anyway this isn't Pokémon. We can't just go out and catch a water type." Said Teru. Ritsu could feel his face heating up. He felt it from the tips of his ears all the way down to his chin…he hated it.

"Shut up." said Ritsu, pulling his hood up over his head. Teru immediately yanked it back down.

"First of all, you're going to ruin your hair like that. Second of all I'm right and you know it. We can't be picky right now, ok? We get what we get and we don't get upset." Said Teru, saying it just the way Mom said it…to Ritsu…and he was so sick of hearing that.

"I find it hard to believe that anyone's ever told you that. Not once in your life." said Ritsu, looking Teru up and down. His outfit cost more than all the clothes in Ritsu's closet put together. He was wearing one of those shirts with the designer's name printed all over it and one of those big, ugly belts too. For some reason people liked to let other people know who made their clothes. Ritsu didn't get it, it wasn't like his clothes all said 'Costco' all over the front. Not that he cared about clothes, of course, just that Teru was acting like he had all kind of experience being all sacrificing and stuff.

"Your Mom did." Said Teru

"Shut up about my mom." Said Ritsu

"Why? I didn't say it like 'your mom' I just said that your mom says that all the time." Said Teru

"I'm sick of hearing that, ok? I don't want just…I wish we had more people, ok? But we don't or…I don't know. Who else do we even have?" asked Ritsu. Teru looked at him for a minute…a minute too long. Ritsu glared at him, and made his aura show. Teru immediately looked back down at the notebook in his hands.

"There's this Takeshi guy, he can bend spoons." Said Teru, not looking up.

"So he's telekinetic, like us?" asked Ritsu. That was useful. He couldn't remember why he had thought that this guy's power sucked. Telekinesis was the most common power but that didn't mean that it was useless.

"No, he can just bend spoons and forks and stuff…but he'd still in elementary school too, he's still got time to get stronger." Said Teru

"Time is the one thing we don't have." Said Ritsu

"We don't know that. For all we know Claw might have a ten year plan to take over the world or something. We have who we have, Ritsu, and we can still…I don't know. Train them to be better and stronger or whatever. These guys are still just your age, of course they're not going to be that strong yet." Said Teru

"So? I've always been stronger than that and I'm a year younger than you." said Ritsu

"We're both weirdly powerful, Ritsu, you know that. That's why we go together so well." Said Teru

"Yeah, we're a dynamic duo or whatever." Said Ritsu, rolling his eyes.

"I don't know about dynamic but-" said Teru

"Who else do we have?" asked Ritsu

"Ok, there's this girl Rei-" said Teru. Ritsu laughed, he couldn't help it. He remembered her…and the way Teru had gotten around her. They way he'd tried to make his voice deeper when he talked to her, the way he'd looked for any excuse to touch her face or her hair or her hand, the way he'd managed to get ger to giggle at every single word that he'd said…really, he should have been more careful. Their story as to why they spent so much time together was that they were going out. They had changed it to they had an open relationship but that just made people ask a lot of questions that Ritsu didn't like answering. It would have been so simple it Teru could have just left girls, all the girls in the world, alone and focused on their mission.

But of course he couldn't.

"Of course." Said Ritsu. Teru kicked him, lightly. A warning kick. The next one would be harder. Ritsu could handle it. He'd kick Teru back and then they'd get into a fight and then Mom and Dad would stay home instead of going to the work party and they'd have another family, plus Teru, living room campout. Great.

"What's with you?" asked Teru

"You and girls, that's all." Said Ritsu

"Yeah, some of us like girls. I don't see what that has to do with anything." Said Teru

"Did you get her number, after all of that?" asked Ritsu

"Yes, but I got everyone's numbers…everyone with a phone, anyway." Said Teru

"Did you take everyone with a phone out on a date, too?" asked Ritsu. He assumed that they had gone on a date. Teru had to try and date every single girl he met. It was too much. He knew how good it felt to have someone who liked you back and stuff but that didn't mean that Ritsu hung around every single guy he knew trying to go out with them and make out and stuff. Maybe Teru was just weird because he'd done it already…he had said that it had been the best thing that he had ever felt in his life, so maybe it was addictive…in that case Ritsu was waiting until the mission was over with. He didn't want anything to have that kind of power over him.

"No, of course not. I saved the guys for you." said Teru with a laugh. That hadn't been funny at all. Teru knew him. He wasn't a cheater. If he had been then he would have made their fake relationship a lot more believable.

"You know I'd never cheat on Sho. Unlike you I only need one guy….person." said Ritsu

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. He's the guy of your dreams and one day he's going to ride up on a white horse and take you away from this place. Then you guys can more to the country and live a quiet life together with a bunch of cats." Said Teru

"Well…yeah…not the part with the horse…and what do you have against cats, anyway?" asked Ritsu. He used his powers to close his wardrobe. He had his journals in there, his old ones, and if Teru had read them…Teru better not have read any of his old journals.

