Sho didn't know that much about fish…but he did know that they had to eat.

"Come on, guys, you have to eat. It's good for you." said Sho as he shook the fish food down into their tank. Behind him he could hear his hamsters squeaking. They were hungry too, and he'd feed them in a minute, but right now he needed to know why the fish weren't eating. Nemo, girl Nemo, not a Nemo, and Orange Dorothy were all ignoring the food that sank down to the bottom of their tank. They just kept on swimming.

That wasn't normal.

"Sho, Sho, Sho, the ham-hams need lunch! They need to eat or they could die, Sho, they could starve. Then they'll be zombies." Said Mukai as she tapped the sides of the ham-ham house. They all ran away when she did that. They were silly ham-hams sometimes. She didn't have time to play hide and seek with them right now, maybe later, when Sho wasn't looking and she could open the ham-ham door.

"I know, I know, but the fish won't eat. I can't feed the hamsters until I feed the fish." Said Sho as he resisted the urge to tap the glass. Shiori had told him a million times before never to tap the glass…even though the fish could be really still sometimes like they were dead or something…but fish went belly up when they were dead…right?

He wasn't sure, he mostly just knew about hamsters.

"Feed them now, then." Said Mukai

"They won't eat." Said Sho

"Feed the fish to the ham-hams, Sho, and then feed the ham-hams to Meow-Meow and then feed Meow-Meow to a doggy…we should get a doggy!" said Mukai, clapping her hands. A doggy would have been the best thing ever! They could have had a big one that she could ride and a little one that fit in her hand and one that knew tricks, too, like walking like a person and fetching and stuff…she missed doggies. Ryou used to take her to see the doggies all the time but now he was far away and she was far away and they didn't have any doggies at this place at all.

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that." Said Sho

"Yes you did, you heard it with your ears. I know. I'm right here, you can't trick me." said Mukai crossing her arms. Sho shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I can't, but I'm not feeding my pets to my other pets. That's fucked up and you know it." Said Sho

"Language!" said Mukai. That was what you were supposed to say when someone said a bad word, Fukuda had said so, and Mama agreed. If Mama had been around she would have made Sho say sorry. If Fukuda was around Sho would have just said more bad words to him. If Shibata had been around then he would have made them a cake…it wasn't fair that nobody was around! if they didn't come back soon they were going to miss her birthday and then she would never turn four and she'd been little forever, like in Peter Pan but with no fairies or pirates…so boring!

"You've been spending way too much time with Fukuda." Sighed Sho. Great. He got it from Fukuda and Tsuchiya and Big Sis and Shiori, and now he was getting it from Mukai too? What was it with people and trying to tell him what he was and was not allowed to say? Dad hadn't tried to take over the world yet, it was still a free country…right?

He had been kind of letting his homeschool work pile up….he'd do it later, when he had the time, when this thing with the fish was over.

"You said a bad word so I said language. You know the rules." Said Mukai

"Yeah, I do, I do. You know them too, now quit bothering the hamsters. You know they get freaked out when you do that." Said Sho as he watched the fish for another second. Mukai came up to him and tugged on his shirt.

"Sho? What happens if they don't eat?" asked Mukai. She knew that when things didn't eat then they would die and when people died they came back as zombies…but fish weren't people…and she didn't want the fish to die anyway. She didn't want them to go do sleep and never wake up. That would have been sad.

"You already said what would happen. They'll starve and die." Said Sho

"Then turn into zombies?" asked Mukai

"Animals don't turn into zombies, just people, and that's just in the movies. When people die in real life they turn into spirits and then you have to exorcise them." said Sho

"You're going to exercise the fish?" laughed Mukai

"Not 'exercise', Mukai, 'exorcise'. That's when you kill spirits…when you make them go away forever." Said Sho

"Where do they go?" asked Mukai. Sometimes things and people went away forever. She didn't know where they went…like all of her friends were gone and she was here…or maybe she was the person who had gone away forever…

"I don't know, the spirit world? I've never seen what happens after you exorcise spirits, ask Matsuo if you want to know." said Sho with a shrug. He didn't know what else to tell her. He didn't have all the answers…but he kind of felt like he should have. He was her big brother and he was supposed to be the one to teach her things and stuff…take care of her and stuff…but how could he take care of her when he couldn't even take care of a few fish?

"I don't want to. Minegishi's mean all the time. Always in a bad mood." Said Mukai

"Yeah, they're kind of a bitch-bastard." Said Sho

"Language!" said Mukai. Sho rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, language. Whatever. Here, you watch the fish and tell me if they're going to eat. I'll be right back." Said Sho. Mukai grabbed his hand and held it tight, with her nails digging into his skin.

