Girls were not allowed to like Ritsu!

He was too little. Much too little for all of that. As far as Mob was concerned he still got up early before school to watch One Piece and got upset when someone ate the last of his cereal. He was still little and he did not even think about girls. He didn't even like girls yet. He was way too little!

So girls were not allowed to like him.

Especially not Mob's friends.

"…and then he got me a soda and I still have the can!" said Rei as she made another lantern. She liked making lanterns. Maybe she could make one for Ritsu. Or a bunch. What was his favorite color? She'd find out next time.

"…he only did that because Sho spilled yours." Said Mob from her desk. She was reading manga, well she was looking at a page and clutching her book. She did not want to hear a play by play of last Saturday when they all went to the arcade. She was there. She knew what happened.

"Oh! And Sho got me a whole Costco sized pack of soda. I mean, he left it on my doorstep but he left a note too. Oh he's so cute! And funny! Remember that cartwheel he did?" asked Rei

"So that's what happened to all of my soda." Said Serizawa as he hung up on of Miss Kurosaki's lanterns. She was so good at crafting. He didn't know Miss Reigen kept on taking these down at the end of the day.

"A case of soda?" said Reigen as she looked up from her work. Well less work more buying cheap incense online. That was one of the tabs, anyway, and who cared what she did? This was downtime.

"Yeah! He got me an entire case of soda! Well most of one." said Rei. Tome rolled her eyes from behind the game she was playing. Children. They knew nothing of matters of the heart. Also that guy was so annoying. Rei had the absolute worst taste ever. First Mob's little brother, the most high strung guy on the planet, and then his annoying little friend. And Tome did not just think that because that guy was supernaturally good at DDR.

"He only did that because he cartwheeled into you and made you spill yours everywhere." Said Mob. Rei frowned.

"What's wrong?" asked Rei. She knew Mob. Mob did not usually look like that. She seemed…mad almost.

"Nothing." Said Mob. Nothing was wrong, per say, nothing at all. Rei could like whoever she wanted. There was no law that said that girls were not allowed to like Ritsu and Mob wanted Ritsu to find someone to love him and take care of him and make sure that he had enough to eat and to tuck him in at night or whatever else you were supposed to do when you loved someone…just not now. He was only thirteen. He was too young for all of that, especially the things that Rei thought about.

Mob knew how Rei thought because Rei was a girl and therefore thought about the same things that Mob and every other girl thought about. Ritsu was too young for those things, or even to know what those things were.

"Mob's just jealous." Said Tome not looking up. It was plain as day, Mob was jealous. She obviously wasn't getting anything from her boyfriend so she was starting to look at greener, more annoying, pastures. Not that Tome blamed her. That was why she had originally broken up with Inukawa back in second year. A relationship had to always move forward or it would die, like a shark.

"Of who?" asked Serizawa not getting it at all. He could see Miss Kageyama's aura. Mob's aura, she was Mob to him. He could see her aura and she did look mad. Why? Why would she be mad at her friend? Miss Kurosaki was a very nice girl. She even painted his umbrella for him. Not that he had asked her too but she said that aesthetics were very important.

"Nobody's jealous of anyone. Everyone's happy for you, Rei. Now will you quit with the lanterns, we're running out of room on the ceiling." Said Reigen. There was no way that Mob was…jealous. No way. Mob had a boyfriend. A boyfriend who still hadn't kissed her, not that Mob's love life was any of her business, and not that Mob was even old enough to be doing things like that. Mob was only fourteen. She was too young to…well of course she wasn't. She was growing up whether Reigen liked it or not.

And now apparently she had a thing for her brother's best friend.

Not that Reigen could blame her. She was fourteen, she didn't want to wait around forever for a guy to get to her pace. Reigen hadn't been any different at that age. Not that she wanted Mob doing even a tenth of what she had been doing at fourteen. Or any of the girls, really. Well Tome was but nobody told Tome what to do. She had stated as such multiple times.

