Mob could, occasionally, cook.
"Mob….you've been talking to my mother again, haven't you?" asked Reigen as he took in the spread before him. For a moment he was seven years old and had to sit on a phonebook to take in what his mother called dinner.
"Yes, she calls me during her lunch time. How did you know?" asked Mob as she poured him some tea. She cooked, sometimes, and so did he. He usually made ramen but lately it had been nothing but takoyaki. Mob liked takoyaki as much as the next person but not every single night. Also it was better from the stand, not their takoyaki maker.
"Lucky guess." Said Reigen
"She wants you to pick up the phone when she calls, she doesn't like it when you text her back hours later with a question mark. She told me to tell you that. Also she told me to make you eat more healthy foods." Said Mob
"Yeah, that's my mom. She tell you anything else?" asked Reigen
"That she loves me and to tell you that she loves you. Also she told me to tell you that not everything needs to be deep fried or drowned in salt." Said Mob
"Why doesn't she just come here and feed me like a baby then." Said Reigen. Honestly. He was a grown man. This was why he didn't pick up the phone. This was a 'his mother' thing, not a mothers in general thing. Mob's mother had been surprisingly quiet about just about every aspect of her daughter's life since the infamous dinner.
Which was good. She would have had a heart attack at this domestic scene.
"Because you're too old for that. I could feed you if you want me to…but I think that would be kind of weird Master, I mean Arataka." Said Mob as she served them.
"I was kidding, Mob. Still, she can't tell me how to eat…and none of this is healthy, anyway." Said Reigen
"I know it's not healthy, I just made this because this is the first real dinner I ever made for you. Well, your mom helped me. Not now, I mean years ago. Remember, when we stayed with her after we saved the world?" asked Mob
"Oh yeah….this is the exact same meal." Said Reigen
"I thought that I should make you something….because I'm your girlfriend and that's what girlfriends are supposed to do." Said Mob softly. Reigen almost looked around, almost. Who was there to hear her? And there was nothing wrong with what she said, anyway. She loved him, he loved her, they were both adults, so there was nothing wrong with this.
Really.
"Nothing says love like fish ball pick me ups, miniature onigiri with melted cheese, and giant tamago." Said Reigen. Yup. It took mom a while to get good at Japanese cooking. A long while. Still, he liked it back when he was a kid…and when Mob cooked like this for him for the first time. She got into it back then, playing house. He was busy picking up the pieces of himself after nearly dying, Mob nearly dying, and almost killing a man with a toy gun. Mob had been fine, though, perfectly happy to play house after she had saved the world. She was resilient like that.
But this was different. Now she wasn't playing house. Now she was doing what adults did and making dinner for her…for him…after a hard day's work.
"I also made marshmallow kabobs for dessert." Said Mob. She called their dessert to the table.
"You remembered the maraschino cherries. Mob, I love you." Said Reigen. Who knew that marshmallows, canned pineapple chunks, fresh strawberries, and maraschino cherries dipped in chocolate could be so good?
"I love you too." Said Mob. He liked it. Well of course he was, he liked it the last time she made it. He said he loved her, then, too, but he meant it in a different way. This time he meant it in the way that she had always wanted him to mean it. She'd have to get more recipes from his mom. Maybe she could show her how to make that sandwich cake thing she made. It was pretty good and it was less messy to make with powers.
They ate with scattered dialogue, most of it from Reigen. Mob wasn't much for talking with her mouth full. She just listened to him and passed him a paper towel when he needed it, which was often. She was glad he liked it, though, even though it really wasn't much effort at all. Cooking was easy with her powers, even though she knew that she shouldn't use her powers for such mundane things. It did make cooking easier, though. Cooking was hard, mom always said so. Mom always said that Mob would never have any idea how hard it was to cook for a family.
Cooking for the two of them wasn't hard at all.
Not that she would go and tell her mom that. Mom hadn't said a word to her in so long, not even over text. She was still upset, Ritsu said. Mob didn't understand why. Master Reigen was a good person. He loved her, she loved him, and she was an adult and she could make her own choices in who she dated.
