Minegishi had never been a big fan of public bathrooms.

They were dirty, for one thing. You couldn't keep a bathroom in a home clean let alone one that hundreds of strangers walked through every single hour. There was very little privacy in them for another. Why there had to be these massive gaps between not only the door and the floor but also the door and the walls they would never know. They would also never know why in the hell everyone made it their business which bathroom they went into. For simplicity's sake, and for the sake of cleanliness too, they always used the women's room…with mixed results. Sometimes they were left alone and sometimes people decided to take it upon themselves to be the unofficial bathroom bouncers and kick Minegishi out before they could take a piss in peace.

At least they didn't have to worry about that from Mob.

"I'm going to take the apples out of the vending machine and put the candy back…ok?" asked Mob. She looked expectantly at them over the top of her laptop. Of course she was, they were the one who had put the apples in the vending machines in the first place. They had done so for a very good reason.

The Awakened didn't need any more sugar.

They didn't need sugar in their diets anymore than they needed cocaine. Honestly the reaction was pretty much the same between the two substances when it came to the Awakened. They were like kids…they were even more like kids than the four year old sitting in the corner turning herself into a toilet paper mummy. Not that Minegishi blamed her, of course, it was freezing in here. They wouldn't have had to be in here if Mob could have just put her foot down. They knew why she had moved them in here, to avoid the endless parade of Awakened knocking at her office door making all kinds of insane complaints and off the wall demands.

Mob needed to either learn to put her foot down or let Minegishi have some real, permanent, power around here.

"Mob, stop giving them candy." Said Minegishi with a sigh. The uncrossed their legs and leaned back, the cold tile on the wall seeping in through their sweater. Not even noon and they'd already had enough of this.

"But they like it." Said Mob. An empty toilet paper roll went sailing through the air and hit her on the head. It was soon followed by another, and then the slapping and stomping sound of Mukai's sneakers hitting the floor. It glowed blue as she ran. Why Mob had thought to get her light up sneakers they would never know…actually they did know. Mob had gotten them for her sister because she wanted them and Mob didn't know how to say 'no' to anyone.

…not something that Minegishi liked to dwell on.

"I like candy, I like it a lot. I like chocolate and candy canes and peppermint and cake and cakesters and mini cakesters and extra large cakesters and also I like-" Said Mukai as she ran up to them and set herself down on the floor in her neglected work area. Mob had set her up with an ipad and a blanket to sit on. Mukai had found much more fun in wasting toilet paper, it seemed, and also naming every different kind of sweet she could think of...something that could have gone on for hours if she did it right.

Minegishi did not have hours.

"We know you do, we know." said Minegishi with a shake of their head. Mob shook her head too and put her cigarette out in the empty milk can beside her. At least she had enough sense not to smoke near the toddler in the room…

Minegishi followed her example.

"Do you have candy?" asked Mukai, leaning forward as Minegishi put their cigarette out on the floor. Not the best example to set but then again that ship had sailed a long time ago.

"What do I look like? A candy store?" asked Minegishi

"No, you look like a boy! Because your hair is too short." Said Mukai, reaching for their hair. They sat back again. The last thing they needed were sticky, greasy, toddler fingers in their hair. They'd gotten enough of that from Ryou. He was constantly trying to touch them, all of those little touches that used to make them feel warm and safe, well now all they made them feel was annoyed. Annoyed that he was still pushing sometimes, annoyed that he still wanted something from them, and annoyed with themselves for wanting something from him right back…something that they knew should have ended when he decided to pursue ANYTHING with Mob…

What was the matter with them?

"Mukai! Be nice!" said Mob. Minegishi rolled their eyes. Maybe at her and maybe at themselves, too. After all everyone was being equally ridiculous right now.

"I am nice, so give me candy." Said Mukai, holding her hands out and making the 'gimme' motion.

