Mob's first thought, when she woke up, was sticky. She felt warm and sticky, more so in some places than in others. She was covered in a sheen of sweat, very warm. She stretched, well tried to. Someone next to her stirred.
Oh.
She remembered. She remembered everything.
"What time's it?" asked Reigen, his voice gravelly with sleep. His arm was thrown around her, his legs looped around hers. She was so small and warm beside him.
"Let me see." Said Mob. She pulled the blanket up off her head and motioned for her phone. Usually it was on the charger on the desk. Well, it was still on the desk at least. The desk had just decided to relocate to upside down and on the other side of the room.
"Mob…time?" Said Reigen. He wondered if they could go back to sleep for just a little while longer. If they could just hold onto last night for just a little while longer. To hold onto her for a little while longer.
"It's a little after six, Master…I mean…Arataka." said Mob. She looked down at him. His eyes were still closed. His hair was wild around his head, sticky up in all directions like he had been caught in a hurricane. She looked around the room, maybe he had.
The floor was gone. It was covered by everything the owned. Clothes, mostly. Books, pages from books, and covers without books in them. There was shiny specks all over the floor, too. Broken glass from the mirror? No, it was powdered glass now. Mob called a larger piece over to herself. It was rubbed smooth, like sea glass.
"Come back to me, then." Said Reigen. The bed was too cold without her. He could feel her sitting up. He opened his eyes, she was holding something shiny in her hand.
"I'm here with you, Arataka. I always will be." Said Mob. She was right there next to him. This was where she belonged. She belonged at his side, in his bed, for perpetuity. His bed. This bed. Their bed.
"You want to be?" asked Reigen. That was a stupid question, he knew that it was. She had been the one to approach him. She had made the first move. Then why did it still feel weird. It felt right and weird at the same time. He tried to shake the feeling that he had somehow taken advantage of her.
"I do. I want it more than anything else in my entire life." Said Mob. Last night had been the best night of her life, and not just because of how amazing he made her feel physically. He loved her. He loved her back.
"Mob…Mob what do you want?" asked Reigen. Last night was…the culmination of seven years together. The evolution, the transmutation, of their relationship. From Master and student to friends and equals, to lovers and…to lovers and a couple…what would they transmute to next?
"I want the same thing I wanted last night, Arataka." said Mob. Love. She wanted love. She wanted to be a couple and everything that came with it. She wanted to hold hands as they walked down the street. She wanted to kiss him whenever they felt like it. She wanted to cuddle and fall asleep in front of the TV. She wanted to lay next to him every single night. She wanted to lay next to him and feel everything that he could give her. She wanted to feel everything that he could make her feel and she wanted to make him feel everything that she could make him feel.
Instrumentality. She wanted instrumentality with him and she had gotten it. They could have it again and again and again. Whenever she wanted. Whenever they wanted.
It was dizzying.
"Again?" asked Reigen feeling her feelings. He was messing with her. He couldn't, not now, he hadn't even brushed his teeth.
"….if you want to…but I want love, too. I want…I want us to be a couple." Said Mob. She blushed, a little, because she was naked and he was naked, if not for the blanket, and the two of them could have instrumentality again right then and there on that bed. Well, after she brushed her teeth and washed the stickiness off.
"I wouldn't have done that with you if I didn't love you." Said Reigen. Did she think that he had only been with her to, what? Because he wanted to have sex? No. She had been the one to convince him. She had practically seduced him. Wow. Mob of all people….
"…I like it when you say that." Said Mob fiddling with the smooth piece of glass in her hand. Reigen reached over and put an arm around her waist.
"You act like I haven't been telling you that I love you for years." Said Reigen. He splayed his fingers out over the curve of her waist. He could span it with both hands. He had spanned it with both hands. Held her close. Moved with her.
"You didn't mean it the way I meant it." Said Mob. Reigen let her go. He had first told her that he loved her four years ago. He didn't mean it like he had last night. But she had. Since she was fourteen. The room gets a little smaller.
"Mast-Arataka? You're sharing your feelings with me. Why are you…am I making you feel bad? What did I do?" asked Mob, her voice breaking. She always messed up, didn't she? She hadn't even been in a relationship for more than one day and she had already made him sad. No, he wasn't sharing sadness with him. Fear? Worry?
