"I can't believe I left Serizawa in charge." Said Reigen as their train sped away from Seasoning City.

"Why? He's a good person and much calmer these days." Said Mob as she sat next to him. They were close, now, but they had always sat close. The only difference now was that they could hold hands, which they did. It was great!

"I never said that he wasn't, Mob, but he's still too…nice, I guess." Said Reigen. What was that? Jealousy? Why? He was acting like a kid. Mob did not have feelings for Serizawa and she didn't even realize that he had feelings for her. That would be asinine. Mob was not going to wait for four years and then ditch him for Serizawa.

"Well, it's only a Sunday. We're only on call for spirit stuff on Sundays." Said Mob. They did exorcisms and legitimate cure removals on Sundays, not back rubs and séances and Photoshop. They used to not be open on Sunday at all but there was money to be made. Only doing the actual spirit stuff gave them more time to hang out, though.

"Yeah, you're right. Serizawa can handle that, it's only a Sunday after all." Said Reigen. Serizawa was a lot calmer but he did have a tendency to lock himself in small, dark rooms when he got overwhelmed. Maybe they'd come back to find him moved into the massage/exorcism/yoga/nap/occasionally-messing-around-when-nobody-was-around room.

"I asked Ritsu and Sho to help, too, so then he won't get overwhelmed." Said Mob. Well, she had originally just asked Ritsu to make sure that Serizawa was ok and Sho usually went wherever Ritsu went so it was most likely Ritsu and Sho over there right now.

"….Why would you go and do a thing like that, Mob? We want an office to come back to on Monday." Said Reigen. Those two got on like a house fire, and not in a good way. Sho was like a force of nature, sometimes. He just blew into your home and burnt sugar to every surface of your kitchen and then went through your browser history and left you suggestions on a stick note stuck to your computer monitor. He was a nice kid, Reigen knew that Mob wouldn't be so close with the kid, like he was her little brother, if he wasn't, but he was…like a ferret on an energy drink spiked with another energy drink. Mob's actual little brother could easily be swayed to whatever the kid wanted to do, like cover his kitchen in burnt brown sugar and then tease him about all the weird stuff in his search history…he hated those two, sometimes…but not really. Serizawa was…Serizawa. He'd probably just go along with whatever Sho wanted to do. Sho had, technically, outranked him for years.

"Because Sho wanted to be me since Serizawa was being you and then Ritsu had to be Serizawa because we needed a Serizawa or the office wouldn't be balanced." Said Mob simply

"…makes about as much sense as anything else the kid comes up with." Said Reigen. Mob leaned more into him. He reached over and pulled her close. She could still practically lay on his chest. She was short, he didn't know how short exactly but he knew that she was short. She hadn't gotten that much taller in high school but at least she had broken five feet. She could still fit practically on his chest, though. She was still so small, sometimes, but she wasn't a kid anymore and he had to remember that…even though the last time they had taken this train to their current destination she had been a kid…but those days were over. Mob made that perfectly clear.

"This makes sense, right?" asked Mob after a moment. How they were sitting made sense. They usually cuddled on long train rides. Of course it didn't' start off as cuddling. She originally needed someone to keep her stable so that she wouldn't get motion sick. It had become their default long train riding position and now, finally, she could call it what it was. They were cuddling and it was ok because they were in a couple and that was what coupled people did.

"Taking the early train? Yes, unless you wanted to get back home in the middle of the night. I am not asking mom for a ride home either, no way, not after last time." Said Reigen. He looked around subtly. Nobody was even looking in their direction. What was he thinking? Of course nobody was going to pop out of the shadows and call him a weirdo for holding his eighteen year old student turned girlfriend.

"No, I mean telling your mom." Said Mob. What if his mom said no? What if his mom yelled at them like her mom did? Mom still wasn't talking to her. Ritsu said that everything was alright but Sho said that the yelling was so bad that he and Ritsu had to sleep over at Teru's apartment to escape mom's wrath. Mom was also doing that thing she did where she got super upset and then she walked around the house looking for people to yell at.

"Why not? Mob, my mom loves you like her own kid, more than her own kid. Believe me, I know. Besides, it wouldn't be you that she'd be upset with anyway. She loves you, ok, so don't worry." Said Reigen taking a strand of her hair between his fingers and playing with it. That always relaxed her. Mob really had a thing about her hair.

"She does? But the first time she came to visit you guys had that great big fight about me…" said Mob. She didn't know what that fight was about, Master Reigen had been unusually tight lipped about it, but she had been awake and she had heard her name come up a few times.

"It wasn't about you, Mob." Said Reigen. Right, that fight. Well in his defense his mother was accusing him of being in a relationship with a fourteen year old girl. He was therefore entitled to get a little upset.