"Where are you going?" asked Mukai. Sometimes people went somewhere and never came back. You could never find people in this place. Once you went out the door it was like you went out into a maze. A maze of white and silver, where all the hallways looked the same, where all the doors were locked, where people even got mad at you for walking around and looking around and stuff like that…if Sho went out there then she would never see him again!

Just like what happened with Mama. She and Shibata said that they were going to the gym…but that was a long time ago.

"To my room." said Sho. Mukai shook her head.

"Don't go, Sho, don't go. When you go away you're gone for a long time and I get sad on the inside and lonely too." Said Mukai as she held onto Sho with both hands. He was going to run away again and not come back for a while, just like before.

"I'm just going to get my phone from my room, ok? I'm not going anywhere. You stay here. I'd bring you with but you remember what happened the last time you were in my room." said Sho

"I drew in your drawing books." Said Mukai

"Yeah, yeah, you did….and you're not going to do it again." Said Sho. He hated it, being a dickhole to her, but he didn't have a choice. She had ruined, colored in, a lot of his drawings. He worked hard on those, especially the ones she shouldn't have seen. The ones of Ritsu, not the ones that would have messed her up if she'd seen them…well she shouldn't have seen those, either.

Or maybe he shouldn't have drawn them.

It wasn't like he could take pictures or anything, not with Hatori always looking through people's stuff. It sucked, sometimes, like he just…couldn't have a boyfriend even though he had a boyfriend. Like he had to keep it a secret. If Ritsu had been a girl then he would have been able to tell people without worrying about it getting back to Dad. Hell, Dad had been happy back when Sho'd had a girlfriend. He'd even tried to make friends with Emmy himself…

Fuck Dad.

When all of this was over, when Big Sis took Claw from Dad, when Sho helped her…or helped take Claw down all together, then he and Ritsu could be together. But right now all he had were drawings and those times when he could sneak away and meet him and stuff. Things would get better later on…but he didn't have time to wait for later on. Right now he had fish to save, somehow. He was a good pet owner, a good fish owner, and he knew what he was doing…mostly.

He knew what he was doing with a little bit of help.

It wasn't a long walk to the bedroom he shared with Fukuda, but he had to take it carefully. Fukuda was laying down in their room, which meant that he was sleeping but he didn't want to admit it. The last thing that Shio wanted to do was wake him up. If he woke Fukuda up then he was going to want to hang out or something and Sho…he didn't really want that right now. He didn't have the time. He was going to sneak away, again, when Mukai was napping and then he was going to hang out around Ritsu's house. He had said that he was going to come straight home after school, he wasn't going to hang out with Teru or anything, and then they could train some more…or just gang out…or other stuff. Whatever he wanted. There was no way that Sho was going to give that up just to hang out with Fukuda all afternoon.

He wasn't a little kid anymore.

And he wasn't dumb, either. He opened the door slowly, making sure that it didn't creak or squeak. He knew what Fukuda would have said if he woke up and Sho didn't want to hang out with him. He was going to tell Sho, again, that he was doing something dangerous by hanging out with Ritsu. He was going to tell Sho that he was painting a target right on Ritsu's back. He was going to tell Sho that he had to think of something other than himself…well he was thinking about someone other than himself. He was thinking about Ritsu and how happy he was when they were together, or maybe Sho was happy enough for the both of them, and…and happiness mattered. Besides, he knew how to sneak around so he knew that he wasn't being followed. He knew how to make it so he was gone and back before people even noticed that he was gone. He knew what he was doing.

He knew how to sneak around.

He tiptoed through the room carefully. There was a lot of junk on the ground, mainly his stuff, but a few of Mukai's things too. He stepped over her talking Elsa doll…and stepped on her talking Rapunzel doll…why did so many of her things have to talk? Didn't she talk about on her own as it was? He jumped up, and held himself in the air with his powers. It was singing now, wondering when it's life would begin. He put himself down, gently. It took a lot of energy to make himself fly like that and it was a long trip to Ritsu's house. It wasn't like he could just call a car, no, he had to make that trip under his own power and energy…though it didn't look like he was making much of a trip after all.

Fukuda woke up.

"Sho? What time's it?" yawned Fukuda. He sat up. Sho was hovering in front of him…looking very sheepish. Sheepish and more than a little pissed off…but that was normal for him. He stretched and tried to come to life. Whatever this was he would deal with it like he'd been dealing with everything for the past…no, no, not the time. Sho needed him and he needed to stop being so…this way. He forced himself to smile. To look both alive and friendly.