"Nothing, I like cats. I want one but Reigen likes dogs and, anyway, our building has a 'no pets' policy and he refuses to move. Honestly. I hope this thing with your parents goes well. We need a better place so either he needs to make more money or he needs to start letting me help. If I called my parents and told them I wanted to move they'd probably send some of their people to find me a better place." Said Teru

"They'd know about Reigen, though, and probably make you come back to Berlin." Said Ritsu

"I'm never going back." Said Teru quietly. Ritsu didn't know what to say. He'd already said enough, hadn't he? He knew that look. Teru was sitting with his knees all drawn up and his face all fallen inwards and sad and…and he kind of wished that Teru was Tsubomi. It was always so easy to cheer her up. All he had to do was hug her or something and then she'd be back to normal and they could get back to playing…not that they'd played together for a while. He hadn't had the time, not with Claw getting ready to take over the world, and anyway it was kind of weird between them now.

Or maybe he was just weird.

Maybe that was just who he was as a person, some weird guy who didn't know how to comfort his friends. Hugging was kind of weird when he thought about it. Well not your parents, but that was different. He had stopped hugging Tsubomi, actually, because he knew that she liked him and he didn't want her to think that there was hope. He didn't know, too, if it was ok to hug Teru. He had a boyfriend, a real one, and he knew that there were rules about this kind of thing…but Teru was sad and he had kind of messed up.

What the hell.

"I'm sorry, ok? I'm sorry." Said Ritsu as he pulled Teru in for a hug. This wasn't a kind of cheating. It was probably only cheating if you were kissing and other stuff like that. Adults hugged…well he'd actually never seen his parents hugging any other adults…but this wasn't cheating. They were just friends, anyway, and just because he liked guys didn't mean that he liked every guy. Teru did smell nice, though, but lots of people smelled nice. That didn't mean anything. None of this meant anything else than him trying to cheer his friend up, that was all.

Now he just had to explain that to his parents.

"Ritsu, your mom and I are….leaving…now." said Dad as he did that thing where he knocked and opened the door at the same time. Ritsu didn't get what the point of knocking was if he was just going to let himself in, and he didn't get why Dad always just let himself in, either, and Mom too. What, did they want to catch him and Teru making out?

Not that they ever did that…but Mom and Dad didn't need to know about who he really made out with. Parents weren't supposed to know about that kind of thing.

"Bye Dad, happy New Year, have fun at work." Said Ritsu

"Goodbye Kageyama-san, please don't let Reigen drink too much. He's a real lightweight." Said Teru

"I'll, uh, take that into consideration…and I need the two of you to take some things into consideration too." Said Dad. He was still talking instead of leaving. He was walking over and sitting on Ritsu's bed now instead of leaving. He was folding his hands instead of leaving…why wasn't he leaving.

"Yes?" asked Teru in that overly polite tone he liked to use with adults. He had always said that adults were easy to deal with but in Ritsu's experience that was anything but true. Adults were stubborn, and nosy, and they always thought that they knew what was best just because they were older. Parents were the worst about it, and yes, Ritsu knew that he should have been grateful to have even had parents. There were kids with Teru without any parents at all.

Lucky kids, though Ritsu would never have said something like that out loud.

"I just want to talk to you two about…your mother is so much better at this…ok! We're trusting you two here, alone, because you're getting older and we know that you're both mature enough to respect the house rules-" said Dad

"I thought that you were leaving us all alone because Reigen's coming to network with you and Tsubomi's parents are out of town." Said Ritsu

"Well, yes, and the fact that the agency won't send anyone over to watch kids your age…but that's not the point. Your mother and I are trusting you two to respect the house rules while we're gone. So no using the stove, no movies above PG12, no answering the door for anyone, no ordering food, and no…no closed doors, ok? You both know the rules. No closed doors." Said Dad, being ridiculous as usual.

"You guys aren't even going to be home, what do closed doors have to do with anything?" asked Ritsu. Teru elbowed him in the side and hissed something under his breath. Ritsu elbowed him right back. What did he even care? His parents let him live alone, they didn't treat him like a moron. Of course he wasn't going to do anything with Teru, and if he was then it was his choice who he did things with. He didn't like girls, it wasn't like he had to worry about getting anyone pregnant, and even if he did then…then it was his choice when he started doing stuff and who he did it with and he wouldn't have been dumb enough to get a girl pregnant, anyway. He wasn't like Teru, he wasn't just going to forget about stuff like that because someone wanted to do that kind of stuff with him…not that anyone did….or at least he thought that Sho didn't…

But when he did it was nobody's business but his own!