"But you both kept saying my name." said Mob. She could hear them all the way in the bedroom. She didn't know what she did, Master Reigen said that she hadn't done a thing, and the next day they had watched old movies form America dubbed into Japanese, which meant that his mom felt better, Arataka had said, but Mob still wasn't sure. Even after all these years she still wondered if Reigen Sophia actually liked her.

"Mob…that fight wasn't about you, it was about me." Said Reigen

"You? But what did you do?" asked Mob. Her name had still come up a lot. Was he lying…no. He had promised her that he would never lie to her again.

"It wasn't about anything I did it was about…what I wanted…what she thought that I wanted." Said Reigen

"Oh. What did you want?" asked Mob

"Don't make me say it, Mob, you know what it was about. You, me…back then." Said Reigen

"That I liked you?" asked Mob

"More about her thinking that I was into you." Said Reigen with a sigh.

"But that's not true. You weren't." said Mob

"You can tell her that, then. Mob…I didn't feel this way about you but we were really close. Unusually close. The kind of close that made her worry." Said Reigen

"But she's always been so nice to me." Said Mob

"That's because she likes you, Mob. She likes you and she loves me and she knows how much you mean to me, have always meant to me. She cares about you and this is…this is going to go just fine." Said Reigen trying to convince himself more than her. Mom would give him a big, fat, I told you so. That was a given. Then she'd take it…well. Well-ish. Their relationship was much better now, almost dying a couple times sure could mend the bond as it were. He got along better with his mother now than he ever had at any point in his life since early childhood. She had been there for him when Mob told him what happened when she was trapped in Mogamiland, when they had fought Claw for the second time, and when Mob had disappeared to go hunt down Mogami all those years ago. Sure mom could be kind of…much…but she'd take this well. She had to.

Because otherwise he was stuck in Lower Back Pain City until the next train came with a very angry mother and a probably very hurt Mob. Girlfriend. Right. Mob was his girlfriend now.

She was sitting next him all cuddled up, which was normal, because they had always sat like this when they rode the train together. Oh course she was younger then and he had tried to brush it off. Except now there was no brushing it off because he knew how she felt about him and he was ready to acknowledge the fact that he felt the same way.

Were they getting looks? Or was it his imagination?

He could feel the judgment of the people around him. Well not with his powers, what little powers he had, but just by…his gut, he guessed. It felt like everyone around them knew. They knew that Mob was fourteen years younger than him, that she was barely out of high school, that she had known him since she was in elementary school, that she still called him Master sometimes, that last night she called him Master right before she-

"Master? I mean, Arataka? What's wrong?" asked Mob

"Nothing. Just a little nervous." Said Reigen

"Because of your mom still?" asked Mob. Sophia was really nice, not that Mob saw her in person that often. She would maybe yell, if she got upset, but she hadn't gotten mad at Mob back when she told Sophia the truth about what happened in the unreality Mogami had trapped her in, the murder and cursing and initiating third impact and all. She had also let them stay with her for a long time after she beat Sho's dad when he was trying to take over the world. Her mom hadn't even called, she just told Ritsu to text and make sure that Mob was still alive.

"That and….a lot of things. This is still new to me, Mob, ok? This is…telling your parents kind of got to me." Said Reigen

"I'm sorry that mom yelled at you. Dad likes you, though, I think. He would have been a lot nicer but he's tired from working so much. He used to work less but then he started working a lot more after I left. He used to be kind of funny." Said Mob

"Well at least your dad likes me…or that I can provide for you." Said Reigen. Well what had he expected? Them to roll out the red carpet. Her mother's words rang in his mind. Over and over again 'I trusted you' like a skipping CD. He had done nothing to break her mother's trust. Aside from essentially waiting until it was somewhat socially acceptable to date Mob….not that he had been counting down the days or anything. That had been Mob's job.

"We provide for each other." Said Mob simply. She was the spirits and he was the such, just the way it had always been. She wasn't a baby, she could contribute to their household and she had been contributing to their household since there even was a household to contribute to.

"That's true but…but I should take care of you." Said Reigen

"Because I'm a girl?" asked Mob

"Because I spent so many years using you." Said Reigen

"Those were some of the best years of my life, Arataka, and I already forgave you for lying to me." Said Mob

"I know that you forgive me but I still haven't forgiven myself yet. Ok?" asked Reigen

"You should, though, because I forgive you." Said Mob

"Not just for the lying. I'll never forgive myself for…for what happened after the Asagiri job." Said Reigen

"When we went our separate ways?" asked Mob

"Yes, Mob, then…when I drove you away." Said Reigen. Mob put her hand over his. How could he still blame himself? She had her part to play, too. She had been too clingy. The two of them just needed their space for a couple weeks, that was all.

