There were very few problems in this world that a good, warm, bowl of ramen couldn't fix.

At least that was the way Reigen saw it. Sure, most conversations were best had over food, especially hard ones like this but ramen was just the best food for the job. Warm, filling, and always satisfying. Who could possibly say no to a bowl of ramen, and on a cold night like this?

Well, who besides Teru?

"Got you some extra pork like you like." Said Reigen as he sat the ramen bowl down next to Ritsu. He'd been saving their seats as had been his job since he'd been ten…it felt like a lifetime ago. If he closed his eyes he could have seen Ritsu at ten sitting there, feet dangling above the ground, fingers tapping impatiently against the table…well that part hadn't changed. He didn't have to close his eyes to picture it.

Also that might not have been wise with two bowls of hot ramen in his hands.

"Be careful, that stuff's expensive." Muttered Ritsu. Reigen could feel Ritsu steadying him with his powers. He didn't look up from his phone. Reigen didn't blame him. This had to have been hard on him. He was only twelve and this was his first relationship….it shouldn't have been that hard…but it was.

And it didn't get any better.

"Hey, that's my line." Said Reigen as he sat down. He smiled, his most real smile, something that he hoped got through to Ritsu. That it cut through whatever mixture of pain and heartache he must have been feeling. It didn't, of course, although Ritsu had never really been one to smile.

"You can have it, then." Said Ritsu. Reigen passed him some chopsticks. He broke them apart and dropped them into his ramen bowl, his eyes never leaving his phone. Reigen knew his pain, he had been young once, and at some point he had known the pain of a relationship that he shouldn't have been in….wasn't ready for.

That was better.

Ritsu hated being told what to do, what was best for him, and pretty much any attempt that Reigen ever made at protecting him from his own less than perfect decisions. So pretty much he was exactly like every other teenager, near teenager, on the planet. Reigen hadn't been much better when he'd been Ritsu's age, his parents and the neighbors who'd been unfortunate enough to hear their screaming matches could attest to, and really this was…not as bad as it could have been.

At least Ritsu wasn't shouting that Reigen didn't understand before storming off to go and live in the dog park….that hadn't been a good time in Reigen's life at all.

"What?" asked Ritsu, finally looking up from his phone. Reigen had the sudden urge to take it from him and say something like 'no phones at the table'…he was turning into his mother. He resisted that urge. He just leaned back in his chair and broke his chopsticks apart.

"Nothing, just thinking." Said Reigen

"Don't hurt yourself." Said Ritsu. Reigen reached into his bowl with his chopsticks and sent a noodle flying in Ritsu's direction. He caught it with his powers and sent it sailing right back into Ritsu's bowl.

"Hey!" said Reigen

"You started it." Said Ritsu

"But you ended it." Said Reigen

"Someone had to." Said Ritsu with a shrug. He looked back down at his phone. Reigen craned his neck forwards to see what had his attention. He expected to see Ritsu's messenger app but, instead, Ritsu was staring at what looked like…a picture of a sketch.

A self-portrait.

A self portrait of Ritsu…sleeping. Huh. That was a…weird thing to draw. He hadn't even known that Ritsu could draw. He wasn't exactly the most creative kid in the world. Reigen had tried, a few times, to teach Ritsu the art of graphic exorcisms. He hadn't really taken to it. Maybe he was just more of a physical arts sort of person…wait, it was signed at the bottom. There was some kind of scrawl there…

Ritsu clicked his phone off.

"Seriously, Reigen? My parents don't even do that." Said Ritsu

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Said Reigen

"I don't go through your phone so you shouldn't go through mine. My parents don't even go through my phone…I don't even think that they know how." Said Ritsu as he put his phone in his front pocket. Reigen sat back in his own chair and began to dig through his ramen bowl. If he didn't make a big thing out of this than neither would Ritsu. It took two to fight and right now the last thing that Reigen wanted was a fight. He had brought Ritsu out here to cheer him up, and God knew he needed cheering up right now.

His boyfriend was out on a date after all. Anyone would have needed cheering up in his position.

"I wasn't going through your phone, I was just curious. That's all." Said Reigen

"Well don't be. I'm not doing anything. Just eat your ramen and go home." Said Ritsu. Reigen's bowl nearly went sailing into his lap. He caught it, thankfully, and only wound up with a wet shirt sleeve. Ritsu at least had the decency to look ashamed of what he'd done. He passed Reigen a handful of napkins and looked away.

"Sorry….I didn't mean to do that. I just wanted you to stop going through my phone…or spying on me, I guess. I don't know…" said Ritsu. Reigen wiped his sleeve and shook his head.

"It's alright. I know how hard this is for you so you get a pass just this once." Said Reigen

"…nothing's hard for me. I'm fine." Said Ritsu, picking at his ramen. He was starting to shut down, to get back into his shell. Reigen could feel the hair on the back of his neck starting to stand up. Ritsu's aura was showing, he would have been able to see it if he had been an esper, but he wasn't.