"There's still some space left." Said Serizawa. He liked them. He didn't know their significance but they helped make the room seem smaller. Smaller spaces were safer.

"We're all happy for you, Rei. Get some!" said Tome. The lanterns hanging from the ceiling all fell to the ground.

"Thanks Mob." Said Reigen. Well it looked like they were going to have another Master to student talk later. Poor Mob. The whole thing just sucked. She really liked Haystack. She called Reigen right after she got home from her date to tell her what happened. Haystack almost kissed her. Almost. He said that she deserved better than the movie theatre at the shopping center and then kissed her hand.

That kid watched way too many movies.

Mob had been giddy, then, and told Reigen in detail…a lot of detail…what happened. Then she hung up, presumably to tell the others. It was touching, though, that Reigen was still the first person Mob called about these things. Well now Reigen would hear about…whatever all of this was about…and help Mob through it. She'd have to tread lightly. Liking the same guy…it would have been safer if the two of them were playing hot potato with a live grenade.

"See! You are mad. What? Just tell me." Said Rei

"I don't want us to fight." Said Mob

"Please don't fight!" said Serizawa. No. Friends shouldn't fight. Not that he had much experience with friends. He never fought with Sho and Sho was kind of his friend…or with Hatori or…well Minegishi fought with everyone…but he and Miss Reigen never fought and they were friends. So therefore friends should never fight.

"No, fight. Psychic battle time! Come on, I missed out on the last one." said Tome mostly because she was bored. She couldn't believe that the two of them were fighting over that red haired kid. If this were a work of great literature, also known as a low key smutty manga, they'd be fighting over Mob's little brother. Now that Tome could kind of understand. He was a pretty cute guy…until you got to know him.

"If you two are planning on fighting take it outside." Said Reigen. She knew that it wouldn't turn into a psychic fight, or really any kind of physical fight. Mob didn't have it in her to use her powers on another human being…ever again…and Rei's powers didn't even work like that. Besides, these were middle school girls. Passive aggressive jabs, most likely, and then that slow sort of verbal fighting that could destroy a person from the inside out. Either way Reigen did not want that happening inside. This was a place of business, not a place of…fighting about stuff.

"We aren't fighting. I just…I wish you wouldn't talk about him like that." Said Mob

"Sho? Why? Do you…do you like him?" asked Rei. Wait, no. She had Teru? Why did she want Sho too? She did not get two boyfriends. Nobody got two boyfriends!

"I think he's nice and funny and he likes animals, which is nice, and he's always at my house, so sometimes we hang out so I guess so. So I want to be his friend, I mean, not his girlfriend. Because I know that like can mean a lot of things and I know that you like him like that. And my brother, too. My brother is who I'm talking about. Sho isn't my brother even though I think his dad thought that he was." Said Mob

"The President said that?" asked Serizawa. Suzuki never even hinted at the possibility that he could have other kids…not that Suzuki ever talked about his personal life…not that Serizawa still gave a damn if Suzuki talked to him about…anything. He didn't care about Suzuki anymore. He had found his own place in society where he had actual friends and he was valued. So who cared about Suzuki? Serizawa sure didn't.

"Wait what happened?" asked Tome. She knew so little about the epic boos fight. Nobody ever wanted to talk about it, which made no sense because it was so cool. Everyone lived. The god guys won. But nobody wanted to share any victory stories. So boring.

"Mob, he was just trying to press your buttons." Said Reigen. She knew what Mob was talking about. She had been there. The way that man could so calmly go from trying to kill Mob to asking her how old she was, her mother's name, where she had been born….

"I thought so too but then Sho said that his dad was still asking about me. Things like my birthday, what hospital I was born at, who my parents are. I didn't understand why but then Sho told me that he was trying to figure out if we were brother and sister. We aren't. I asked my mom. Well I asked her if she had ever been in love with anyone but my dad and she said no." said Mob

"You don't have to be in love to make a person." Said Tome

"Wait, what? How does that work then?" asked Mob

"Don't tell her!" said Rei shaking her head. Serizawa nodded in agreement. She was too young to know about things like that. Way, way, way too young. She was barely any older than Sho and Sho was still so young.