"We just needed to take a break from each other, Arataka, that's all. I was being a selfish, clingy, brat like you said back then." Said Mob. Reigen stopped breathing for a moment. His words from that awful day echoing in his mind.

"No!...no….Mob…you were never any of those things. Ok, we needed boundaries between us, but…but you needed me and I wasn't there…I was off on my own shit and you were hurting and homeless and-" said Reigen

"I was doing fine. I told you already. My friends took care of me when they found out that I was living outside. I wasn't a baby then and I'm not a baby now." Said Mob

"Mob…we are not having this fight again. I never said that you were a baby I just…Mob I pushed you away when you needed me the most. After what that creep Mogami did to you-" said Reigen

"I already told you that he never had sex with me." Said Mob. Ok, now some people were looking. She made herself small. Right. Should not use that word in public.

"I know what you told me but…Mob you don't have to tell me what happened. You don't have to tell anyone what happened. You just…you told me that he was on top of you and I'm sorry about where my mind went, ok? That's just…if someone wants to hurt a girl that's generally the thing to do. He liked having power over you…absolute power…" said Reigen. This was not the subject to discuss. Maybe he had jumped the gun on that one but after everything that Mob said happened….and he wasn't there for her…four years later it still hurt.

"….everyone thinks that I'm a liar. I already said that he just broke all of my fingers and choked me until I passed out. He hates, hated, sex…he said that sex and money were the most base human motivators. He said a lot of things. He'll never say anything again…" said Mob

"That's really not much better and I should have been there for you right afterwards, ok? Can we just…it's in the past and I'm sorry that we even got on this subject, ok?" said Reigen

"Ok. But I'm not a liar." Said Mob

"I never said you were. Besides, that's my job." Said Reigen giving her hair a little tug. She smiled.

"You aren't a liar anymore, Arataka." Said Mob using her powers to tug his hair right back.

"I was, though, for a while…and I'm sorry." Said Reigen

"I accept your apology and have accepted it for years, Arataka. You were a liar but you aren't now. Besides, even when you were a liar you were my favorite liar." Said Mob. She rested her head on him again. She could feel him, the way he felt. He was nestled in her aura again, mostly to hide from the feelings of the people around him. She could feel how happy he was with her, but also how nervous he was. The nervousness was making her fidget with her hair.

She really hoped that this wasn't going to end in a shouting match. As nice as Sophia was she and Master Reigen, and Arataka, did get into the occasional shouting match.

Luckily there was no shouting as they left the train station and spotted Sophia's car parked out front. Not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, that car had gone to car heaven, the scrapper not the afterlife, years ago. This was the Mach Five, so named because it was white with red seats and went really fast. Mob remembered, that had been a fun day. Sophia had gotten a new car because she had killed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang trying to drive off the road to get to Seasoning City during the whole take over the world thing. The army said that nobody was going in so she tried to drive around the army. It didn't work and the car died, but not really because it was an animate object. It didn't matter, though, because she ahd a new car and she looked happy and maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't end up in a shouting match.

Hopefully.

"Taka-chan! Mobbu! Hey!" said Sophia. She was in her work clothes, the black suit with the white ruffled shirt and the pink ribbon. Mob had tried it the first time she had ever visited, it made her look older, but in a good way Sophia said. She was older now. Hopefully she didn't still need the suit to look like an adult.

"Hey mom." Said Reigen as he approached his mother. She was in her work clothes. She took off early to meet them. She seemed happy. She was wearing a lot of makeup, though, which could be a bad sign. She put makeup on when she was stressed and right now it looked like she was wearing at least three coats of the stuff. Or maybe she just had a date or something after this. Yes, please let his mother have a hot date or something and not just waiting to start up the Reigen family argument. They last left off at his utter failure to keep Mob safe from esper terrorists.

"Taka-chan, you've put on weight. See, I told you your eating habits would catch up to you." Said Sophia settling on saying the first thing that came to mind. She disciplined her feelings, she had to, her son could sense emotions after all, and she was still wrapping her mind around that one. The truth was that she knew that nothing good could come from this meeting. They never met in person, not usually anyway, due to the distance….and she always initiated their visits anyway…

Sophia hugged Mob, making sure to press against her stomach for longer than was necessary. Just to make sure.

"Mom! You don't see me in God knows how long and that's what you open with?" asked Reigen. He caught a glimpse of her feelings when she hugged him, before moving onto Mob. Yeah, she was nervous. He didn't blame her, they usually only visited when the world was in danger or they had almost died.