But it wasn't him that Ritsu had to worry about.

Reigen's eyes shifted from side to side. There weren't any people running around in red pajamas and nobody was wearing a blue ribbon either…..but there were other operatives, people in plain clothes. He wasn't totally blind to what Ritsu and Teru got up to, he knew that those two were still doing research. He knew that they weren't the sort of people to just close their eyes and pretend that there wasn't any problem at all….even if it had been easier. They were just a couple of kids and they should have just…just been kids. They should have left the worrying and research and fear to him…but those two hadn't gotten the memo that they were kids. Those two seemed to think that they were middle schoolers going on university students with the way that they did…everything.

They may have forgotten that they were kids but Reigen hadn't…he knew that he was the one who had to protect them…even though he had no idea how he was supposed to protect them from an evil esper organization…but he had to try.

"Are you-" said Reigen

"I'm fine, Reigen, anyway you're the one I should be worried about." Said Ritsu

"I think you've got that backwards." Said Reigen. His heart raced, his eyes darted from left to right, but still he saw no one…but of course Ritsu would have been able to sense things that he couldn't see. Ritsu was the one at the advantage here…it was just so backwards. He was the adult here and he was the one who should have protected him…he had been doing a pretty piss poor job of it. If it had been an option he would have taken both kids, locked them in some kind of panic room, and kept them there until all of this crazy 'take over the world' stuff fell apart. He would have taken some time to lecture them about how just because they both liked each other it didn't mean that they were good together in a relationship…but that wasn't an option.

Even if it had been the kids wouldn't have gone for that at all.

"No, I don't. My mom says that you have to worry about the rent going up since Cl-since the Suzuki Conglomerate keeps on buying up all the buildings and land in town. She says that there's going to be a massive rent hike, either that or your landlord is going to sell the office out from under you, and that because of some weird law the new owner won't have to keep your lease." Said Ritsu

"Oh." Said Reigen

"That's what she said. She said, too, that you might have to move to a different apartment but that a guy your age should really be ready to buy a house. She says that she can help you with that, too, and Dad can recommend some people to help you with manage and invest your money. I tried to tell them that you don't have any money but they told me not to be mean." Said Ritsu

"Well that's…something…but not something that you have to worry about." said Reigen. That hadn't been what he had been expecting at all. It was…something…to know that the Kageyama's talked about him. Honestly it sounded like they'd been talking to his mother. It was nice…that was a good word for it…it was nice to know that Ritsu had something on his mind besides kidnapping and future world domination attempts by shady esper syndicates.

"Yes it is. If you lose the office then where is our base….where am I supposed to work? And if you and Teru have to leave your neighborhood then where will you go? You already live in the cheapest neighborhood in the city." Said Ritsu

"Well that's not entirely true, there is that place with all the murders, and the one near the rendering plant-" said Reigen

"Teru's not going to let you move next to the rendering plant but if you guys move to the murder neighborhood I'll help you exorcise the ghosts. Teru's probably going to have some problem with helping…he's got a problem with everything. He always thinks he knows what's best…" said Ritsu before he speared a piece of pork with his chopsticks. He looked satisfied, there, as he stabbed it…like he was trying to stab someone…

Reigen knew exactly who it was that Ritsu wanted to stab.

"Well, everyone thinks that they know what's best, but the problem is that most people can't look past what's best for themselves. I'm sorry to say that Teru isn't any different. Sometimes I think he just does things that…well that he thinks are right for him, and he doesn't always add you to the equation." Said Reigen

"Yeah….I know." said Ritsu. Reigen scooted a little closer to Ritsu and put his hand on his shoulder. Ritsu shrugged his hand off. Reigen didn't push it. He had never been one for comfort, even when he'd been a younger kid. He had always been staunchly and fiercely independent. Of course that wasn't going to get any better as he got older…as he tried to be older than he was.

"I know, too, how hard it must me. You care a lot about him and he cares about you, I know he does, but he can be kind of selfish sometimes." Said Reigen

"Try all the time." Snorted Ritsu

"Ok, yeah, most of the time. I mean I'd like more than one half of a shelf in the fridge…I have no idea how he can eat so many vegetables. I thought kids were supposed to hate those." Said Reigen with a smile. One that Ritsu, barely, matched.

"Grass, too, he eats grass…well he drinks it, which is worse." Said Ritsu

"Oh God, I forgot about the grass. He's been mixing it with everything lately, even things that you wouldn't think you'd need to add grass to." Said Reigen

"What are you supposed to eat with grass?" asked Ritsu

"…salad?" asked Reigen. Ritsu smiled and covered his mouth. He always did that when he laughed, but that was ok, because he was laughing.

