Mob had no idea what myopic meant…but that was normal for her.
Minori said a lot of words that Mob didn't know, that was normal for them. Minori was the one who had taught her words like friends with benefits, raving, letting your makeup bake, contouring, frenemies, and a lot of other words. Words for things that Mob, at the time, hadn't ever even thought about. Minori was the one who had taught her how to put makeup on, and how to put together an outfit, and how to make boys like her…well the last one hadn't gone so well, but at least Minori had taken the time to teach her things. She had been, sometimes, kind of a good friend. The only problem was that the good friend part was all wrapped up in the bad friend part, sort of like one of those sour candies Sho liked so much.
Mob had never really liked sour candy.
She had eaten it because Sho had liked it, and she like Sho. She was always doing things that she didn't really like all that much for the person she loved. Like how she loved Minegishi a lot and that was why she used to sit in Starbucks and drink coffee and read with them even though she hadn't liked coffee at the time, and not that much right now either. She loved Serizawa a lot, too, which was why she sat and watched him play videogames for hours…boring ones like Zelda…even though she had other things to do. She loved Mukai and that was why she put up with all the shouting and hair pulling. She loved Shimazaki, as a friend, and that was why she had gone along with…a lot of things that she wasn't going to think about in the middle of the day with her friends sitting right next to her.
She did a lot of things for love…and friendship.
"Oh come on!" said Joseph in English. Mob clicked her phone off and put it back down on her desk. She reached a hand out and touched Serizawa's shoulder. He was a little jumpy, he had been all day. Maybe because Joseph was hanging out with them again today, even if it was just to watch hockey. Serizawa sometimes got jumpy around other people, but that was ok. She would keep him safe.
Even when there was nothing to keep him safe, from.
"Are you ok?" asked Mob
"I'm fine just…come on! Again with this!?" asked Joseph. Serizawa jumped again. Mob put her hand on his.
"Maybe you should watch something else, I mean if this is making you so mad. There's, um, there's a live kitten feed that Sho and I watch, well Serizawa and I since Sho's not here, but we can watch with you too." Said Mob
"The kittens are opening their eyes…some of them are…" said Serizawa
"One of them has blue eyes." Said Mob. The kitten feed did sound nice, nicer than watching people crash into each other on the ice, anyway. She didn't get this game, but then again she had never really gotten sports in general, not even when she'd had to play them back in school when she'd been little.
"I think that they all have blue eyes, because the mom and dad did. They're both those white kinds of Persian cats and they all have blue eyes, I had to look it up because Hatori didn't think that cats could have blue eyes…but he doesn't know a lot about cats. He doesn't really like animals…I don't know how he thinks that he can be our brother and not like animals but I guess he just…doesn't. Maybe he takes after Dad or something." Said Mob
"Your Dad still serious about this adoption-oh my God! Really!" shouted Joseph. That one did scare Serizawa. He nearly jumped up out of his chair. He pick up his umbrella and held it out in front of her, like he was trying to keep her safe. There was nothing to keep her safe from, though, it was just Joseph and he was quickly becoming one of her best friends. All Serizawa did was knock her glass of milk over.
She caught it.
She caught it with her powers, and pushed Serizawa's umbrella away, too. She didn't need to be protected…though maybe Joseph did. She closed his laptop a little bit before she thought against it. She didn't want to be bossy, to be a bad friend. She knew exactly how it felt when your friend bossed you around and the last thing she wanted to do was make one of her friends feel that way.
She left the laptop alone…but if he didn't stop shouting then she was going to maybe ask him to watch that in the break room and then come back upstairs, if he was going to be like that.
"Sorry, sorry. That was just really…sorry." Said Joseph as he ashed his cigarette into the empty soda can on her desk. She pushed the ashtray over to him with her powers. Dad might not have been there to complain, or Minegishi, but she didn't really like having ashes all over the place either…not that she wanted to be bossy about it. She could be a really bossy friend, even Minori had thought so, and she knew a thing or two about being bossy considering the fact that she'd spent their entire friendship bossing her around….
Not that it had been all bad…sometimes they'd even had fun together. For a little bit, anyway.