"Well I know that she's certainly not going to tell you these things. Mobbu's too nice for that, aren't you Mobbu?" asked Sophia. Mob nodded. It felt odd hearing the way Sophia said her name. She had an accent that Mob wasn't used to.

"You didn't have to come all the way here to pick us up, mom, we could have taken the bus." Said Reigen getting off the subject of how much more mom liked Mob than him.

"Don't be like that, I had to take off work early anyway so I might as well come and pick you two up. Besides, I need your help with something." Said Sophia

"What?" asked Reigen. She was his mom and he would help her…even if she did tend to put them to work whenever they visited.

"We're going to Costco. I need someone to help me carry." Said Sophia. Neutral ground. There weren't any reports of mysterious spirits or delusional terrorists on the news so they must have come for personal reasons. She knew what they were most likely going to tell her. She knew her son and she knew how he felt. It had taken four years but she accepted that her son was in a codependent nonsexual relationship with a teenage girl.

She didn't know if she could accept a codependent sexual relationship. Mobbu may have been a legal adult but to Sophia she would always be the fourteen year old girl who liked getting her hair brushed and squealed over kitten stickers and liked to dress up in Sophia's clothes and pretend to be grown up.

"Can we get Costco lunch?" asked Mob. She liked Costco, the times that they had gone with Sophia. Whenever she came over to visit she always gave them a ride to Costco, the one in Seasoning City not the one in Lower Back Pain City. Mob liked it there, they had everything and it was really cheap and also free samples and also a little restaurant in there with really good ice cream.

"Well I don't really feel like cooking so, yeah sure why not. Come on Arataka." Said Sophia. Reigen knew his mother, well he liked to think that he knew his mother. She was trying to keep them out in public. She was trying to stick to neutral ground. She was trying to keep Mob happy. Well it made sense, mom visited when she had the time but he and Mob only came over when something was wrong.

What did his mother think was going on?

The ride in the car was a calm one. Mob, actually, managed to dominate the conversation. Sophia got her going about her school friends, that was the trick. Get her talking about something that she cared about. She became quite talkative if she was talking about her friends or shows she liked or jobs that she had gone on. That was the trick to it. Sophia let Mob dominate the conversation, not that Mob knew that she was dominating it.

She was just answering Sophia's questions about her friends.

Reigen knew what his mother was doing. Whenever there was a lull in the conversation she'd prod Mob and get her talking. Right now she was going on about how her friend and Reigen's occasional secretary, Tome, was taking the summer off from university to go to some sight where aliens were known to show up. Reigen had rolled his eyes at that. Even after all these years she was still on the aliens. This new generation was too stubborn, the old man part of him decided.

He and Mob were not at all the same generation.

Twenty years separated him from his mother. Fourteen years separated him from Mob.

But he was well past the point of being hung up on that. There was no going back now and he couldn't survive it if they tried. He wanted this with Mob and had wanted it for…he didn't know how long. Too long. Far too long. Long enough that his mother noticed all those years ago.

Not the sexual part of it.

Just the love Mob gave him. The love, the caring, the thoughtfulness, and even the nonsexual skin ship that they shared. Aside from bedroom things his relationship with Mob was really no different than it had been for the past four years. Which was either beautiful or made him some kind of weirdo. Reigen would believe either.

"….so I don't think that she should take a break. She might never come back and then she won't be able to find a job or anything. She could always work for us but we don't pay her, mostly because Master, I mean Arataka, didn't want her to work there so he said that he couldn't pay her. That's why she doesn't come by that often, that and university. She has bills to pay, she said, and the people she owes money too can't be paid in friendship and good memories." Said Mob oblivious to what was going on around her. She was in the backseat watching the unfamiliar city go by. Master Reigen, no, Arataka was sitting in the front seat with his head resting against the window even though Sophia hated that because it ruined the glass. Sophia was driving.

They swerved a little. They were ok, though, because Mob could always put a barrier around them. Like she had when it was her turn to drive the Mach Five all those years ago when they were testing it out in the countryside and she went so fast the speedometer needle ran out of space. She didn't know why everyone was so scared, then, she could easily save them if they hit anything.

"Nope. That don't pay the pickle man." Said Sophia. The turn of phrase sounded weird in Japanese, she knew it did, but that was the first thing that her mind had settled on. First name. In all the years she had known Mob Sophia had never once heard her use Arataka's first name.

Relationship upgrade.

"There are people in the United States that go around selling pickles?" asked Mob. They did love food over there, if Master Reigen and his mother were anything to go by. Well he was only half American and half Japanese but still.

"Yeah, last time I was over there everyone was going crazy for specialty food places. You really should come with one of these days, Taka-chan, you'd love it." Said Sophia. If he volunteered to take Mob with him, or if she volunteered herself, then that was clear evidence that their relationship had become, well, an actual relationship. Not whatever it was that they had before where Arataka pretty much used her to fill nearly every need that he should have had a woman his own age fulfilling.