"Um…I think I have some leftover chocolate in my bag…but you really shouldn't tell people that they look like boys, Mukai. That was very mean of you." said Mob as she used her powers to pull yet another one of those Valentine's Day chocolates out of her bag. It had been days since Valentine's Day, nearly a week, and she still had some left? They would have thought that Ryou would have had at them by now…maybe he was making good on his promise to leave Mob the fuck alone.

Progress, but not nearly enough to get them to even consider reconsidering anything.

"I'm not mean, I'm nice. I'm a very nice Mukai. I'm the nicest Mukai in the whole world." Said Mukai as she unwrapped her chocolate.

"I think you're the nicest Mukai I know, mostly because I never met anyone else named Mukai before, but what you said was very mean and I think that you should say sorry to Minegishi." Said Mob, trying her best to channel her inner Tsuchiya. Unfortunately Mob wasn't Tsuchiya. All Mukai did was laugh, pull at Mob's hair, and then run away into a bathroom stall and slam the door.

Minegishi was never having kids. Ever.

"I'm sorry about Mukai, I don't know why she's being so mean today." Said Mob

"If it was so mean then why are you giving her chocolate?" asked Minegishi, omitting the fact that Mukai acted like a brat every single day. They also didn't say a word to Mob about creating a monster and then not having room to whine when it stomped on a few buildings. It wasn't like Mob was going to listen, anyway. She never listened to a word Minegishi said these days. It all went in one ear and out the other, really…but they couldn't fault her for it. That was just how teenagers were and Minegishi needed to remember that Mob was just that, a teenager.

She may have been thirteen going on thirty but it was just that, going on. Until that day came she was still going to be only thirteen years old.

"Because she likes candy…but I really am sorry that she called you a boy. That wasn't nice of her at all." Said Mob

"What's wrong with looking like a boy?" asked Minegishi

"Nothing! I mean if that's what you want to look like and…and even if it wasn't there's nothing wrong with looking like a boy…um…you always look really pretty. I think so, my Dad thinks so, Serizawa thinks so, Shimazaki thinks-" said Mob

"I don't give a fuck what Ryou thinks." Said Minegishi, looking away. Ryou could have thought that the sky was orange and they still wouldn't have given a damn. They really didn't care what he had to say or think or…or anything. At least they tried not to.

Maybe if nobody thought of Ryou he would just disappear like he was afraid he would.

"Ryou thinks that dogs are the best animals ever. We went to the park and we played with all the dogs and we fed them food and I rode the dogs and then I went home and Mama was mad and she made me take a bath and I didn't want to take a bath so I told her to shut the fuck up like Sho does but then she got really mad and-" said Mukai. Well, there went that plan. Ryou was very much on people's minds. Any minute now he was going to sense that he was being spoken of and appear right before them and then…and then they would have to tell him to fuck off. They didn't feel like dealing with that right now.

They were too tired and nothing more.

"Yes, I know, I was there." Said Minegishi

"You were there. You said-" said Mukai

"I know what I said." Said Minegishi quickly. Mukai's eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips. She tried to stand at what she must have thought was an intimating height. Of course she was barely even a meter tall so, really, she just made herself look adorable. As adorable, anyway, as Minegishi was capable of finding her.

"Hey! I wasn't finished!" said Mukai

"Mukai, you're not being very nice right no-" said Mob

"Are you finished with that chocolate?" asked Minegishi, pointing to the empty wrapper in her hand.

"Yes." Said Mukai

"Then get rid of the wrapper." Said Minegishi. Mukai gave them a pensive look before smiling and nodding…a smile and a nod that Minegishi didn't like the look of at all.

"I'm going to flush it down the toilet!" said Mukai with a laugh before running off into a stall.

"Mukai that's not good for the…she's not listening to me, is she?" asked Mob. Minegishi shook their head.