"It's ok, Serizawa's not that scared. I mean I can't read minds but he doesn't seem that scares…are you scared, Serizawa?" asked Mob. She offered him one of her cigarettes, they were good for when you needed to calm down. Something about the chemicals in them, maybe, or just the fact that they gave you something to do with your hands. That helped, sometimes, if you had something to do…something to take your mind off of what was going on around you, and stuff like that. Not that anything was going on around them…at least not anything that Mob could make heads or tails of. Joseph was just watching hockey on his laptop and Mob…she had no idea how that game was even played. She had never really liked sports…
They had always been boy's stuff.
"N-No, miss Suzuki…just a little startled. I'll be ok." Said Serizawa as he held up his hand. He never smoked anything unless she specifically asked him too…but when he smoked he got kind of sick so she never really specifically asked him to. Not in the bossy way, anyway. She didn't want to be any bossier than she was now…than she had to…it was kind of hard to avoid being bossy when you were the actual boss…
But she didn't want to be the boss of her friends. It just didn't feel right.
"I really am sorry, that was just…it's nothing." Said Joseph
"It's ok, but maybe you should watch something else like I said if it makes you mad." Said Mob
"I wasn't mad, not that mad anyway. It's just hard when a team you love makes so many obvious mistakes. It's like watching a kid's league or something…actually, no, I was better when I was a kid." Said Joseph. Mob nodded. It was hard to watch people make obvious mistakes, like when Mukai tried to do a puzzle and got mad because she had some of the pieces facing the wrong way. It was hard when you cared about someone and they messed up…not that Mob had ever cared about sports, not really. It had always been boy's stuff, nobody had told her she had just gotten that feeling at some point in her life. The only sport she really knew about was kendo and really that was Dad's thing.
Maybe she needed to make more of an effort to learn more about what other people cared about.
"What did they do wrong? Sorry, I don't really know a lot about kendo…I mean hockey. I mostly know about kendo." Said Mob
"I didn't know that you were into kendo." Said Joseph, closing his laptop. He turned so that he faced her. Serizawa's aura got a little brighter and he sat a little more forwards in his seat, almost like he was blocking her from Joseph…but that didn't make sense. It was just Joseph.
"I'm not, my Dad is. Remember, I told you before?" asked Mob
"Oh, right, sorry. It slipped my mind." Said Joseph
"That's ok, I forget things too. Like last night I forgot to put the milk back in the refrigerator, because I was kind of sad about Hatori leaving, and if Serizawa hadn't remembered to put it back for me then we wouldn't have had any milk for our cereal in the morning." Said Mob
"It was nothing, Miss Suzuki. I just remembered how upset you'd be if we didn't have any milk." Said Serizawa
"It was not nothing, you jumped right out of bed and practically ran to the kitchen. Nobody's ever done that for me before, not for milk anyway…and you didn't even have to. I think that Shimazaki would have gotten me more if I'd asked him." Said Mob
"Shimazaki's busy these days." Said Serizawa quickly, his eyes darting across the room. He was probably looking for Shimazaki, he did come when people talked about him. Mob wouldn't have minded if he'd shown up, they were just friends now so things were a lot easier between them, but Serizawa still didn't do well around big groups of people even if they were his friends…and it wasn't going to get any better until the group came back together…not that anything like that was going to happen soon…no matter how badly she wanted it to.
"With what? Isn't the gang war or whatever over?" asked Joseph
"It was a yakuza war and it ended a while ago…Dad ended it…but he says that there are other people who want to come after us and he's stopping them before they start. Also he likes to hang out at the dog kennel and help out…or just play with the dogs, I'm not sure which." Said Mob
"Probably play with the dogs, since he doesn't really like to be helpful…I mean he can be but he doesn't like to be told what to do." Said Serizawa
"Yeah, I can't picture that guy working anywhere around people. Especially not…where would he even fit in? Kabukichō?" asked Joseph. Mob shrugged. Shimazaki hadn't told her where he went, he just came home smelling like dogs and covered in dog hair. It was important to have other things in your life besides work and your partner, he had said, even though they weren't together anymore…and he wasn't even with Minegishi anymore. He should have focused more on getting them back and less on dogs, in her opinion, though she didn't say anything so mean to him.