Love.

Acceptance.

Company.

Caring but platinic touch.

Not sex, though, which was good. She did not bring up the sort of man who would openly date a teenage girl…well she was still a teenager…but she was at least a legal adult now.

"Nah, I'll pass. Everyone needs me at work and if I left for that long I wouldn't have an office to come back to." Said Reigen. Right. He should go back over and see everyone…especially if Mob was serious about this whole 'forever' thing. Everyone would want to meet her, wouldn't they? And those were only his relative from across the water. There were plenty of relatives from his father's side right here in Japan who would want to meet her too…

His eighteen year old girlfriend.

"I wouldn't let it burn down again. Besides, we have fire insurance anyway." Said Mob

"Good move, Arataka, I remember how stressed you were over the insurance the last time it burned down. Terrible business…just terrible." Muttered Sophia. She wished that she could just forget that awful day. The televised message that maniac did…the news reports…driving to Seasoning City not knowing if her only son was dead or alive….that damn army blockade….the noise Chitty Chitty Bang Bang made before it died….Arataka named that car when he was two and a half…

"Well it'll never happen again, mom." Said Reigen. He told his mom too much about what happened that day. About pulling the gun on Suzuki. About Serizawa saving his life. About seeing Mob lift skyscrapers into the air and throw them. About seeing Mob's limp body hurling through the air after being incinerated…her slamming into the building…Suzuki coming after him and the esper kids and he was just so fucking powerless and-

"It's funny that you think that you can even hope to win this fight here when your strongest attack is your own fear."

There's a hand on the back of his arm. He's pulled into a place that's there and safe and warm. Bubblegum pink and electric blue. Mob.

"It's over. It won't ever happen again. Ok?" said Mob. She could see his aura then, and he was scared. When he was scared she was scared but she put that fear into determination. She needed to pull him out of whatever he was stuck in then. Memories. He got stuck in them, sometimes, as did she.

"I'm ok, Mob. Thanks for that." Said Reigen. They hadn't changed in the four years that they had been living together. In the seven years that he had known her. She always knew just how to make him feel better, to feel safe. He had never once been afraid of her, never, but he had always used her for his own safety. Be it spirits, wannabe shonen villains, or his own memories she was there to make him feel safe.

Sophia pulled into the Costco parking lot. She would not interrupt the maudlin scene before her. That was why she loved Mob, not because she always wanted a daughter, though that was a perk, but because Arataka loved her. Arataka loved that girl and she was good for him. It was weird as hell, though, the age gap but there was nothing that Sophia could do about that.

They sold a great many things at Costco but a time machine wasn't one of them.

Mob grabbed them a cart with her powers. On second thought she grabbed two. Sophia always said that if you're going to buy in bulk you might as well buy in extreme bulk. Mob was just happy to come with even though they weren't getting anything to take back to her and Arataka's apartment. Those giant boxes of instant ramen were a good buy though…and she could carry things with her powers.

"I wonder if they have that seafood pork flavor here…." Muttered Reigen. Mob could carry things were her powers and the train shouldn't be too terribly crowded…and it really was a good deal….

"That sounds truly disgusting." Said Sophia. Her son's obsession with ramen was her fault. She had been so exhausted when he was young it was just easier to make him some instant ramen, too in some veggies and protein, and call it a day than to prepare a full Japanese dinner after spending the day going to university and chasing after a toddler. She'd have to tell Mob, though, not to fall into the convenience food trap…

Sophia watched Mob's stomach.

Her sweater was too baggy to see anything.

"Don't knock it until you've tried it. Besides, mom, when I was a kid you used to make all of those weird finger foods." Said Reigen

"I never made anything weird." Said Sophia

"Oh. You mean the way you taught me to cook? The way your mother used to cook?" asked Mob as she dragged two carts behind her with her powers. People were looking, she didn't care. The more she used her powers the less likely they were to come out later.

"Ok, fine, some of my mother's cooking was a little strange…" said Sophia. She remembered that day. She had taught Mob to cook mainly to get the girl to stop watching so much television. It had been after all of that terrible business…when Mob was coming to terms with….

"Cheeseball pick me ups accompanied by miniature franks and for dessert marshmallow kabobs, I didn't think that it was weird. I didn't think it was so bad. You all said that I did a good job." Said Mob. That was back when they were staying with Sophia after the whole saving the world thing. Sophia showed Mob how to make some 'retro' food from her own childhood. It was pretty good. American people liked tiny foods with toothpicks for convenience. Less dishes to do later.