"Does she ever?" asked Minegishi

"Sometimes…but not all the time. But that's normal, people aren't really good listeners." Said Mob

"Which is why, I assume, we're hiding in the bathroom instead of working in your comfortable office?" asked Minegishi

"I'm not hiding, I'm just avoiding someone." Said Mob. Minegishi rolled their eyes. Yes, obviously they were trying to avoid someone. A lot of someones. A lot of very annoying someones. The question was why. Mob was the one with power here and, really, she needed to get used to using it. If Minegishi'd had this kind of power when they had been thirteen…well their life would have taken a very different trajectory. Probably a better one, though there was no point in dwelling on it now.

"Uh-huh. You know, you wouldn't have to avoid them if you put your foot down every once in a while." Said Minegishi

"What do you mean?" asked Mob

"You need to stick up for yourself. If you don't want the Awakened morons bothering you then you need to be able to tell them to fuck off and leave you alone." Said Minegishi

"I don't think that I could ever tell someone to f-word off…especially not people who like me." said Mob softly.

"So, what then? We're going to spend the rest of our lives in this bathroom?" asked Minegishi

"No, just until it's time to go home. Then we'll come back here tomorrow and the next day and the nest day. You can work from home like Fukuda does if you want, I just can't. It's hard to focus at home and someone here might need me." Said Mob

"Not going to happen." Said Minegishi. They couldn't work from home either, not with Ryou bothering them every five minutes coupled with the warm siren song of their bed.

"Ok…um…I know! I can put some more blankets down in here or maybe some desks and chairs. I mean it's not like we'll be bothering anyone. Hardly anyone ever uses this bathroom since it's mostly boys who work here." Said Mob

"Uh-huh, and hiding in the bathroom attached to your office is out of the question because…?" asked Minegishi

"That's Dad's bathroom. Nobody's allowed in there." Said Mob

"Right, because that's what he cares about…actually, I wouldn't put it past him to still care about that. Your father is a strange man…a very strange man." Said Minegishi

"Yeah, Dad can be kind of weird sometimes. Like how he called me in the middle of the night to tell me not to throw him a birthday party. I even told him that all the divisions would be having parties so he didn't have to go out of his way but he told me that he was too old to have birthday parties and…and I know that he doesn't like them but I like birthday parties and I don't see what's so bad about them…and he doesn't even have to come if he doesn't want to. Parties are just for the guests, anyway, not the person they're about. My friend Minori said so." Said Mob

"Oh God, her again? Mob, why are you listening to her? Why are you even still talking to her?" asked Minegishi with a groan. Mob nodded like it was nothing…really. Thousands of people working in or for Claw in some capacity and she had to keep Asagiri Minori around…though at least they were the same age. That had to count for something.

"Because she keeps on posting weird stuff and…and we used to be friends. I kind of…I don't know. It's like there's still a part of me that wants to be her friend but then there's another part of me that remembers how mean she was to me and how she said that she didn't want to be friends with me anymore and….and how even when we were friends she was kind of mean to me all the time even when she was being nice." Said Mob

"Minori's a bitch, Mob, and you don't need someone like that in your life." said Minegishi

"But she wanted to be my friend and…and I'm not good at saying 'no' to people, I think. Not when they like me." said Mob

"You've got that right." Said Minegishi. That was dangerously close to…something that they had agreed never to speak of again. Mob had made herself perfectly clear, it was over and done with, and she hated it when people brought it up. So Minegishi wasn't going to bring it up. The elephant in the room would remain unaddressed as it should have been. Mob had slept with Ryou, they had been together, now they weren't, and Ryou might have been showing something close to genuine remorse for what he had done…not that it was going to save him. No, there was no going back from what he had done.

No amount of apologizing and kowtowing would ever make it better.

"You're better at it than I am, I think." Said Mob softly in that tone that told them that something was on her mind. They hadn't heard that tone in a while. She hadn't really wanted to tell them anything like this in a while, anything heavy…so this was progress, maybe, to moving past…things that had happened that they were never speaking of again.