And she chose Master Reigen.
Arataka.
It was so hard to remember to call him Arataka. It still felt weird in her mind, on her tongue. His actual name. Nobody called him Arataka, except for his mom, but not all the time. Sometimes he was Taka or Taka-chan. Everyone else called him Reigen, or Master Reigen, or that Reigen guy. That last one wasn't too nice. To her he was Arataka now.
She watched him eat. No matter what she called him he was still the same person to her. The same person who ate like he didn't care if half of it ended up on his face. The person who liked to talk over every meal but she didn't mind. The person who loved her. The person who she loved. It didn't matter what she called him, he was still him.
She was still her, too.
She was older but she was still her. She still loved him just as much as she always had. The only difference was that he loved her back now. He loved her back and she was old enough for him to love her back. He still worried, though. She knew that he still worried. He still worried about what people would think. Would it ever go away? He would always be fourteen years older than her. No matter how much time passed fourteen years would still separate them. She didn't care. She didn't care if forty years separated them. She would still be Mob and he would still be Master Reigen, Reigen Arataka, and she would still listen to him while he talked with his mouth full.
Why didn't her parents see it that way?
Mom and dad had been so…mean. Mom, mostly. Mob didn't get it. Why did she think such bad things about all of this? If Mob ever had a daughter, which would be nice actually she'd call her Takako or Arataki or maybe even Ritsuko, then Mob would support her no matter who she loved. Maybe Mob wouldn't call her Ritsuko, though, because maybe Ritsu and Sho would want that if they had a daughter. They could have twins, Ritsuko and Shoko. That would be nice. All of their kids could be the best of friends.
Not that anyone was having kids anytime soon.
She didn't know why his mom thought that she was pregnant. She didn't know why her mom thought that she was pregnant. If she got pregnant then she would, obviously, say that she was pregnant. Not that she was pregnant. She had just started this relationship and was barely out of high school. Of course they weren't going to have a baby yet, they weren't even married. She didn't know when any of that would happen but she knew that it was way too early for anything to happen.
Anything but dinner that was.
So she sat at the table and watched him eat. She listened to his ramblings, not that she would ever call them ramblings to his face, and she just enjoyed what they had right then. Marriage and parenthood were in the far future for them. She didn't know when it would happen but she knew that when it did they would be good parents, the best parents, and the most loving couple. They wouldn't fight like her parents and they wouldn't divorce like his parents.
They loved each other.
But her parents loved each other too and they still fought. His parents had loved each other too and they still divorced. Would there be a time in the future when she and Arataka wouldn't love each other anymore? Would they fight all the time? Would he stay later and later at work until he never saw her again? Would she yell all the time at everything? Would they…how did people get divorced anyway? Did they just wake up one day and decide not to be married?
Why had his parents gotten divorced?
Mob wanted to ask, so she did.
"Why are your parents divorced?" asked Mob interrupting Reigen's story about the time he found a five hundred yen coin sticking out of a vending machine slot. He coughed and Mob passed him a cup of tea.
"Why do you ask?" asked Reigen after he stopped choking. That had been completely out of left field. Mob had never asked that before, not that he could remember. He knew Mob. Something was thunking around in that head of hers.
"Because your parents are divorced." Said Mob simply
"You've known that for years, Mob, I mean why did you ask right now, right this second?" asked Reigen
"I was worried, I guess." Said Mob
"What's my mom been telling you?" asked Reigen with a sigh. Who knew what mom could have been filling Mob's head with. Mom said that she was becoming ok with this, becoming being the operative word. She still wasn't.
"A lot of things but nothing about divorce. Is it true that you once stole a tiny gumball machine from the Sanrio store? And when she caught you with it you told her that you were framed? And you made up evidence?" asked Mob
"I was seven!" said Reigen. Mob smiled.
"Anyway, stop worrying about divorce. I'm sure that your parents aren't getting divorced. If they were they would have done it already. Besides, nobody gets divorced, it's just not done, and you know how your mom is about appearances." Said Reigen. That must have been it. That visit to her parents' house must have shaken her more than she let on. Poor Mob.