"Uh…ok then…that's just…come on. Ritsu, come on, you know my heart can't take this. You want to put your old man six feet under?" asked Dad

"I thought you and Mom wanted to be cremated." Said Ritsu. Dad laughed after a second, his fake laugh. It was a lot louder and more annoying than his real laugh. Teru laughed along with him, too, his own fake laugh. That high pitched sort of laugh that he did when he knew he had to laugh but didn't know what he was laughing at. It was nice, kind of, a little bit.

"If we had it our way we'd live forever, that way we could spend your entire life right there watching over you making sure that you followed the rules. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that so, please, Ritsu…we're trusting you, ok?" asked Dad. Teru nodded…of course he did. When it came to adults he loved telling them what they wanted to hear. He was like one of those dogs that stood up on it's back legs for a treat. Ritsu wasn't ever going to be like that. These were his choices to make! He wasn't a little kid anymore and…and it wasn't like he was going to do anything with Sho anytime soon but…but still! It wasn't any of Dad's business what he did and did not do! And he-

-he needed to get Dad out of here before Ritsu said anything he was going to regret.

"But couldn't you and Mom just watch over me as spirits? Like Shigeko does?" asked Ritsu. It was kind of low, really, brining up Shigeko…but he needed Dad to shut up and get the hell out of his room. He didn't like upsetting his parents anymore than he liked upsetting his best friend, best friend who was a guy, but sometimes you had to do what you had to do.

"I'd rather do so in person, alright? Now your Mom and I have to go now. Be good, follow all the rules, and be sure to say 'Happy New Year' to your sister, alright?" asked Dad

"Alright. Bye. See you next you next year." Said Ritsu

"See you next year…that's a good one! You really are my son!" laughed Dad as he got up. He ruffled both of their hair even though he knew that Teru hated it and left the room…with the door opened. Ritsu knew that it didn't matter, nobody was home, but he just liked it better closed.

He closed it as soon as he heard their car driving away.

"Come on, Ritsu, your Dad just said he wants the door opened. I don't want to piss your parents off. They're really nice, you know?" said Teru

"You're just saying that because you care what adults think of you." said Ritsu

"And you don't?" asked Teru

"No, not really. I mean I don't want to get in trouble, who does, but that doesn't mean I just do whatever they tell me to. I'm twelve and a half, I can live my own life. it's like Reigen says, my life is my own." Said Teru

"Reigen also says to be careful who you piss off." Said Teru. Ritsu nearly told Teru that he was pissing him off but bit his tongue. Literally. He had to actually bite his tongue to keep from talking. The last thing he wanted to do tonight was fight with Teru, for real. He always felt weirdly tired and kind of gross when he and Teru fought for real. That wasn't how he wanted to start the new year…he needed a break before he wound up having to make two new year's resolutions.

"I'm going to go tell my sister 'happy new year', ok? You just try and figure out what we can do with these guys." Said Ritsu as he got up. He didn't actually want to wish his sister happy new year, she was dead, what did she care? He didn't even know if spirits knew what year it was. From all that he had read spirits just kind of wandered around doing the last thing they did before they died or what they loved to do the most while they were alive. Some spirits turned evil and tried to eat people. He hoped that Shigeko had become an evil spirit…but he didn't know. He hadn't once seen her spirit, not even at her grave.

But he was still going to wish her a happy new year.

Mostly to get away from Teru but also to just…not be a jerk. Maybe she really was watching him, taking care of him, doing all of that stuff that big sisters did. Maybe he was going to walk downstairs and find her in the kitchen making him a snack or sewing his socks or…or whatever else it was that big sisters did for you. Maybe he was going to find her down there and she was going to tell him that she was proud of him, that she was sorry that she had died, and that she wished that she had been alive so they could have been friends or something…maybe she even could have helped him….or maybe she would have gone right to Mom and Dad as soon as he told her about Claw. He didn't know.

He didn't know her at all.

He couldn't even remember her…he should have just gone back upstairs…but he needed the space from Teru. He didn't actually have to wish her a happy new year but…but, yeah, he kind of did. Each step he took down the stairs brought him closer to her…to someone. He felt another aura, another presence…his barrier went up. He picked himself up off the ground and hovered down the stairs…that was definitely another person in the house…he glanced behind himself up the stairs…

He didn't need anyone.

He could handle this. He could handle…he knew that aura. The more he focused on it the more familiar it became…his heart stopped beating. Then it started beating double time to make up for it…that was…he put himself back down onto the ground. He ran towards the aura…towards the person attached to it…to the person he most wanted to see in the world. The person he had been wishing and hoping to see…this was…this was…this could have bene bad if he was there. Claw might have been making it's move or…or maybe it was good...no maybes. It was good. He would have noticed if something bad had been happening and…and it couldn't have been. Sho was here to see him and…and that was all…

Just a New Year's visit…from his boyfriend.