"I don't know where, I just know that he likes dogs. He wants something to do besides work, he said, and being a boyfriend…but he's not my boyfriend anymore, or Minegishi's, so I don't know what he meant." Said Mob
"Maybe he found someone else who likes him? I mean it would probably be easy because he likes boys and girls and….and that's better odds. I don't know a lot about odds though…that's math….and I don't know a lot about math." Said Serizawa
"Me either, that's really more Dad's thing…and I haven't done homeschool in a while. With Tsuchiya gone I just didn't see the point, I guess…I mean it's good to be smart but I think that I'm smart enough, I mean I have a job already so why else would I need to know math?" asked Mob
"You're a hypercognate too, right? Doesn't it run in your family?" asked Joseph
"I don't know. I know a lot about cats and different things that you can make with milk but not much else." Said Mob. She didn't know if she was really that smart. She hadn't ever been a top student at school and Tsuchiya said that she and Sho were really far behind where they should have been at their ages…age, right, they were the same age again…so was that worse? That they didn't know everything that they should have? That didn't mean that they were dumb…but they weren't particularly smart…
Or maybe just Sho was.
He was an amazing artist, after all, even Dad said so and Dad almost never had anything nice to say about anyone. It was almost like he didn't know how to be nice, sometimes. Aside from…she looked around. Sho's old drawings were still up on the walls. Dad had put them in frames, even. Mostly cats doing people things, like drawing pictures and playing Wii. A couple of her and him together, too, when they'd been little kids….these were old pictures. She didn't know why Dad had kept them. Sho had been a good artist then but he was much better now…but then again she didn't know why Dad did most of the things he did. Maybe she was just clueless like that…or maybe she was dumb…
Or maybe she just wasn't that smart.
"You know a lot about makeup, too, Miss Suzuki! And…um…you know a lot of Frozen and the other Disney princesses, too, um…and cats! But…but you already mentioned the cats. Sorry." Said Serizawa
"I don't know that much abut makeup, my old friend Minori is really a lot better, and I don't know that much about Frozen and Disney stuff, I mean it's not like it's complicated. Elsa and Anna are sisters and Rapunzel is their cousin, that's not hard to remember, and the rest is just fan stuff. I'm not that smart." Said Mob
"You know…you know a lot about…about other people, too. I mean you know a lot of people's names and you remember things about them and…and I could never do anything like that." Said Serizawa
"You could, if you just knew more people. I don't think I'm that smart, I mean I know that I'm not dumb, I'm mostly clueless, I guess. That's the only thing I get from Dad." Said Mob
"And your powers, of course, you're a very powerful kid…young person." Said Joseph. Mob had been giving him a look, she realized. She stopped. She could be so clueless sometimes…but she wasn't a kid. She hadn't been one for a while…but she wasn't going to get mad at Joseph about this. She wasn't going to get mad at anyone about that…she didn't even know why she was a little mad right now. Things were ok now, things were…things were…
Things were fine now.
"I know, I just wish I had gotten something else from him. Like how Mukai and Sho look like Dad, I don't look like him. I don't look like anyone in my family. I think because Mom and Dad were both half Japanese. I got all the Japanese and Sho got all the half." Said Mob
"Well it's better than looking like your older brother." Said Joseph, laughing. Mob shook her head.
"Hatori's skin is a lto clearer now than it used to be. I don't know why everyone talks about him like that, it hurts his feelings. Even if he doesn't say so I can tell." Said Mob
"He's mostly upset that people talk about him like he's a kid…he said. I mean he told me that…I mean." Said Serizawa
"That too. People should be nice to him…to maybe it'd good that he's with my Dad. Dad's always been really nice to him…nicer than he's ever been to us, anyway." Said Mob. Dad was nicer to Hatori than he had ever been to his real kids…but she wasn't going to say something like that out loud. Hatori was Dad's real kid, now, since Dad had said so. That was how adoption worked, you picked out an orphan and then they were your real kid just like a kid you made was your real kid…though she hadn't realized that orphans could have been Hatori's age.
