Shibata had never been good at doing the right thing.

He had been good at doing what was right in the moment but the big picture had always been too…big. Too much to see at once. He didn't know what the future would bring so he always tried to make the present as pleasant as possible. He tried to help people out as much as possible, make the road going forward as smooth as possible, just make things…better.

For everyone else and himself.

He knew what the right thing to do, what would have been the right thing to do, in that situation. He knew that he should have just let Tsuchiya go and he should have stayed with his friends…and the kids. The kids were the real reason to stay. His friends needed him too but he just…he was just so tired of them.

The things they did.

And the things that they were alright with. Shimazaki and Mob…everyone was just ok with it! It had been something that he should have seen coming. It was just so hard to tell when Shimazaki was kidding and when he was being serious. He had thought that the whole 'three or four' years thing had been some kind of tasteless joke. He had been wrong…they had all been wrong…and yet Shimazaki was still around. They were still expected to live with him and let him around the kids and…and Shibata just…

He couldn't abide by that.

But there was nothing that he could do. Nothing but leave…which was looking more and more like a bad decision. He knew that the kids would miss him, he knew what Suzuki did to people who ran away and deserted their posts, and he knew that while he was protecting one of Suzuki's children, technically, the others were pretty much off alone in the world without him. He didn't know who would make them pancakes on their birthdays, who would carry them when their little legs got tired, who would toss them in the air when they got bored...

He didn't know who would be there for them with him…gone.

"This was a mistake." Muttered Shibata as he carried another box through the threshold of his new home, which was Tsuchiya's old apartment. She'd kept most of her things in storage since she'd left. It looked like she had always planned on coming back…he didn't know what he was supposed to feel about that.

Sure. They had talked about, argued about it, but to know that she was planning on doing it without him was…

He put the box down. It hurt. Emotionally, not his hands, they were fine. She had been thinking of leaving with or without him. Maybe it hurt because this had been his only relationship, or maybe because she mattered so much to him, or maybe because everything he had ever wanted for himself had nearly slipped away. A home with a family, kids, just…a nice life. A small life. One where he could take care of his family in peace and not have to worry about Claw and it's bullshit. Not have to worry about doing Suzuki's dirty work or who was going to attack them or even what chaos tomorrow was going to bring. Just…a nice, relaxing, life.

Maybe he could have that here…maybe.

"Hiroshi, are you alright? If that's too much for you-" said Tsuchiya as she slid in past him, carrying a stack of precariously stacked boxes. She heard Mukai trailing behind her, her little footsteps echoing off of walls and down the hall…the endless halls…

They needed a new place but this…this was the best she could do right now.

"No, no, it's not. I was just thinking…it's nothing. Here, let me help you with that. Where are these going?" asked Shibata as he carefully took up the stack of boxes.

"My room…our room, but I can do that. You rest. I know it's been a lot for you." said Tsuchiya as she tried to take the boxes for him. She knew how he must have felt because she felt the same way. It was an adjustment. After the insanity that they had been living in all of these years something as simple as peace and quiet felt like being on some alien planet. Nobody was shouting, nobody was arguing, nobody was blaring music…it was like heaven.

She had never thought that she would ever have thought of the Seventh Division of all places as a little slice of heaven…but here she was.

"Really, I'm fine." Said Shibata as he walked past her. This was fine. He had done the right thing. The thing that he should have done a long time ago. This was the right thing in the long run for all of them. Suzuki probably wouldn't notice that he was gone, not with all the people he was moving around for the uprising, and anyway the latest plans said that he was going to take Seasoning City first for some reason so…so it wasn't like he was going to be gone forever…

But he was gone and the kids…they were all alone.

He could hear Mukai running around and shouting. He remembered back when she had been a baby. She had been so small and fragile he hadn't even dared to hold her. Now she was older, louder, stronger…but still so small and fragile. Over the years he had seen Sho and Mob go from kids to teenagers…seen the people that they had become. He loved them both so much but he could acknowledge the ways in which he'd failed them. Sho had been such an angry boy and Mob…she had been so sweet…so of course she had gotten taken advantage of.

There was no way he was going to let anything like that happen to Mukai.