"I know that they aren't going to get a divorce. If they were Ritsu would probably tell me, probably, because he likes to hide things from me that would make me upset. Sho would definitely tell me, he tells everyone everything. Remember how he told everyone when he and Ritsu kissed for the first time?" asked Mob
"Oh God, don't remind me! He just ran through the door screaming it at the top of his lungs. I thought that Serizawa was going to have a heart attack. The client was none too pleased, either." Said Reigen
"Also it was kind of not good because Ritsu was still dating Rei when that happened. I was just thinking about things like that. Rei loved Ritsu and Ritsu told her that he loved her but then he ended up breaking her heart so that he could be with Sho." Said Mob
"He was still figuring himself out, Mob, and he was like thirteen. Nobody expects two thirteen year olds to stick it out for the long haul." Said Reigen
"Also Teru and I broke up. I loved him and he loved me but we still broke up. We were going to get married and live in Teru's apartment forever but we broke up." Said Mob. Reigen winced.
"If you…want to get back together with-" said Reigen choking on his words. Was that what Mob was getting at? He read her emotions. She was a little bit worried. The kind of worry that made him tap his toes and drum his fingers. She wouldn't…she couldn't….
"No. I don't want to get back together with Teru at all. We broke up almost a year ago. I was just saying that it's the same thing. I was just thinking about how two people can be in love but then they can decide to break up or get divorced. We love each other but we could get divorced." Said Mob
"That would be a bit difficult, Mob, considering that we aren't even married yet." Said Reigen
"Oh. Are you asking me to marry you?" asked Mob. Then the room rattled. He was surprised and he shared it with her so, of course, she ended up losing control a little bit. Even after that whole mess with the divine tree and hunting down Mogami she still didn't have perfect control even if she was more merged with the other half of herself.
"Mob! Slow the fuck down! It hasn't even been a year!" said Reigen. Yet. It was a yet. Of course it was a yet. He was going to marry her, he couldn't imagine himself married to anyone else. She wanted to be married. She wanted marriage and a family and he would give her whatever she wanted. Just not now. Dinner. Dinner was enough.
"I know, I was just asking because you said yet. I wouldn't mind marrying you, I just don't want us to get divorced. Your parents are divorced and I was just wondering why. They must have loved each other at least a little if they got married and had you. You can't just go around getting married and having babies with people you don't love. That doesn't make any sense." Said Mob. Reigen held eye contact with her. of course getting into a staring contest with Mob was like getting into a drinking contest with a wino, you had no chance of winning and she didn't even know that there was a competition.
"Come on, Mob, if you want to know then I'll tell you. It's not much of a story, though, and you already know the ending." Said Reigen getting up and motioning for her to follow. She followed him to the living room and sat next to him on the couch.
"I just wanted to know why they got a divorce….and I don't want us to get a divorce or break up or anything like that. I don't like breaking up, it hurts." Said Mob
"Yeah, it does. That's why I won't ever break up with you. I mean, not unless you give me good reason to but I know that you won't. I know that you would never cheat on me or hurt me in any way." said Reigen
"I would never, ever, ever cheat on you or hurt you. I don't even know why people do things like that. When you love someone then you have to always be nice to them and take care of them and make sure that they're happy." Said Mob
"In a perfect world, yes, but this is not at all a perfect world. Mob…relationships can be hard. You and I…we just started this thing and some days it'll be hard to even be around each other. Some days we just won't get along, some days we'll fight…that's life." Said Reigen
"I've never felt that way about you, ever. Not even when we went our separate ways, which felt just like breaking up. Do you…have you ever felt that way about me?" asked Mob softly
"Mob….it was years ago. Back when…you remember years ago when we went our separate ways? I was…I was mad at you when I said those things. I just…I was afraid of how I felt. I was afraid of how I felt about you and I was afraid of how you felt about me and when you got so clingy after the…after the Asagiri job…it was just too much. I was angry with you and I…I had no idea what you were going through. Then you came back and you told me…you told me what happened and then I was angry…I was angry at both of us. I was angry at you for not just telling me and I was angry at myself for…Mob you were living outside!" said Reigen. Mob didn't know what he was so worked up about, it had happened years ago. It hurt, though, that he had been that angry with her. She was sorry. She was sorry for being so terrible and she had told him a thousand times already.