Even though, on the inside, he was anything but.

"I don't know, lunch time? Go back to sleep, it's not nighttime yet." Said Sho as he touched the ground. He looked over at his charger…and his phone wasn't on it…fuck! He could have sworn he had left it there, since it was almost dead and all…fuck!

"It's so hard to tell in this place…hey, what are you looking for? Maybe I can help you find it." Said Fukuda. Sho was definitely getting angrier…he didn't blame him. Not with everything that had happened so far. His boyfriend, Shigeko coming to power, that mess with Hatori…no wonder Sho was such an angry little boy right now.

No, not a little boy anymore. He was an angry teenager now.

"I don't need help, Fukuda, just go back to sleep. I'll wake you up later." Said Sho as he used his powers to pull the covers off of his bed…there it was. So he hadn't put it on the charger after all…he clicked it on. It was only on fifteen percent now…damn it! Now he was going to have to leave it here to charge and then he was going to be all bored or whatever waiting for Ritsu! This was…he made himself calm down. He forced himself to. Fukuda was watching him, he could feel Fukuda's aura on his. He was going to start asking all kinds of questions soon and Sho…he didn't want to answer any questions right now.

He had come in here to ask a question and that was what he was going to do. Just not of Fukuda.

"Sho, come on, talk to me. What's going on with you?" asked Fukuda as he swung his feet over the side of the bed. He stepped on a chip…no, a cracker. He could see it as he moved his feet. The floor was littered in crackers and toys. Mukai had been eating and playing in there. Not Sho. No, he was much too old for toys and he at least knew to use a plate, mostly, at this point in his life. He wasn't a kid anymore…those days were long past them. The days when their biggest problem used to be a messy room and too many snacks. Now Sho had…it looked like boyfriend troubles, the way he was staring down at his phone like it was shot and bleeding out in his hands.

He was too young for this kind of thing.

"I'm fine, Fukuda. Why don't you go and hang out with Mukai if you want to talk to someone? I'm busy." Said Sho. Usually it took a while for Shiori to respond when he texted her…but at least his phone told him when she read his texts. It didn't even say read…it could have meant that she was busy…or it could have meant that Dad finally snapped and had her captured!

They had been doing a lot of recruiting lately…

"We both know that she's not really one for conversation." Said Fukuda as he got up and kicked some toys out of the way. There was a cacophony of song, now, as he swept the princess dolls away with his feet. Ariel wanted to be part of their world, Elsa wanted to let it go, Belle wanted more…if he closed his eyes he could have been in a different room in a different house in a different time…with different kids…or at least a different version of the kid in front of him. One that didn't play with fire, one that didn't have romantic problems, one that still looked at him and wished that he was his father…

He opened his eyes. Same room, same mess, same kid.

"She'll never get better if you don't talk to her." said Sho as Fukuda sat down on the bed beside him. The text still wasn't read…even when she was busy she read her texts…something must have happened to her…there were so many things that could have happened to her. She could have left…no, she couldn't have, because she had no reason to.

Something must have happened. Something bad.

Big Sis had said that they weren't going to kidnap anyone every again but Dad said otherwise and he outranked her…but he loved Shiori…but Dad didn't even know what love was. That was why Mom had left. She had seen what a horrible person Dad was and she had gone…and left Sho because she knew that he would have been a disappointment and dickhole…but Shiori didn't leave him. She wasn't his mom, she had never said that she planned on being his mom, and…and she was never going to leave because she loved Dad and she had no reason to leave…so maybe Dad had her captured and brainwashed…that didn't make sense even if Dad was a moron…but other people could capture people…

She hadn't left. She didn't have any reason to leave.

"What would we even talk about? Dolls? Princesses? Dress up?" laughed Fukuda. Sho didn't even glance over in his direction.

"She talks about other things…she talks about a lot of things. She's good at talking now, not like when she was little…so go and talk to her or something." Said Sho

"I would but I don't know what we'd even talk about. We don't have much in common, her and I. Not like you two. How about you come out to the living room with me and we figure a topic of conversation out together. You know you're sister, I'm sure that you have more than a few ideas." Said Fukuda

"I don't know…my fish won't eat and she thinks that I'm going to feed them to my hamsters. Maybe talk to her about that? Or zombies? Or what happens after you die…I don't know!" said Sho. Fukuda reached for his phone. Sho turned his screen off and stuffed it into his coat pocket.