"Mob…this is…this is going to take some getting used to." Said Reigen. Afterglow aside, and boy was it an afterglow, this was still Mob. This was still…but it wasn't. She wasn't a kid anymore. She had made that abundantly clear last night. She had offered herself to him and he had taken her. She had made him promises and he had made them right back.
There was no going back from this.
"In a bad way?" asked Mob softly. He sat up and pulled her close. His bare chest against her bare back. Bodies told stories. His must have. Hers, not so much. He knew that he must have left a mark last night but her skin was right back to its usual porcelain. Pale, milky white, and free of any scars or blemishes.
"No, it's still just a little weird for me." Said Reigen. Mob nodded. She had her perfect happy ending but it was different for him. He hadn't been dreaming of this for years. He hadn't even thought about her like this until she had confessed to him. He wasn't ever going to lie to her again so he must have been ok.
"I kind of understand. I mean, you weren't wanting this for as long as I have. I'm happy, though, because I really want us to be a couple." Said Mob. She leaned back into his chest. She used her powers to hold up the blanket, for a moment, before letting it fall. She shouldn't be embarrassed. He had done more than see her naked last night.
"We are a couple." Said Reigen after a moment. The weirdness will fade, right? After a while, he thought. After the new Mob, the Mob who existed in reality, eclipsed the old Mob in his mind. When the mental picture aged as she did. When he could fully put away Mob the student and replace her with Mob the…lover? Girlfriend?...Future wife?
Love of his life.
"…I know…I know and I'm so…I'm so happy." Said Mob. She was crying, just a little, which in turn made Reigen cry. He got up and scooted so that he was next to her. He resisted the urge to pull the blanket along with him. Mob had done more than see him naked last night. At this point it would have been more weird if he had covered up. Huh. He hadn't been nervous about a woman seeing him naked since the first time he had ever been naked with a girl. Mob could make him nervous. She could also make him feel happy, sad, elated, and terrified. She made him feel everything.
This was weird but it was also right.
"I know you are, Mob, I know. I am too, believe me. Remember what I said before? I will never lie to you again." Said Reigen falling back into their old patterns. Him reassuring her. Mob smiled, just a little smile. She dragged her thumb across the glass in her hand. She knew when she had done this. Her toes curled as she remembered the way he pressed his weight down onto her. The angle of his hips, the feel of his hands on her thighs and –oh! He was kissing her again.
"Mob, you're a horny little brat, you know that?" asked Reigen mirthfully. That was something he had known for years but never wanted to acknowledge. They had shared this room for years after all. He could feel her feelings and he knew where her mind went. She had shrugged those feelings of for years. She was young, she couldn't help it, he told himself time after time. He ignored the way her eyes would linger on him. The way she would always cuddle up to him. The times she would come home at midnight in a daze like she was sleepwalking. Eyes glassy and far away, small smile on her face.
This would also take some getting used to.
No sake on his system now. This was sober Reigen. Sober and bathed in the light of day. The mirror was shattered into a million little pieces. He didn't know how they looked in the light of day. Master and student. Friend and friend. Friends to lovers.
"I didn't think that you minded, Arataka." Said Mob softly. She knew him well enough to know when he was kidding. He had not been passive there, not at all. He had known what to do and where and how. Better than she had ever had before, not that she was thinking about those times. No. Now she had knew times to think about.
"I don't mind. It'll take some getting used to but I don't mind." Said Reigen. It had felt right, with Mob. She had wanted him and wanted him without pretext. No pretext and no performance. No dirty talk. No carefully curated moans and gasps. Honestly, sometimes it felt like he and whoever he was with was working from a fucking script. She had been artless in her desire. Her kisses, her touches, her words, her sounds. She didn't care how it sounded. She didn't care how it looked. She just went with it.
She was a genuine person. He liked that about her. He loved that about her. She accepted him genuinely.
"Do you want to…get used to it?" asked Mob looking at him sideways. It had been a while for her, not counting last night. She didn't know what was with her. It was like one day she had just been turned on and stayed that way. Sometimes it got worse than other times but it had been pretty much constant. Now she could do something about it, though.
The object of her affections was there, now, and he was for her. He was there and she was there and this time there wasn't a single layer of cloth between them. If he wanted to he could pushed her down and kiss her. She'd let him. She'd pull him between her legs and let him-
"Mob, neither of us has brushed their teeth yet and we're covered in stale sweat and various others, uh, dried fluids." Said Reigen. He could still taste her and he didn't imagine that it would be something she'd enjoy tasting.