"I said that I was sorry…" said Mob. Reigen sighed and took her hand. He was not mad anymore and he had been more mad at himself then, if anything. He just needed her to know that no matter what happened, no matter how bad things got, he would always be there for her.
"Mob…don't apologize. First of all you did more than your fair share of apologizing back then and second of all that whole thing was mostly my fault. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you and I'm sorry that I was too wrapped up in my own shit that I had going on to be there for you. I'm just so sorry. Mob…stop worrying about us breaking up. We got through that. We got through you sleeping in the park and me throwing salt around live on national TV. We can get through anything so please, for the love of God, stop worrying about us breaking up. If we didn't…back then it stands to reason that we won't now. Ok? We aren't your bother and that girlfriend he had years ago. We aren't you and that Teru kid. We aren't my parents. We're us." Said Reigen
"I…understand. We got all of our fighting out of the way early. That makes sense." Said Mob
"Mob…we're going to fight again. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow but we will fight again. Every couple fights but us…I have no intention of ever breaking up with you and I have no intention of ever doing anything to make you want to break up with me. I'm not my father or my mother." Said Reigen
"I know. Your life is your own." Said Mob
"Exactly. I'm not going to move to a country where I barely speak the language and sleep with the first person who gives me the time of day and end up having a kid I never wanted…." Said Reigen. Mob squeezed his hand.
"Your mom wants you. She tells me all the time that she loves you and she wants you to call her more." Said Mob
"I know…I know mom wants me, now, but she…she didn't always. At least she didn't act like. Dad didn't either. They were…they were always busy with their own shit. They were busy with their own shit…so busy that they almost never remembered that they even had a son. Mob….my parents never should have been married. Mom came to Japan because….well she really liked Japan. She came here and she could barely speak the language and dad…he liked her. He liked her and he could barely speak English. I…I don't think that it was ever love between the two of them. I don't think that…they fought all the time. Mom hated it here, when I was a kid. Dad…dad never wanted me for a son. Mom and I were never what he…we were never what he wanted for his family." Said Reigen
"Why? You're a good person…I don't know why anyone…" said Mob
"Dad had an idea in his head of what he wanted in a son. I was never what he wanted. He…he had his moments but he was worse than mom ever was. Mom yelled, she could put your mom to shame, and she could be really passive aggressive but she never started another family while she still had-!" said Reigen
"Oh. That's why…they got divorced because your dad cheated on your mom?" asked Mob
"The cheating was what did it, yeah. That's what did it. He's still with her, last I checked. I have a brother, well I told you about him before, well that I had one. My brother by that marriage is about your age now, maybe a little older. It's just….I will never do that to you. You don't have to worry about us getting divorced or about why my parents got divorced. I would never do something so….unforgivable…to you." Said Reigen
"I would never do anything like that to you, either." Said Mob
"I know that you wouldn't, Mob, I know that. So now you know. Now you know the truth of what happened between my parents. We are not them and we never will be. I won't ever just…I would never yell at you. I would never belittle or insult you. I would never cheat on you. I would never walk out on you…or our family." Said Reigen
"Oh…that's why you don't like your dad." Said Mob. Well that was a very good reason not to like someone. When you were in a relationship with someone then you agreed to only be with them, it was a promise. Cheating was the worst kind of promise breaking.
"Yeah…that's why we don't get along and why we never will. Ok? I'm not him, so don't worry. Stop worrying about breaking up and divorce and all of that. Alright? Now come on, let's finish dinner. You did a good job on it, Mob, you really did." Said Reigen
"Thank you. I just wanted to make you happy." Said Mob
"Mob…you always make me happy. Just by being here you make me happy." Said Reigen. He leaned over and kissed her. She, of course, kissed him back.
At some point dinner was forgotten.