He put the boxes down next to their suitcases. They had packed light, they'd had to move quickly last night, before anyone could come home and catch them in the act. They'd had to take trains most of the night, ultimately doubling back to Seasoning City. They'd barely managed to sleep on this bare bed last night, now it was morning, time to turn Tsuchiya's old apartment into a home. For how long he didn't know, he just knew that for now, for the time being this was the best thing.

For Mukai. She was the youngest, the smallest, the most vulnerable.

"There's sheets in the top box." Said Tsuchiya as she slid in past him yet again. She had forgotten how much smaller than standard everything in these apartments was. She wondered if there was a bigger one they could have lived in…or a house. But getting a Claw house of their own would have attracted way too much attention.

It didn't have to be a Claw house…

She found a sheet and took one end in her hand. He took the other. Wordlessly they made the bed, neither of them wanting to sleep on a bare mattress again. Especially one as small as this. If they'd had a house they could have made sure that it was big enough for the two of them. A house of their own, or an apartment, or just…a space. Somewhere that was theirs and theirs alone. Somewhere where they could start moving forward with their lives.

There was no way to move forward with your life while you were in Claw.

She had joined when she had been young, dumb, and eager to leave the stifling, cloistered world of her family's temple. It had been the right thing to do, at the time, she had been a newly minted adult and the entire world had been right there for the taking. But she had been young, naïve, and eager to meet people like herself. President Suzuki's dream had seemed like a beautiful one at the time, a world where they wouldn't ever have to feel alone, but she was older now. She knew the man personally. She knew what it took to make his dreams a reality. She knew what price the people closest to him had paid for his dreams.

She wasn't going to let her daughter pay that price.

"Oh, it's a map of the world." Said Shibata as he smoothed out the fitted sheet. It was old, pilled, and faded but he could see it all there in front of him. He counted all the countries he had visited. One on every continent but the arctic…

He'd been so many places already. It was time to settle down.

"Yeah, I got these when I first moved out. It just seemed…fitting, you know?" asked Tsuchiya

"Well it is a fitted sheet…sorry, sorry, I knew that was a bad joke before I told it." Said Shibata. She rolled her eyes and laughed.

"It was fine, Hiroshi. It made me laugh, didn't it?" asked Tsuchiya

"That's really all I wanted." Said Shibata. She smiled at him, he tried to smile back at her, behind him there was the sound of running feet.

"That's actually really sweet." Said Tsuchiya

"I try. I mean that really is all I want, to make you smile. It's just…what I need to do." Said Shibata

"What you want or what you need?" asked Tsuchiya. She didn't want to be another obligation to him. That was what had kept him with the others all these years, it seemed to her, he felt obligated to take care of a bunch of adults who had never learned how to take care of themselves. They were more like kids in a lot of ways, really, when she sat and thought about it. They couldn't get through the day without fighting, they constantly made messes of their living spaces and their lives, and they just…couldn't function. Not on their own. The worst part was that they passed all of this onto Sho and Shigeko. They were good kids but there was only so much that could be done for them. Only so many times you could tell them 'no' and 'stop' without losing your mind when the other so called adults undermined you at every turn.

There was only so much that could be done for those kids. As painful as it was to think Tsuchiya…she had done all that she could and now it was time to focus on herself, her family, and her daughter. The daughter that President Suzuki hadn't really wanted in the first place.

"What do you mean?" asked Shibata

"I don't want this to feel like…like some kind of obligation for you." said Tsuchiya

"Well, we have to get your things out of storage either way so I might as well help." Said Shibata. He knew what she was getting at, mostly, and he knew that he didn't want to talk about it. He was here, that was what mattered, there was no need to go around pulling threads. He was here with her, he'd made his choice, and he didn't want to have to pull it apart. He wanted to be with her, he loved her, he wanted to be here, he had to be with her, but…but so what if it was an obligation?

He helped people, he took care of them, it was what he did…who he was. He wasn't just going to change who he was as a person in one day…he didn't even know if he wanted to.

"Hiroshi…is this what you want? What you really want?" asked Tsuchiya

"Well, I would have liked a bigger bed but this'll do." Said Shibata. He knew what she meant, she was giving him an out, giving him chance to tell her that he wanted to go back with the others. That he should have stayed with the others for his own safety. That the kids needed him, they didn't really have anyone else taking care of them in any real way. They didn't have parents, not really, just friends…the sort of friends who had everything but their actual needs in mind.

She was giving him an out that he should have taken.