"I'm sticky." Said Mob shifting in bed, their bed.
"You want to shower first?" asked Reigen. He needed a cigarette before anything. It was early. He stretched a little. Sore back. Sore shoulders. His bed was not built for two. He should get a bed built for two. Or a futon. Yeah, he can learn to sleep on a futon for her.
"No, you can go first. You don't take as long." Said Mob. She stretched out, too, a little. He reached over and rubbed her shoulders. She melted back into him.
"We need a bigger bed." Said Reigen as he worked the knots of out her shoulders and back. Mob closed her eyes and nodded.
"We could put your mattress on the floor next to my futon." Said Mob. She didn't much care for western beds. As a child she had made the bed float and flip so she had just been given a futon. That was all she was used to.
"I could just get a really big futon for the both of us." Said Reigen as he felt her relax. She was happy, then. So happy, so relaxed, and all for him. Mob shook her head.
"That'll be expensive, Master." Said Mob. She felt him stop breathing and stiffen next to her.
"Mob, don't call me-" said Reigen. That was just too weird. She wasn't that kid anymore and he wasn't that man to her anymore. No going back.
"I know, I'm sorry. I've called you nothing else for years, Arataka." Said Mob. She felt him relax. It wasn't weird for her, not really, because she had been in love with him back when he was Master Reigen. To her he would always be Master Reigen. She knew that they could never go back to being Master Reigen and she could never go back to being his student. She was an adult now and she needed to remember that. They were equal now.
"It's fine. I guess you have a few things to get used to, too." Said Reigen. He could hear her voice when she called him Master and it just sounded too young. It's less weird if he doesn't think about it, about her past, their past. He needed to focus on their future.
"Yeah, a few." Said Mob. Arataka. She had said his name before. Spoke it. Moaned it. Begged it. Screamed it. She blushed. She had been loud, much too loud. Her powers…she had broken everything. She looked around. She hadn't lost control this badly during since…had she ever?
"What's that you've got there?" asked Reigen, his hand reaching down to hers. She opened her hand and showed him the glass.
"The mirror. I broke it pretty badly." Said Mob. Reigen put his hand over hers and felt the smoothness of the glass. It was nice, like a piece of sea glass. Like the time they went to the seaside and collected an entire shoebox full of sea glass. They had put it somewhere in the office when they got back. She had been so small, then, but she wasn't small anymore.
"You can put it back together, I've seen you fix glass before." Said Reigen. Mob nodded. The piece of glass flew from her hand and into the mirror frame. She hung it back up and tried her best to get the smoothened pieces of glass back into the frame like puzzle pieces. She smoothed the glass together as well as she could. It still had seams.
"Good enough, Mob, good enough. Anymore broken glass on the ground?" asked Reigen. He could really use that shower now. They still had to start their day. Serizawa was a good guy but he couldn't open the office and manage it by himself. Serizawa.
They had to tell people.
He'd cross those bridges when he, when they, came to them.
"No, I got it all." Said Mob. She was putting their clothes back where they belonged, now. She hoped that Master Reigen, that Arataka, didn't have a system for putting his clothes away. She didn't have one. She put her dresser back together and folded her clothes as she hung his clothes back up in his closet. Reigen watched her. He would never get tired of the way she could so easily multitask with her powers.
"I'm going to go shower now, then it can be your turn. Also…how do you feel about heading into work today?" asked Reigen. Maybe they should take the day off. There was no way that this day would just be the same as any other. They would walk through that door not as master and student but as equals. As a couple. As two people who have pledged their lives to each other.
"Feel? I don't mind. I like work, Master. I'm happy, actually, because now that I'm done with school I can come in more." Said Mob. No more tests, no more heavy books, no more of the teacher's dirty looks. School was well and truly out. Well, until she started university. Well, not exactly university. Community college. She hoped that it would be better than this school would be better than it had been in the past.
"You don't feel, you know, different?" asked Reigen. Right, this was Mob. Few real social skills beyond an almost fanatical devotion to politeness. Thank God she was such a sweet girl. She was like a plate of sugar on a hot summer's day. The truth of her charm was in her kindness, he had taught her that and she had used that to make her eclectic collection of friends. Friends who would have to be told. How would she tell them? How would he tell….who did he have to tell? His mother, obviously. His father? No, let him read about it in the society pages. At some point Mob's friends had become his friends. It was nice, in a way.