"My mom made dandelion salad, once, when he came over for dinner. My Dad freaked out when he realized what it was that he'd been eating. Teru just ate the rest of his…I don't know why he doesn't just eat food. It's not like he's going to get fat, he works out all the time…even when he should be doing other things. Important things." Said Ritsu

"Yeah…I know how that goes." Said Reigen

"You do?" asked Ritsu, looking up at him with wide eyes. Reigen did, of course, know what he was talking about. He had tried to have a very similar sort of relationship, with a woman of course, and when he had been about ten years older than they were right now. In the beginning it had seemed too good to be true. A no strings attached physical relationship. He knew that what Teru and Ritsu had was far from friends with benefits, and neither of them had better have known what that even meant at their ages, but it was the closest thing that he'd been through to what they were going through right now. Young people…at some point that had decided to make relationships even more complicated than they had to be…

He was getting old. Only twenty seven years old and he was getting old.

"Yeah, I do. When I was…well not your age, a lot older, there was this girl who I really liked…and she liked me, too, but she liked a couple other guys too." Said Reigen

"Oh, she cheated on you…sorry about that." Said Ritsu

"No, no, she never cheated on me. We were never…officially together. We weren't steadies." Said Reigen. Was that still the word that the kids used these days? He had never felt so out of touch…it got worse. Ritsu was looking at him like he was crazy.

"Have you been talking to my parents?" asked Ritsu

"Not lately, why?" asked Reigen, dreading the answer.

"Because that's what my mom and dad call going out with someone. Going steady…and they're old." Said Ritsu

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, message received. I'm not as young as I used to be, the world is passing me by, time to spend all day in the park feeding the ducks. Want to pick up some bread on the way home?" asked Reigen. He expected Ritsu to smile, or even laugh, but he didn't. He just got this incredibly sour look on his face and shook his head.

"Don't feed bread to ducks." Said Ritsu

"Why not? They like it." Said Reigen

"Bread doesn't have the vitamins they need to live and it takes up room in their stomachs so they don't have space to eat actual food. They slowly starve to death while being completely full." Said Ritsu

"Huh. I never knew-" said Reigen

"The ducklings die first, then the adults." Said Ritsu

"Macabre…that's certainly macabre, Ritsu." Said Reigen with a shake of his head. Well Ritsu was certainly starting some kind of weird phase….it wouldn't become a problem until he started dressing in all black and telling Reigen that he could never understand.

"It's true, feeding ducks bread kills them. If you have to feed them something then feed them worms or grapes." Said Ritsu

"Alright, alright, message received…wow. I had no idea you were so into animal welfare." Said Reigen. He didn't really want to spend his time chaining himself to trees but worrying about all the poor animals and nature was a hell of a lot better than hiding in the woods and antagonizing the evil organization trying to take over the world.

"…I just kind of like animals, ok? You don't have to make a big deal out of it." Said Ritsu

"I wasn't-" said Reigen

"You always make a big deal out of everything. Everyone makes a big deal out of everything. I know how to take care of myself. I don't need you and Teru and…and everyone telling me that I can't, ok?" asked Ritsu. He turned his back to Reigen. Little whirlpools were forming in his ramen.

"Sometimes you should let people make a big deal out of things…and I wasn't. I just worry about you, that's all. I really care about you and I care about Teru and, yeah, I can care about someone while still acknowledging that sometimes he can be kind of selfish." Said Reigen

"What are you even talking about?" asked Ritsu

"I know why you've been so down lately. This open relationship thing you have with Teru. I know that people are doing all kinds of new things with relationships now but maybe it's best to leave those things to adults. I tried to have a relationship kind of like this when I was older than you are now and it didn't work out…I wound up getting really hurt in the process when I thought I wouldn't, and I don't want that to happen to the two of you." said Reigen. He wanted to reach out but he didn't. Ritsu would just take it as patronizing.

"Yeah…Teru. That what all of this is about. Just him and him and…yeah. It's my boyfriend. He's who I'm mad at….upset at. It's about him." Said Ritsu

"I figured as much. I'm not saying that you guys need to break up but maybe you should talk to him and tell him how you feel, how all of this is making you feel. Communication is key, Ritsu, remember that." Said Reigen. He slipped into his 'Master Reigen' voice towards the end there. He hadn't had to use that in a while, not since…not since that day…but before it had always reassured Ritsu…

It looked like some things never changed.

"I just…yeah, fine, whatever, I'll talk to him. Can we please just eat dinner now?" asked Ritsu. That was as close to a 'thank you for your wisdom, Reigen' that he knew he was going to get. He took it. Ritsu could be very close, very guarded, and it wasn't easy to get through that armor. Even a little chip was a victory.

He was going to accept this victory.

It was hard, raising kids, even when you really weren't. Even when those kids weren't even yours. He did his best, though, and his best was somehow good enough. He was taking this thing one day at a time, it wasn't as though they'd come with an instruction manual, and each day that he made it through was a day that he'd won. It wasn't so hard, of course, when you knew the kids…when you knew people. People were just about the only things that Reigen could truly say he knew. People and ramen.

And there were no problems that a good bowl of ramen couldn't fix…even one that had gone cold long ago…he wondered if they'd redo this bowl for him. Pseudo parent discount and all of that.