"Ok, fine, your cheeseball pick me ups are pretty good, I'll give you that." Said Reigen as they entered the store. A blast of cool air hit them, it was most welcome. There was something about parking lots, probably all the blacktop, that made them into miniature sun surfaces.

"I can make them for you if you want, next time I make dinner." Said Mob. They didn't have an official dinner making schedule but she should cook more. Real cooking, not playing with the takoyaki maker. That was what girlfriends did after all, they made dinner.

"Thanks Mob, you really are the better cook between the two of us." Said Reigen. Mob really was. Well she did have psychic powers so cooking was a snap. Also maybe he did like having someone to cook for him. Mom was right, his diet of fast food, convenience food, and snacks was starting catch up to him.

"That's not true, I like the way you make instant ramen." Said Mob as they began to walk around, following Sophia's lead. She led them right to the food court, which was good because Mob's stomach was starting to growl like an angry cat, and they parked their carts at a table.

"Well there's no wrong way to make it." Said Reigen as he followed him mom to the line for the Costco restaurant. Speaking of food what to get…ice cream sounded pretty good….but ooh! Everything pizza! And giant rice balls….and takoyaki!

"Yes there is. There really is. But it's ok, I forgive Sho." Said Mob. Ice cream would be good. They put fruit on it so that made it ok to eat as a meal.

"Do I want to know what he did?" asked Reigen with a shudder. That kid had some kind of impulse control disorder or something. The little man who lived in his head and told him when he had bad ideas just never showed up for work it seemed.

"He made it Sho tested and hamster approved." Said Mob simply

"Oh God, is he still cooking for his hamster?" asked Reigen

"He says that hamster pellets taste gross and hamsters deserve real food just like the rest of us." Said Mob

"Don't tell me he actually ate hamster food." Said Reigen

"Ok then I won't tell you." Said Mob. This earned her a tug on her pigtail. She smiled.

"It's almost our turn, figure out what you two want. My treat." Said Sophia. It was best to get whatever guillotine they planned on dropping on her dropped already. Also she was hungry and would rather eat sooner rather than later. She planned on getting some bulk frozen food and that stuff was always disgusting after it thawed and was refrozen.

"Thanks mom, don't worry, we won't go crazy." Said Reigen. She was paying. She taught him that trick and he taught it to Mob. She knew that he was planning on dropping some big news on her, she wasn't dumb. She was planning on ripping off the band-aid as soon as possible. On the one hand all of this anticipation and dread was getting to him. On the other he didn't feel like getting told off right in the middle of Costco, and if his mother lost her temper badly enough she would.

Look at him, a grown man afraid of getting lectured by his mother.

Mob didn't go crazy, just milk an ice cream, which she knew was too much dairy at once. Diets needed to be varied but right now all she wanted was dairy. She could see Sophia looking at her with a look on her face that Mob did not know. She memorized faces like she memorized kanji, it didn't come naturally to her at all. Non espers were especially hard to read because most of the time auras gave away feelings. She wasn't like Master Reigen, she couldn't tell people how to feel or make their feelings her own, but she could tell when an aura shouted it's owner's feelings at her.

Sophia sort of had an aura. Less than even a very weak esper, not that she was calling the guys from the Awakening Lab weak or anything like that, but more than what a normal person had. It was visible, though, which Mob had only seen a few times. Big feelings.

"Arataka, you're going to make yourself sick eating like that. Reasonable bites, reasonable." Said Sophia. Reigen managed to get out a 'huh' before dropping his takoyaki. Mob caught it with her powers and spun it around a few times before feeding it to him.

"Yes mother." Said Reigen with his mouth full. Mob smiled and passed him a napkin.

"So…." Said Sophia after that little display of domestic intimacy. They always had that between them, the little intimacies. It was a lot less weird, now, because Mob was older…or maybe Sophia was just used to this.

"So?" asked Mob. She knew the long 'so', it meant that the person saying it wanted to say something but didn't know how.

"Who's dying?" said Sophia dropping that guillotine already. She could see them, sort of, the colors that made up her son and his…whatever he was calling Mob these days. Pink and blue but with a fair bit of yellow added in there. Arataka was hiding within her again. He certainly looked anxious, she knew her son. He only ate like that when something was bothering him. Not that he didn't always eat like a toddler, there were just different kinds of toddler like eating that he did.

"Probably a lot of people but I don't know anyone specific dying right now." Said Mob not getting it at all. Reigen reached over and put his hand over hers. Sweet clueless Mob.

"It's nothing like that, mom." Said Reigen

"Well you two so seldom visit and when you do someone is either dying or came very close to death." Said Sophia

"We also visited for Christmas last year." Said Mob helpfully.