"No, not really. I'm happier, because I'm finally in a couple with you, but I still feel like me. I'm just a happier me, I guess. The other Shigeko is happy, too. She didn't break everything because she was upset, she was just really happy. You were…you were really good." Said Mob. Really good was an understatement. He had been amazing, the best she had ever had. Not that she had ever had more than one person before him.
"Thanks…you were really good, too, Mob. It's just…Mob I know I asked you this before but what are you going to tell people?" Said Reigen. She had been artless but that had just been so, well, endearing. Perfect. Mob. He wouldn't have had her any other way. He could have her again, couldn't he? He could pick her up and pull her onto his lap. He could kiss her deep. He could kiss her everywhere. He could kiss her anywhere.
"I don't know. I think that we could just be a couple on Friendbook and everyone would know that way. Well, except for Ritsu because he's not on Friendbook and my parents, because we aren't Friendbook friends." Said Mob. She didn't know what he was so worried about. Love was a beautiful thing and people should be happy for them because they had found love together. She was always happy when her friends found love. Tome and Inukawa were finally a couple officially and they had been on and off since middle school. Rei was either Go or Takeshi's girlfriend, she wasn't sure which. There was also Sho and Ritsu. She had been over the moon when her little brother had told her that he had found the person he loved more than anyone else. He had been Rei's boyfriend but he was so unhappy with her that Mob was glad that he had found someone who he loved and who loved him right back. Even though Sho had burned the house down.
"Mob, no. You should at least tell your family in person." Said Reigen. He knew that he would have to call his mom to tell her, or just make the day trip to visit her. Mob was so clueless sometimes. Obviously the fact that you're going to spend your life with the man you moved in when you were fourteen was something that it was best to hear in person. Mob should be the one to tell her family. Not just because of her relation to them but also because, well, she wouldn't care about their reactions. Reigen didn't have the nerve to go up to them and say 'Hi, I'm Reigen Arataka and I'm in love with your teenage daughter.'
"Why? It's not like they can tell me not to be your girlfriend. I haven't lived at home since I was fourteen. I don't even think they like me that much." Said Mob. Her graduation lunch had been quiet. They asked her what she was going to do with her life, she told them that she was going to community school and continue working with Master Reigen. They said things in a tone which she assumed meant disapproval. They ate. She went to work.
"Mob, they love you." Said Reigen. Her mother was the one he had spoken to the most. She may have picked at Mob like nobody's business but she seemed to care, on some level at least. She didn't much seem to like her daughter as a person but she cared at least. Kageyama Hana didn't see Mob the way he saw her. Reigen knew that Mob was more than her powers. She was a sweet, kind girl. She was someone who would march into certain death for the people she loved. She was a genuinely good person and he loved her for it.
"You can love someone but not like them. I love my parents but I don't…I don't like them very much. I don't like how they treat Ritsu, mostly. I don't care how they treat me but I do care about how they make Ritsu feel. He feels…he feels bad. He has to hide so much from them and it's not fair. I don't care how they feel about me. They're scared of me, I know that, and I know that they think that I'm not as good at Ritsu. They never made me hide who I am. I don't care at all what my parents, think, Arataka." Said Mob as she continued to put the room back the way that it was supposed to be. She was repotting the plants now and making them grow again. Reigen gave her hair a reassuring tug.
"So you're just going to go up to them and say 'Hey, Reigen Arataka and I are a couple now. I thought you ought to know.'?" Said Reigen. Mob nodded.
"You're good with words, Arataka. I'll say that. Thank you." Said Mob. That was the best way to say it. Master Reigen thought that this was something that they should know, Mob agreed, and therefore she would just tell them the flat facts of the situation. She wished that Ritsu would just give their parents the flat facts of his situation. His life was his own and he was his own protagonist. He should just tell mom and dad 'I have powers, too, like Shigeko and Sho's my boyfriend. I just thought you ought to know'.
"Just the way I said it?" asked Reigen. He had used plenty of sarcasm. Right. Mob couldn't read tones. Well, it would serve her parents right. They had treated her like crap for her entire life, from what he had been told.
"Yes. They should know so I'll just tell it like it is. I'm not asking permission, I'm just telling them the new situation." Said Mob. She was their daughter so she should tell them that she had found and become a couple with the man she planned to spend the rest of her life with.