"All that travelling can't be easy on him, though. I know it's hard for me and I'm used to crossing the ocean every few weeks." Said Joseph
"I don't know if they're crossing the ocean…I don't even know where they are now. I haven't talked to my Dad in a while. Shiori knows more about him than me, probably." Said Mob before she drank the rest of her milk. The normal kind, not the special kind…she kind of wished that she had the special kind. She always got so upset when she talked about Shiori…or thought about her…or remembered that she was a person who existed. She was just so…so mean…and she made Dad hit her, too, and Christmas presents couldn't make up for that…and anyway it was probably a mean present, that she'd given, too. One of those presents you gave to someone to insult them, like how Minori had gotten that girl in her class that she didn't like breath mints for her birthday and given them to her in front of the whole class. Shiori had gotten her a princess crown, and Mukai too, so maybe she was saying that she thought that Mob was a baby like Mukai was…or that she was like a princess…or something…Mob didn't know. She didn't want to think about this for too long.
If she thought about this for any longer then she was going to end up giving herself a headache.
"Your Dad's girlfriend? He took her with him?" asked Joseph
"Probably not, he never took our Mom with him and they were married. Sho would know more about her than I do, he talks to her sometimes. I don't know why. We don't need another Mom…definitely not one like Shiori. Not to be mean or anything." said Mob
"It's always rough when your parents remarry." Said Joseph
"I don't think that Dad is married to her yet, they're just together a lot. I don't know why he would want to marry her, she's mean…maybe that's why he wants to be with her, actually…because they're both mean." Said Mob
"Or maybe she just attached herself to your Dad, you think, because he's so much more successful than she is. I mean it's probably not easy starting out at her age, and in a place like Osaka. I mean it's no Tokyo…" said Joseph
"You think that she's just using Dad?" asked Mob. That made sense…a lot of sense. She had heard about girls doing things like that. When she and Minori had been friends she had told Mob about how it was good to date older boys because they knew how to get beer and where all the best parties were and stuff. She would have thought that people would have grown out of things like that…but Shiori didn't seem like the kind of person to grow out of things. Not if she was still going around being mean to people like that.
"That's awful!" gasped Serizawa
"it's just a theory. I don't know her as a person, not as well as you do, anyway." Said Joseph
"I don't really know her that well. Sho knows her better than me…maybe even Shimazaki since it used to be his job to follow her around and protect her and stuff." Said Mob
"Well it's nice to know that she's in good hands…or she was. Who's tailing her now? Minegishi? Shibata?" asked Joseph. Mob laughed, almost, at the idea of Shibata following anyone around. She knew that it was mean but he was just so…big! The house shook whenever he walked, he hit his head on doorframes, and his shoes were so big that Mukai could hide inside of them. She smiled but she didn't laugh, she was good at not laughing.
Serizawa on the other hand…
"Sorry, I'm sorry! I just thought…just the thought of Shibata following someone around…I'm sorry! I shouldn't laugh but-but he's just so big, he's even bigger than I am!" laughed Serizawa
"That's ok, I was thinking the same thing." Said Mob, putting her hand over his.
"Oh…ok…but I still shouldn't have thought about that. It was just kind of funny…the thought of Shibata being stealthy like on a stealth mission but…but that was just…not very nice of me!" said Serizawa
"It's ok, I was probably picturing the same thing as you were." Said Mob. Their mental synchronization could come with one explanation…she just didn't know what it was, yet. It was pretty good, sometimes, like one of them could read minds or something, but neither of them could, thankfully. She didn't want people to read her mind and she didn't think that she wanted to read other people's, either…even if it would have made it easier to talk to them and stuff. To be less clueless.
"Yeah, I can see it now…or rather I can't." laughed Joseph. Mob let go of Serizawa's hand, but didn't frown even though she kind of wanted to. That seemed meaner coming from him, maybe because he didn't know Shibata…or maybe she was just being clueless again.