Good.

"Ok, come on, tell me what's wrong." Said Minegishi

"My socks have a hole in the toe and it was really little today so I thought that I could live with it but then when I was walking it got really big and now it's annoying me." said Mob

"That's what annoys you, not the incessant toilet flushing happening back there?" asked Minegishi

"Mukai comes over to our house to do that sometimes, I'm used to it." Said Mob

"You know you can tell her to knock it off, right? You're the one in charge here, not her." said Minegishi getting back to what they assumed was the original problem at hand. It was hard to tell with Mob, sometimes, those waters had gotten pretty deep as the years had gone by. Minegishi had been annoyed, initially, by the eight year old in the princess costume who insisted on playing dolls nonstop with them for hours on end. Now, well what they wouldn't have given to have that eight year old back for just one day…

But that wasn't how it worked.

"I don't like to be mean to people…I'm not like you. Not that you're mean! It's just…it's hard to be mean to someone who likes you. I mean it's hard to be mean all the time but it's especially hard to be mean to people who like you." said Mob

"…yeah, it can be kind of hard sometimes." Said Minegishi after a moment. They could tell Ryou to fuck off until their face turned blue and they passed out but they didn't mean it and he knew it. Well the did but they didn't at the same time.

"Even for you?" asked Mob softly. Minegishi shrugged.

"Yeah, even for me…but I have worse to deal with than the Awakened and a bratty four year old. You're the one in charge here, Mob, you have actual power. You can tell the Awakened to knock it off and leave you alone, and to stop complaining about the apples in the goddamn vending machines. You can tell Mukai, too, that she can't have chocolate after acting like a brat. You have power Mob and you should use it. If I were you…well that doesn't matter. I'm not you." said Minegishi

"What would you do, though, if you were me?" asked Mob

"I would tell everyone to leave me the hell alone and I'd do what I had to do. The bare minimum. Then I would focus on living my life in the way that made me happiest." Said Minegishi. A pipedream if there ever was one. They didn't even know what would have made them the happiest now, let alone if they switched places with Mob in some kind of freaky Friday situation. They would have said, before, that they would have moved somewhere where they could have been alone with their garden and their books but now…being away from her like that didn't sound appealing. Even being away from Ryou didn't sound…well it did and it didn't…

This wasn't about them and Ryou.

"But how would you know what would make you the happiest? I mean without being selfish." Said Mob

"I don't give a damn about being selfish." Said Minegishi

"Ok…but I do, I do a lot. Sometimes I worry that whatever I'm going to do it's wrong because I'm selfish and…and I don't know how to be a selfish person on purpose. I mean I do but I don't…it's complicated." Said Mob. Minegishi rubbed their temples.

"Yeah, I know. You know it wouldn't be this complicated if you stopped making it this complicated. Just tell people 'no' Mob, that's it. One word. Just say 'no'. Practice until you're good at it. Remember, you have the power here. If you don't want to do something then just say so." Said Minegishi. They knew that Mob didn't want to deal with the Awakened any more than they did. They also knew she had to overcomplicate things to the point that they got a headache too along with her…though the incessant flushing wasn't helping matters at all.

"But….what if you don't even know what you want?" asked Mob

"Then you figure it out, Mob. It takes time but you have to figure it out. If you don't know what you want for yourself then you'll never figure out what you want from other people." Said Minegishi. There, that sounded sufficiently wise. That was what Mob came to them for, right? Guidance. They hadn't asked to be this person to her but that didn't matter at this point.

Mob needed them. That was what mattered.

"But how do I-" asked Mob as the sound of rushing water and a small 'uh-oh' could be heard. Mob needed them to get her the hell out of here, that was what mattered. Hopefully this little talk had had some kind of an effect on Mob. Maybe she would at least be able to stop Mukai from flooding the bathroom next time.

After all, they didn't need another reason to hate bathrooms…though at least they'd probably be back in the actual office now.