"Well, Mob, I wish you the very best." Said Reigen. He was not planning on coming with her to break the news to her parents. He didn't much care for the Kageyamas and he knew that this would end in him either getting his ass kicked or him having to use his powers to calm everyone down. Not a fun time at all.
"Thank you. I don't think it'll be too bad. You're a good person, Master. Besides, it's not like they have power over me." Said Mob. They had no power over her. They had no power to forbid her or command her. She was an adult now. She was the protagonist of her own life.
"Yeah…you're right." Said Reigen. He had no power over Mob, either, and hadn't had power over her in years. Not since she was a kid and she proved that she would walk into battle for him without any thought to his direct orders. He had ordered her to run away the first time they fought Claw. He had ordered her to run away the second time they fought Claw. He had ordered her to run away…pretty much for all of their life and death adventures. She had gotten so strong, over the years. Hell, she had even worn him down and now they were, well, this.
"Even if they did I wouldn't listen. I want to be with you, Arataka. You and nobody else." Said Mob. She had never wanted, well she had, but not perpetuity with, anyone else. She had thought about it with Teru. Back when she and Master Reigen had gone their separate ways. She had imagined a life with him. She would have been Hanazawa Shigeko. She would have lived in his apartment and been his wife. That life had been a dream. Attempting to put details to it was like the times when she would go to the seaside as a child and she tried to draw pictures in the sand. They wouldn't stay put long enough for any kind of details. The wind and water would always sweep the pictures away before she could fill them in.
She could fill in those details with Master Reigen, with Arataka. This apartment, or maybe one just like it but bigger, with a washing machine and a bathtub. Another room, too, because they would need it. She didn't have any plans right now of having a baby but she knew that when she had one it would be with Arataka. She had been dreaming of that life, that husband and wife life, for years. They would cuddle and kiss and reach instrumentality every single day. They would go to work and then come home and just be so happy. Their family would grow and they'd have a baby, a boy, his name would be Shigeo. That was what her parents had wanted to call her if she was a boy. They called her Shigeko because it was close. When she and Arataka had a baby he would be called Shigeo and he would have her powers and she would help him with his powers and Arataka would teach him to be a good person and he would be so much happier in his life than she had ever been. He wouldn't be afraid of himself, not even once.
"Mob, I love you." Said Reigen after a moment. There it was. Devotion. Love. Caring. All the feelings that made up her view of him. She loved him so much and he…he loved her right back.
"I love you, too, Arataka." Said Mob. It felt good, being able to say it and have it heard the way she meant it.
"So…when are you planning on telling them?" asked Reigen. Sooner was better than later, in his opinion. Best to just rip off the Band-Aid before it did that thing where the glue fused to your skin and pulling it off was just the worst thing ever.
"I don't have a specific time planned. Maybe if they call me again. We usually talk on the phone once every week or so." Said Mob. Those were short calls. They asked her about her grades, about how work was going, if she was seeing anyone, things like that. She answered her questions, they talked about some other stuff, nothing that mattered really, and then they hung up.
"That's not really in person, Mob." Said Reigen. Mob nodded. He was right, again. He was good at these social things.
"You're right, Arataka. I'll tell them the next time I see them. Ritsu invites me to dinner a lot. Maybe I should go." Said Mob. She hadn't sat down at the kitchen table in four years. Was her spot still there? Her squeaky chair? Her pink plate and bowl?
"That'd be good, Mob. It's best to get this over with sooner rather than later." Said Reigen. He wondered who would survive world war three in the Kageyama house. Well, hopefully they made it to some kind of armistice before her little brother took it upon himself to find Reigen and kill him. Heh. For all of Mob's little brother's jealousy, anger, and dislike of Reigen he had been right the whole time. Well then.
"When are you going to tell your mom?" asked Mob. She liked Reigen Sophia. She was very nice and had a cat. Maybe they could take a day trip and visit again.
"I…I have no clue. She lives far away, Mob, you know that. It's a day trip to get up there. I should tell her in person, though, you're right." Said Reigen. His relationship with his mother was better than it had been, before. He had grown up, finally. Yeah, mom deserved the news in person. She liked Mob and had been weirdly ok with it when she thought that he and Mob were a couple back when she was fourteen. Dad could suck it, though.