"Shibata doesn't really do that kind of work, or Minegishi either. They're still with Sho and Mukai at the Seventh Division anyway." Said Mob
"So who's watching her, then? That spirit user guy? Or the samurai? Or the guy with the lazy eye?" asked Joseph, pulling at his eye and making it look in the other direction. That wasn't nice at all, it wasn't nice to make fun of people, but…well that was just the way people were around here. Maybe that was just the way that boys were…or maybe that was just the way that everyone was. Minori had been mean like that, too back when they'd been friends.
"I don't know, I don't think anyone is. I didn't assign anyone, anyway. Sho says that she doesn't even like being followed around and stuff." Said Mob
"So, what, your father just left the love of his life completely unprotected?" asked Joseph. Mob covered her face. That was…not something she ever wanted to think about! Ever! Dad being in love…no way! She'd been in love before, not that Teru had loved her back, but she'd been in love and…and Dad was not allowed to be in love when she had been in love! That was…she wanted Dad to be happy but…but he'd been happy with Mom and now she was gone and now he didn't need to be happy and…and that was mean…but…but….
But she just didn't want to think about her Dad being in love, ok?! When did that become a crime?
"Don't talk about things like that!" said Mob, hiding her face. She felt Serizawa's arms around her. She moved her arms and looked up…the world had turned orange. The light coming in through his robe. She pushed it aside. He was looking down at her, worried, she could feel it in his aura. She smiled at him, and let her aura rest on his. She was fine, a little grossed out, but fine.
"Are you alright, Miss Suzuki?" asked Serizawa
"I-I'm fine. I was just thinking…thinking about things that I shouldn't have been thinking about. I mean just…I really don't want to think about my Dad being in love. It's just weird to think about people who you know, parents, being in love." Said Mob
"I…kind of get it. The thought of my mom having a boyfriend is weird…not that she ever had one! But she could have one now that I'm not there anymore. She can do a lot of things now that I'm not there." Said Serizawa as he sat back down and tied the sash on his robe. She kept her aura on his. He was going to get sad, she knew it. He always got sad when he talked about his mom…which made sense. Moms were the sorts of people that could make you sadder than you've ever felt in your life just by being there…or not being there.
"Sorry, sorry, didn't realize it was such a hot button issue between you two." Said Joseph, holding up his hands like he was surrendering…but there was nothing to surrender about. Nobody was fighting…unless he thought that they were…but that didn't make sense, friends weren't supposed to fight…or at least she didn't like fighting with her friends.
"It's alright, Joseph, you don't have to be sorry. It's just kind of weird knowing that Dad's in love and all…and we don't like to think about our moms, either. It's just…it's hard to explain." Said Mob
"I'm not doing anything else today." Said Joseph. Mob frowned. She was pretty sure that Dad was planning on assigning the foreigner squad to something, another backer had left and that was always bad…but she didn't know off the top of her head. Brining it up, too, might have been mean….like she was trying to get away from him or something, or to get him away from her. She would never have asked that of one of her friends.
"Ok…um…it's just something we don't…well I have a mom, she's my Mom, but she doesn't want to be my mom anymore and it makes me kind of sad to think about it and…and it makes Serizawa feel the same way, I think. I don't know. It makes me kind of sad to talk about her." said Mob
"Miss Suzuki doesn't like to talk about this, so maybe you should talk about something else." Said Serizawa, his voice deeper than she'd ever heard it before. His aura was focused on Joseph, now. Joseph just raised an eyebrow and kept on smoking.
"Ok, ok, sorry. I just let my curiosity get the best of me. Forgive me, Shigeko?" asked Joseph. He looked past Serizawa right at her…his eyes met hers. He had pretty eyes, kind of, blue ones. She nodded and looked away.
"Miss Suzuki doesn't have to forgive you if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to forgive anyone who makes her feel sad." Said Serizawa. She looked up. His eyes met hers…and his aura too. It wrapped around her like a blanket, making her feel safe and warm…though she had no idea from what. She was fine, it was just Joseph, though the way he was looking at her…it was probably just her being all clueless again. She had a real problem with that, she always had, she got it from Dad…she got all of the worst parts of her from him, it felt like sometimes….