"Stop being nosy! If you want to look at someone's phone then, I don't know, go call Hatori or something and then you guys can be weird and nosy and go through people's search histories together." Said Sho

"I wasn't going to go through your search history, I just….you never tell me what's going on with you anymore…and I wish that you did. You can tell me anything, you know that." Said Fukuda

"Yeah, I know, you've told me a million times already." Said Sho

"I have…because it's the truth. If there's something wrong, something about…about your boyfriend then you can talk to me. Sometimes people fight and sometimes things don't work out and that's ok, that's part of this, part of becoming an adult. You'll find someone else and then it'll be-" said Fukuda

"It's not about him! It's about how-how my fish won't eat and Shiori needs help and-" said Sho

"Yeah, that woman needs help alright…" muttered Fukuda. He had no idea what was wrong with her, why she would willingly be with Touichirou…he had managed to trap Masami with a baby…but she was trying to have his baby…and she was hurting Sho in the process. She had no reason to hurt Sho like that, so be bothering him. If Sho's phone had been in reach he would have deleted her number, it wasn't like people Sho's age remembered phone numbers, and he didn't care if he pissed Sho off. This wasn't good for him and Fukuda, and someone, had to have Sho's best interests in mind.

"So you'll help me, then?" asked Sho

"With what?" asked Fukuda

"With Shiori, I think she needs help. She usually at least reads my texts but now she isn't and it's weird and maybe something happened to her. She wouldn't just leave, she's not a mom, so something must have happened. Like a bad guy got her, or Dad had her captured, or…or maybe she fell down a well…or something." Said Sho

"Fell down a well? Have you been watching that ring movie again?" asked Fukuda with a laugh, one that he didn't fully feel. There was nothing funny about this.

"Just a couple of times…but we can talk about movies later! Right now we have stuff to do. Ok. So we need to start in Osaka, and we should take Mukai too because she gets sad when I'm gone, and then-" said Sho

"Sho, no, I'm sure she's just busy. Maybe she's working, maybe her phone died, maybe she's taking a nap. Don't jump to conclusions like this….and anyway, if something was wrong then your Dad would be on it…since he cares about her and all." Said Fukuda

"Stop being jealous, we don't have time for that right now. It doesn't matter if you aren't Dad's best friend anymore, you still know him, and you know that even when he says that he loves someone then he doesn't care about anyone but himself so…so come on, are you with me?" asked Sho

"I…think that you should give it some time, Sho, just give this whole thing some time, Ok?" said Fukuda. Sho glared at him and crossed his arms.

"Fine…should have known that you weren't going to be any help…" said Sho

"It's not that I'm not going to be any help, if you need help you know I'll always be there for you, I just think that you should…give it time. Don't overreact. Your Dad's an overreacter and it's never ended well for him." Said Fukuda. Sho uncrossed his arms…that was it, comparing him to his father. It was low but it worked. Fukuda didn't really care what had happened to that woman but Sho did…even though he shouldn't have. He was Masami's son after all, he had her same bottomless capacity for caring. Unfortunately he also had his father's…Suzuki-ness. The overreacting, the obsession, the stubbornness…not a good combination at all.

"I-I'm nothing like Dad! I just have a bad feeling…but I'm nothing like him! Fuck you!" said Sho as he got up. He was nothing like Dad. Dad didn't care about anyone other than himself. Sho cared about people, about his friends, and his sort of but not really stepmom…lady that his Dad was in love with or whatever….which was gross…but Sho didn't care! She needed help…maybe. Something might have been wrong and…and if he just stayed here then…then she could die or…or something.

He needed real help.

Not from Fukuda. He was jealous that Dad had replaced him as his best friend, girlfriends were good at that it seemed, and he didn't know Shiori anyway. Sho knew her…sort or…he knew her enough to know that this was weird. He was going to save her, if she needed it, and…and he didn't want her to need to be saved…but if he saved her then she'd be happy. Everyone would be all 'wow Sho, you are good for something' even though he knew he was good for something…he was good for a lot of things…

Like feeding his fish.

That was what he had set out to do and…and first he'd feed them, then he'd figure out what he was going to do. He needed help, help from someone useful, from someone who loved him and always had his back…like how Fukuda used to…and he knew just the person for the job! He knew what he'd do, the idea came to him as he walked back into the living, and it stayed with him even after he caught Mukai dumping a whole thing of fish food into the tank…

Maybe that was why they wouldn't eat…he didn't know. He'd ask Shiori once he figured out if she was safe or not….if she needed saving.