"What about your dad?" asked Mob. She had never met his father, didn't even know his given name. From what she had heard Master Reigen didn't like him very much and didn't talk to that side of his family that often.
"He can find out on Friendbook. I don't care about him." said Reigen. Mob frowned. Reigen watched her. He let himself feel her feelings. She was worried about something. But what? She knew that he and his dad had never gotten along. Hell, he had a little brother he hadn't seen since he was a baby.
"Do you think that our baby will like us?" asked Mob after a moment. Reigen felt his blood run cold.
"Mob, we don't have to worry about that. Remember? Condoms?" asked Reigen. Right. He hadn't gotten her pregnant. He still shouldn't have opened it with his teeth. That had been dumb. Heat of the moment and all that.
"I don't mean now, I mean in the future. Remember? I said that I wanted to have a family with you, and you said that you wanted that with me?" asked Mob. Reigen nodded after a moment. She painted a pretty picture but it wasn't a picture that he was ready to see.
"Not yet, Mob. You haven't even been my…girlfriend…for a day. Let's just slow down for a minute." Said Reigen. He liked the idea of being someone's father. He liked the idea of being that sort of person to a human that he himself made. Any human, actually. He liked the practice, too, but not now. Not when she wasn't even old enough to drink and smoke yet. Not when she wasn't even his wife yet. Yet. She would be, most likely, because he had no plans to break up with her and he…he wasn't opposed to the idea of marriage. Not with Mob, at least.
"Oh. Ok. I just thought that was what coupled people did. We love each other and we'll be together forever, right? When people love each other and decide to be together forever then they get married and have kids. That's why I'm here. My mom says that she had me because that was what you have to do when you get married. Ritsu was an accident. Well, she called him a happy accident. Do you want our kids to be happy accidents?" asked Mob. She knew what she wanted. She wanted a better home than she had growing up. She wouldn't pick at her kids and tell them that one was better than another, even though Ritsu was clearly a better person than she was. She wouldn't ever be afraid of her kids. She would make the atmosphere in her home happy and safe. Why wouldn't it be? She'd be with Arataka?
"Too fast, Mob, too fast." Said Reigen. She was so young. She hadn't given this the proper amount of thought. He remembered being her age. You just wanted to jump into everything with both feet because you couldn't see the bottom. You had no idea what you were really jumping into and you didn't care because you felt ten feet tall and fucking bullet proof. Well, Mob was five feet tall and he had seen her easily deflect bullets. Maybe she was literally invincible. Maybe she could take whatever life through at her. She was strong, stronger than him, but he wasn't strong enough for this. Not yet. He needed more time. He needed time enough to totally erase the Mob who existed in his mind. He needed to erase Mob the student and replace her with the person what she was now.
"Oh. I'm sorry." Said Mob. Second thoughts? Or maybe she did move too fast. She didn't fully get it. Probably because she had loved him for years longer than he had loved her.
"No, it's fine, Mob. Just please don't ask me about kids for at least a year or two. Ok? I've got my mom riding me enough about grandkids. I don't know why, she's only twenty years older than me…anyway. Mob, this isn't the conversation to have right now. Ok?" said Reigen. It may have scared him a little, too, Mob talking about this. Little Mob. His Mob. She asked this of him and he…he'd give her what she wanted. Didn't he always give her what she wanted, in the end? She asked for him, yesterday, and he had given himself.
"Ok. Sorry." Said Mob. Reigen kissed her on the forehead. She could smell herself on him and blushed. Right. Showers. She wanted to have him again but he was right, they were sticky with each other already.
"And stop apologizing all the time. Come on, you aren't a kid anymore." Said Reigen. He heard her again, young Mob. The constant apologizing was young Mob's habit. He needed adult Mob. He needed adult Mob because this was weird enough already.
"Sorry…wait, sorry." Said Mob. Reigen laughed and kissed his way down her shoulder and across her back. She arched into him. He smiled as he kissed her. Mob was not nearly as unexpressive as she people thought. She had always been more expressive for him, anyway.
"I'm going to go take a shower, Mob, ok you horny brat?" said Reigen. Mob smiled and nodded. She had been stubborn brat before. She knew it was a term of endearment. She may have been bad at reading other people but she could read him like a book.
"I'm not…right now." Said Mob. Reigen flipped up her fringe.