"Ok, yes, you did that too, but this is not Christmastime, Mobbu. So, what bring you two all the way to my neck of the woods." Said Sophia

"It's good news, mom." Said Reigen

"I'll be the judge of that." Said Sophia, a million scenarios running through her mind, all of which were related to what was most likely a relationship upgrade. She knew this day was coming and she had to be…accepting…because she only got the one son and he needed her or he'd end up throwing salt around on live national TV again or something else equally embarrassing and that girl needed her to because God knew her family wasn't up to doing any actual parenting. Right. She may have been pregnant or they may have been getting married or, well, anything but whatever it was Sophia knew that she had to handle this with maturity and decorum.

"Arataka and I are a couple now, I just thought you ought to know." Said Mob between bites of ice-cream. She thought that came out well, she had certainly said it enough time. Reigen shook his head. Mob beat him to it and she said it so…well she had been practicing it after all.

A plastic fork hit the table. Mob caught it with her powers before it could roll away.

"She's pregnant." Said Sophia knowing full well that it was rude to switch to English. Well Mob was emotionally fragile and took pretty much everything as a form of rejection.

"Mom! She's not….it would be news to me if she was!" said Reigen. English, just to keep Mob out of the know. Well Mob did speak some…she wasn't fluent though…and she did take pretty much everything negative as a form of rejection.

"So you are sleeping with her. Well it's not like I didn't know that this day was coming." Said Sophia

"Mom! Please, don't start." Said Reigen

"Who's starting? I'm certainly not starting anything." said Sophia

"Yes you are. Why would you even ask-?"said Reigen

"Because why else would you tell me what I already know? I know that you two are in a relationship and you have been for years. You've been in a codependent non sexual relationship for years, the only thing that changed is you're sleeping together. More than I ever wanted to know, by the way, but if you came all the way out here to inform me of that I assumed that she was pregnant." Said Sophia

"Mom, I swear to God-" said Reigen

"I told you so. Did I tell you so? This was just an eventuality. Don't get so upset I'm happy for you, I am. She's good for you and always has been. I've had four years to get used to this and I'm…almost there." Said Sophia

"How can you even begin to think that I would…she was fourteen when you met her!" said Reigen

"Yes, and now she isn't. Now it's a hell of a lot less…everything. Now I can finally put up those pictures of the two of you I printed out from Friendbook. Now stop that, I can see things rattling which means that your mood is affecting Mob. I don't know why you're so upset, Arataka, you have my blessing." Said Sophia

"I'm upset because you think that I'm the kind of person who would actually…I can't even say it. Mom, I was not attracted to Mob when she was fourteen! Or Fifteen! Or sixteen or seventeen or-or-or" said Reigen

"Of course you weren't, I never said that. Codependent nonsexual relationship, that's what I said Taka-chan." Said Sophia

"What does that even mean?" asked Reigen

"It means that she's been acting like your girlfriend long before she was ever your girlfriend. I saw it, anybody who watches you two on the internet can see it, hell, anyone who's ever seen you two together can see it." Said Sophia

"I never-I mean we've always been close but-" said Reigen

"Your mother is correct. Many people think in the past that we are in a romantic relationship. Also I am able to understand you." Said Mob using her best English, the kind she had been sweating over workbooks for years to achieve. She earned that eighty eight percent in English that she finished with and she was going to use it.

"That was pretty good but a little stilted. Also your tenses didn't agree when you said-" said Sophia getting back to Japanese.

"Mom, she doesn't want an English lesson." Said Reigen running a hand through his hair.

"I don't mind, Master. I mean Arataka." Said Mob

"Welcome to the family, Mobbu. You have my blessing." Said Sophia. She reached over and did the hair tug thing that she had seen her son do to her. Mob tugged her hair right back, with her powers.

"Thank you but why did you think that Arataka and I were together back when I was little? That would have been weird. That's why I didn't confess then, because I knew that it would have been weird." Said Mob

"Because I have eyes, Mobbu, and despite my advanced age they still work just fine. He cared for you a lot and never, ever, treated you like anything other than an equal. I mean you called him shishou all the time, cute by the way, but he never treated you like anything other than his equal. Also there's all that terrible business from back then…just terrible….so yes, I've known that this day was coming. I didn't think that it would come on a Sunday afternoon in the Costco food court with quite so many people staring, who should really mind their own business by the way, but I am…I'm happy that Arataka found someone like you. I'm not crazy about the age thing but I am happy that he found you." Said Sophia

"We know how you feel about the age thing." Muttered Reigen feeling like he was the one who was eighteen, not Mob. His mother patted him on the head. For a moment he was…happy. She was happy so he was happy. She really was happy for him. Even though she thought that he was the worst kind of person she was happy for him…ok not the worst kind. She at least acknowledged that no matter how emotionally attracted he was to Mob it hadn't ever been sexual. That was something, at least. Still, she approved.