But she could be better than Dad…better than who had made her.
"It's ok, Serizawa, you don't have to get mad on my part. I'm not mad." Said Mob
"You don't seem mad, though, you seem sad…and I can't stand it when you're sad." Said Serizawa
"And I can't stand it when you're mad, ok? I don't want my friends to fight or be mad at one another." Said Mob
"It's really my fault, Shigeko, I'm sorry." Said Joseph.
"You don't have to be. That's ok…it's ok to ask questions. That's what friends are for, to help you learn things that you didn't know already like…like, um, how my friend Minori taught me a bunch of things when we were friends, like how to put on makeup and stuff…and new words and other things…I mean she wasn't a good friend but even if a mean friend can teach you new things then…then a good friend can teach you things too…I guess." said Mob
"I can't imagine you ever needing to learn things from other people, Miss Suzuki. You're the smartest person I know." said Serizawa. He kept his aura over hers, and his hands over hers, when he said that. He said it so nicely and truly that…well that she believed him…almost. There was no way that she was the smartest person he knew, not when he knew Minegishi, but the thought of…of how he…how he thought of her like that…it was nice.
Really nice.
"Thanks, but you're pretty smart too….like…like how you know videogame maps and stuff…and codes and stuff. You're really smart…and stuff…I'm not that smart. I don't even know what myopic means." Said Mob with a laugh. It was a nervous kind of laugh. One that she didn't know why she made…maybe because it fit? But now that she had done it then it felt like it hadn't fit at all…like she had just made everything not fit…like when Sho had been little and he used to cut their puzzle pieces up. That was what she felt like…like a cut up puzzle piece…like a picture that didn't make any sense. Joseph was certainly looking at her like that, like she was a cut up puzzle piece that didn't make any sense in the picture…and stuff.
Joseph was certainly looking at her like that.
"You could always Google it, or ask your friend Minegishi to help. Whenever they come back, if they ever come back." Said Joseph. Mob didn't like the way he said 'if'…there was no 'if', there was only when.
"There's no 'if'." Said Mob
"Sorry, I just meant-" said Joseph
"Minegishi is coming back, they're just coming back with Tsuchiya and Tsuchiya she said…she said that she really wanted to have Mukai's birthday at the Seventh Division so her friends could be there…so I guess that they'll come back afterwards…I mean I could make them come back but I don't want to fight with Tsuchiya anymore, I want us to be friends and…and friends shouldn't fight and…um…I'm going to text Minegishi and ask them what 'myopic' means. Right now." said Mob as she picked her phone up from the table. She took a screenshot of Minori's post and sent it to Minegishi, they would know what it meant. They knew a lot of things about a lot of things.
They were one of her smartest friends.
She waited…and waited…and waited…but the typing dots didn't appear. They might have been tired, or resting, or just not by their phone. Maye their phone had died, or it was broken, or it had been stolen by birds or something…or maybe Mukai had tried to flush it down the toilet. She did things like that sometimes, that was just the way she was. She couldn't help it any more than Mob could help it.
They were who they were.
And right now Mob was…she was thirsty. She poured herself some more milk…she was running low. She could always go downstairs and get more…or send someone. Shimazaki would have gotten her more…but she didn't want to bother him. They weren't together anymore and even when they had been…well it had been nice…but it had always driven her crazy. Just the him loving her part, not the parts where he was thoughtful…but friends could be thoughtful. Serizawa was thoughtful and he was a very good friend…very nearly her very best friend when she thought about it, with Minegishi being gone and all...
Not gone, just not there.
Still no threw dots…but maybe they were busy. They were with their boyfriend after all…their other boyfriend. They belonged with Shimazaki, they loved him and he loved them, but…but Mob had ruined that whole thing…but she wasn't going to ruin Minegishi's new relationship. That wasn't being a good friend at all. Sure she wanted them back more than anything else in the world but…but she loved them, too, and when you loved someone you wanted them to be happy…and if they were happier without you then with then…then that was ok…
That was just the way that things were.