"Empath, remember? I know what you're feeling." Said Reigen. Mob smiled and looked away. Well, she was always a little but it wasn't super bad right now. It was his fault, anyway. She was naked, he was naked, and he was right there and he was kissing her and if he wanted to he could have her right there. He could always have her. She had been waiting for so long to have him that she wasn't going to ever deny him. Not when she knew what it was like. What he was like.
"What am I feeling now?" asked Mob. She felt his aura wash over her. She let him into her aura, his custard yellow mixing with her bubblegum pink and cyan blue.
"You love me, you feel sticky, and you're a little chilly." Said Reigen. If he really focused he could feel the ghosts of physical sensations. Mob was the only person he felt that with. He had been hiding in her aura since the day he awakened his powers. Since the day she had poured enough of her power into him to awaken his powers.
"What do you feel right now?" asked Mob. She felt him sharing his feelings with her. He was sticky, kind of tired, his back hurt…those were physical feelings. He loved her. He loved her but he still felt kind of…weird? Weird. But he loved her and that was what mattered.
"I'll leave you some hot water." Said Reigen. He swung his legs over and stepped down. She was still picking up the room. Now she was putting some of their books back together. He stepped out and immediately jumped up with a yelp.
"What happened?! Did I forget some glass?!" said Mob standing up suddenly, the cold air of the room fully hitting her. Reigen hopped around and fell backwards onto the ground.
"Gross! This is so gross! Mob, get the garbage can!" said Reigen as he rubbed his foot on the carpet. Mob called it over, it had wound up in the other room. As she pulled it over with her powers she put the trash back into it, what trash she could feel. See feel. It was like feeling around in the dark, when she used her powers without looking.
"What's wrong?" asked Mob. His face was all scrunched up and he looked like he was about to be motion sick. He wasn't in pain, though, so that was good.
"This is so gross." Said Reigen as she passed him the garbage can. He picked up their condom from last night and tossed it in, quickly. Mob blushed and laughed, just a little. That breathy little laugh she did sometimes. She rarely laughed out loud, only when something was particularly funny. This was just a little funny, just a little. His grossed out face was…cute.
"It's yours." Said Mob with a little laugh. Reigen stood up.
"That doesn't make it any less gross. I think I can feel them swimming." Said Reigen. Now Mob laughed out loud. Reigen pulled her hair, slightly.
"Brat." Said Reigen clearly kidding. She smiled. He wanted to kiss her so badly right then. Her eyes were bright and awake. She was smiling for real, now. He absolutely loved her when she smiled. He didn't kiss her, though, because as much as he loved spending time with her he was still naked, covered in various fluids, and hadn't even brushed his teeth yet. Still, though. He could kiss her, now. He didn't know when he had started to want to kiss her, he knew that there were plenty of times when she was younger that he had come close. He could kiss her, now, and he wanted to. It needed to be good, though. Mob deserved that.
"I know." Said Mob smiling. She knew that he wasn't being mean. He would never be mean to her. He was nice. She wanted to see how nice he could be. She took his hand. Her hand used to be able fit inside of his easily. She splayed her fingers out around his. Her hand was almost as big as his, now. He laced his fingers in hers.
"Mob, later." Said Reigen. Were those his feelings? Hers? A combination of theirs. Reigen knew this part of the relationship. He hadn't been in a real relationship since he was in university. He remembered it, though. The beginning spent together all the time, usually in bed or trying to get to one. It cooled off, it always did. He hoped that it didn't with Mob.
"When later?" asked Mob. She couldn't help it. He was naked, she was naked, and she could finally have him.
"After work, later." Said Reigen. They still had a business to run. He looked around for the little clock. They had to get to work soon if they still wanted to have a business to run. Serizawa was a good guy but he could not be in charge for very long. Not after the incident.
"Or at work." Said Mob softly. She knew why he had sent her away, during the day, when she was a kid. She knew exactly what else that massage table could be used for. Or the office couch. Or his desk.
"Mob, we have clients." Said Reigen. Right. Back, years ago, he had sent Mob out of the office so that he could…yeah. That was not good.
"Not all the time." Said Mob. Why not her? She was an adult and she was in a couple with him.
"Serizawa's there." Said Reigen. Crap. What were they going to tell Serizawa? That guy did not deal well with change, or anything, really. No, that was mean. His coping skills had gotten somewhat better over the years.