"No, not the bed Hiroshi. This. Us. Being here. Is this what you want?" asked Tsuchiya

"Well…it's kind of cramped-" said Shibata

"Hiroshi, no. That may work on your other friends but it won't work on me. So just tell me what you're feeling right now." said Tsuchiya

"Tsuchiya, really, I'm fine. There's nothing to talk about. We're here and this is…this is what's happening right now. We're unpacking your old things, getting the bed together, and then afterwards we can see what else needs doing. Maybe Mukai wants to play or…or something. I don't know." Said Shibata. She was giving him an out that he wasn't going to take. Not now, not when he was so close to…to what he wanted. Was it the right thing, pursuing what he wanted? Or was he just here because he was escaping everything that he had done wrong. He should have been there for Mob but he hadn't been and then Shibata…there was no way he was ever going to be able to forgive himself for that, for what he had done.

But he could have done better for Mukai, at least.

"You don't have to lie to me. I know how you feel. You made it abundantly clear, before, that you had no intention of leaving with me and now…I don't know. I saw an opportunity and I took it but I feel like I might have rushed you." said Tsuchiya. If he was going to be leaving then she had to know now. She needed to make sure that her expectations matched up with reality. He was a good man. He was good with Mukai, he was thoughtful and caring, and he'd somehow made it this far through Claw without picking up any serious emotional or social problems…the same crippling ones that seemed to plague every other member of the President's inner circle. He was someone she wanted for herself but…

But not if he didn't want to be with her.

"It's not that I didn't want to leave, it's more like…I don't know. I'd wanted to leave for a while, years, but I couldn't. The kids needed me…they might still need me…but I couldn't be there for them, not in the way that they needed." Said Shibata

"Those kids need parents, Hiroshi, and we're not…as much as we love them we're not their parents and I don't think that we can be." Said Tsuchiya

"I don't even know if I could be that kind of person to them, I mean I was always their friend and…and it's just easier to be their friend. It's easier and more fun but you're right, that's not what they need. They have plenty of friends already. I don't think that they need any others." Said Shibata. He knew what it meant to be a parent…somewhat. A parent was someone who set limits and made you feel like shit when you crossed them…that is until you got bigger than them and then they were afraid of you even though you hadn't done anything to them. They just assumed that you were like them, that you'd hurt them, that you-

He wasn't that person and he never wanted to be that person. Friend was just…easier. But was it right, that was the point….

"But it is nice to be their friend but…but it doesn't matter, I wasn't much of a friend. I let Shimazaki…I should have been there, I was there! I was there and-" said Shibata

"We were both there, Hiroshi, we both could have stopped it but we just…we were too busy and we didn't notice and…and it's done, it's done and…and the best thing that we can do is-" said Tsuchiya

"Take care of Mukai." Said Shibata as they folded the top sheet over the bed. Then the comforter. They had almost gotten it on when, right on cue, Mukai jumped right onto the bed and got herself tangled up. She did it on purpose, laughing the whole time, laughing and smiling and just…being a kid. A little kid. A happy little kid.

He hoped that she stayed like that forever.

"I got you, I'm a ghost and I got you!" shouted Mukai as she scared Mommy and Shibata. She hoped that the others got there soon, too, so she could scare them too. She'd get them all and then she'd be the scariest person in their new house. It wasn't much of a house, there weren't enough rooms and she didn't have any toys or pets around, but as long as Sho and everyone else got there soon she'd be ok. They'd probably be moving again soon, anyway.

They moved a lot. Sometimes to fun place and sometimes to places like these.

"You did, you did!" laughed Tsuchiya. For a moment she forgot everything. Leaving, what had happened with Shigeko, what she had to keep from happening to Mukai…the fact that the President was not going to be happy once he realized his youngest daughter was gone…if he ever came back. She forgot, even, about their coming bid to take over the world. She could only focus on her child…her child and the family she had made for them.

For a moment everything truly felt like it was going to be ok.

"You did…we're so proud of you. You did good." said Shibata. She had done good, well, she was doing what she was supposed to do. He just had to figure out what he was supposed to do. The right or…or what was easiest. He knew what the right thing to do, the right thing to do by Mukai, would have been to stay with her…but the others needed him…but it wasn't exactly like he had done much for them so…so he didn't know.

He just didn't know what to do…so all he could do was his best.