Mom never approved of anything.

But she approved of Mob.

"Then you know how everyone else will feel, too, Taka-chan. Especially your father. Have you told him yet?" asked Sophia

"No. Let him read about it in the society pages." Said Reigen. Mob laced her fingers in his. She knew that he and his dad didn't get along. She didn't know why, just that they didn't.

"Well you really should tell him. He asks about you, sometimes, you know." Said Sophia

"Well I don't give a damn about him." said Reigen

"…and for good reason. Many good reasons. I'm…I'm sorry for all of that, back then, when you were a kid…and afterwards. Thank you, Taka-chan, Arataka, for…for letting me into this part of your life. For letting me into your life…anyway! You know, I knew you were coming but I didn't bake a cake." Said Sophia. Maudlin scenes wee for old MGM musicals, not real life. She and Arataka weren't like that.

"But what would you have done if we dropped you a letter?" asked Reigen taking the bait. He knew this song, he had spent his entire childhood hearing this song, but it didn't sound quite so annoying now.

"She would have hired a band." Said Mob. She knew this song. Sophia liked to play this song a lot when they cooked together in those rare times when she and Arataka would come and visit her.

"The grandest band?" asked Reigen. Mob was smiling. If Mob was happy then he was happy, and not just because of powers.

"In the land." Said Sophia. Taka-chan was smiling, that was good. She so rarely saw her son smiling. He'd be, hopefully, doing a lot more of that these days. Yes. If her son was happy then she was happy.

"How about I get us a Costco cake? To celebrate. I'll have them write something along the lines of 'congratulations on your non platonic relationship' or something like that." Said Sophia. Reigen rolled his eyes.

"If you really want to…but no fondant!" said Reigen. She reached over and patted her son on the head, then, after a moment, his girlfriend too. His girlfriend and her future daughter in law. She went off to get moderately priced cake.

"Well…that was less painful than I thought that it would be." Said Reigen leaning back.

"I'm happy that she didn't yell." Said Mob. She had wished, a few times, that Sophia could be her mom. She never yelled, not for real anyway, and wasn't afraid of Mob. She accepted her. That was all Mob wanted, really, at the end of it all. Someone to accept her.

"She's mellowed out in her old age, not that she's that old, she just likes to complain. She's only fifty three." Said Reigen. Mob was quiet for a moment.

"How old is your dad?" asked Mob after a moment. She knew nothing at all about his father. Well she knew that his father had another family and was mean to Master Reigen, to Arataka, when he was a kid. He said that Sophia was mean to him when he was a kid too but she was really nice now. It was important to be close to your family, maybe, but only if they wanted to be close to you. She wasn't close to her family but…but it didn't matter because she was an adult now. But would she become estranged from them? Arataka was estranged from his family…his dad, anyway…

"Huh? He's about, um, fifty six or fifty seven I guess. Why do you ask?" asked Reigen

"I was just thinking, that's all. I never met him, not once, and you hardly talk about him." Said Mob

"And we're going to keep it that way. Mob…my dad is…he's not a nice man. He will definetley have an opinion about…us….and I don't want to expose you to someone like him. He's just…he's not very nice. Worse than mom ever was." Said Reigen. Mob could not meet his father in person. Dad would…he would not react well. Not to any of this. Not to her age, not to her powers, not to her general oddness. Nope. Dad could hear about it himself later.

"But your mom said that he asked after you." Said Mob. Relationships between parents and children were important. Forgiveness was important.

"He can do whatever he wants, I don't care." Said Reigen. He didn't care if dad was screaming his name from the rooftops, it wasn't going to happen. He was not going to voluntarily tell his father about anything in his life.

"..ok…" said Mob. He sighed.

"Mob, you're better off not knowing him. He won't take this well, believe me." Said Reigen pulling her close. She nodded.

"Ok. I was just…kind of worried. Forgiveness is important and family is important. I just…I don't want your family not to like you…like my parents don't like me. They love me but they don't like me…and I just didn't want you to feel like that." Said Mob

"Mob…they do care about you. If they didn't care about you then they wouldn't have been ready to skin me alive for…or being with you. Just…I'm fine, Mob. Really. Now come on, let's have some Costco cake." Said Reigen

"Ok….I just wish I hadn't eaten all my ice cream already." Said Mob. They had their cake and it was very good. She was happy the whole time, so was everyone. No yelling or shouting or mean words or anything like that. Just love. Love and cake. What else could they ever need?

This went well, Mob thought.

Very well.