"Send him to the store." Said Mob. He was her, now, anyway. She was like Master Reigen, no, like Arataka.
"So that's what this is about." Said Reigen with a sigh. He had apologized and apologized for that. He was young, he had been stupid.
"Maybe." Said Mob simply. Maybe she was still a little jealous. Maybe she just fully didn't believe that she had him, yet. Maybe this was all too good to be true and she'd wake up down on her futon and it would all have been a super vivid dream.
"You're jealous again." Said Reigen stating a fact. She was a jealous little brat, sometimes, and he meant that in a nice way. If she hadn't been jealous, before, she never would have vowed to improve herself and set off the chain of events that let them to where they were today.
"You're using your powers." Said Mob stating a fact. She had been the one to awake his powers. She wondered why he got such different ones from her. Maybe it was just his natural affinity for communicating with people.
"No, I'm not. I don't need them to read you." Said Reigen. This was Mob. He had known her for seven years. He could read her like a book.
"Ok, fine, I am jealous." Said Mob. There was no maybe to it. She didn't like the idea that he had been with other people. She didn't like that she had so much to live up to. She wanted to erase the memory of everyone that he had ever been with.
"Don't be. I'm here for you. I love you." Said Reigen with a sigh. Poor kid. She had to get over this jealousy, though.
"Say it again." Said Mob, smiling. She loved it when he said it. Reigen indulged her.
"I love you, Mob." Said Reigen taking both of her hands in his.
"Say it in English." Said Mob smiling a little more. Reigen rolled his eyes.
"I love you, Mob." Said Reigen. Mob nodded. Her name sounded weird in English. Both of her names did.
"Now say it in Mandarin." Said Mob. He could read her like a book. Now she was being a silly brat. He'd take a silly brat above a jealous one. He loved this silly, jealous, little brat.
"As soon as I learn Mandarin then I'll say it in Chinese, ok?" asked Reigen
"You'll learn Chinese just to learn to say that you love me?" asked Mob. If he was serious then that would be amazing. She wanted to hear it in every language there was, even the one she and Ritsu made up when they were little.
"You know I'd do anything for you." Said Reigen. He would do anything for her and he had done anything for her. He had walked into certain death thrice for her. The last time had been to save her from herself. He would face down anything, including her, to save her.
"Same, Arataka." Said Mob. She had faced down certain death for him on more than one occasion. She had even conquered, briefly her other half to save him. She had even merged with her other self to destroy Mogami down to the particle layer to keep him safe.
"Then stop being so jealous, Mob." Said Reigen. She knew what she meant to him. Nobody before her meant anything to him, even when he had been in love. The past was in the past. This today, this new endless today, belonged to her and her alone.
"It's not only jealousy." Said Mob. She felt a lot of things for him. She wanted him and nobody else. She wanted him to want her and nobody else. She was possessive of him, too. She had always been. She wouldn't lose him to harm or death or someone else or giant stalks of broccoli. He was hers and she was his.
"Stop being such a little horn dog then." Said Reigen. He remembered what it was like to be young. Right. She's expect him to keep up with her. Wait, no, he wasn't that old. He was talking like he was middle aged. He was thirty-two. Of course he would be able to keep up with her.
"…I can't help it. It's you." Said Mob with a blush. She had been dreaming of him for years, excuse her for wanted to play with her toys on Christmas morning.
"Mob, I love you so damn much, but we've got a day to start." Said Reigen. The longer he stayed near her the longer he felt like just saying 'fuck it' and tossing her down onto the bed, their bed. No. Serizawa could not be in charge again. Not after the last time.
"Yes Mast-Arataka." Said Mob. She loved her job. She had people to help and she knew that Serizawa couldn't be in charge for very long. He was still kind of bad with people and was too nice sometimes, and that was coming from her. Then again…she looked Master Reigen up and down….Ritsu didn't have school and he would help out if she asked…
But then she would have to tell Ritsu why he needed to fill in for her and Master Reigen.
Ritsu would not be happy about the reason and she…she didn't want to get into it with him right then.
She would have to, though. Master Reigen was right. She would have to get into it with a lot of people. Ritsu. Mom and Dad. Teru…yeah that last one would not be fun. None of it would be fun. No, but she would have to do it.
She looked over at the clock. Well, she was going to work so the first person she would have to tell Serizawa. That would be easy. He was such a nice person. An anxious person but still a nice one.
One person at a time.