"Mob you and I have to have a talk later on." Said Reigen. What in the hell were they teaching the kids these days? Best to fix that little misconception before Mob's boyfriend opened his eyes and the two of them got up to what poorly supervised teenagers got up to.

Reigen was not ready for Spirits and Such daycare.

Not yet.

"Ok Master." Said Mob. She hoped that Master Reigen wasn't mad at her for how mean she had been to Rei. She hoped that Rei wasn't mad at her for how mean she had been. She had been way too mean. Lately it seemed like every little thing made her mad. They had curry two nights in a row, Sho ate the last of her cereal without asking, mom got mad at her about forgetting to put the top back on the toothpaste….

"So you and Sho are just friends?" Said Rei getting back to the topic at hand. She and Mob could not both be into the same guy. That would ruin their friendship. Sides would have to be taken. Friendships would totally fall apart.

"Yes. Sho and I are just friends. I just didn't want you to talk about Ritsu like that. He's too little for girls to like him. He doesn't even like girls yet. Girls confess to him all the time but he's never had a girlfriend and it's because he's way too little." Said Mob

"Right…because he's little." Said Tome with a laugh. Reigen shot her a look.

"Oh….because he's your brother….ok I get it. I'll shut up about Ritsu." Said Rei. That made sense, sort of. She didn't have any brothers but the thought of her sisters getting up to anything was stomach turning. It was probably the same between Mob and Ritsu.

"You can still like him just…don't think about kissing him or holding his hand or anything. Not unless you're going to love him for the rest of his life and take care of him and marry him and have a house and a family together." Said Mob. That would be ok. If it was the true kind of love, not the kind of love where you thought about things that you weren't supposed to, then it was fine.

"Mob that's…that's a lot." Said Reigen. Well Mob certainly knew what she wanted….not that there were any boys her age that were ready to look at engagement rings, houses, and adjoining burial plots….but good for her…?

"Wait…is that what girls want?" asked Serizawa. So they didn't like you back until you were ready for that level of commitment? But how were you supposed to know that you wanted that kind of commitment if you didn't even know if she liked you back?! What if you planned this great life together and it turned out that she didn't like you!? He liked…well he thought he liked…but marriage? A house? Kids? He didn't know anything about kids!

He reached over and held his umbrella in two shaky hands.

"Yeah, we love commitment. You've got to really commit a whole lot right off the bat. Don't even ask her out, just get down on one knee and get it over with." Said Tome. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack, and she knew why. She could see the way his eyes kept on darting over to Reigen. Those two should just go to a love hotel already and get it over with...but not the Purple Palace, that place sucks.

"What?!" asked Serizawa. Reigen, mercifully, shook her head.

"She's messing with you, Serizawa. Seriously, don't do that. Trust me, no woman wants a man who hasn't even asked her out to just get down on one knee like that. We like commitment but not right away. Mob…I know you like commitment and I'm glad you know what you want but Rei is allowed to like whoever she wants without having to worry about planning her wedding…and you don't get to decide who likes and dislikes your little brother. Ok? And Rei, we get it, you like the guy, but come on that's Mob's little brother. Nobody wants to think about their sibling's love life." Said Reigen as diplomatically as possible. Well this was certainly going well, better than she had anticipated. She should have known that Mob wasn't the type to be like that. She was direct, incredibly direct.

Very protective, too, it seemed.

"Damn it, I wanted to see the fight." Said Tome. Reigen rolled her eyes and pulled out an empty glass jar from under her desk. She turned it around so the label faced outwards.

"Come on, that's ten yen. I warned you, Tome, don't say I didn't." said Reigen. Tome swore under her breath as she walked up and deposited a ten yen coin in the swear jar. Mob went back to her manga, well she tried to. She felt Rei's aura against hers. She looked up.

"I really am sorry." Said Rei softly. Right. She usually looked into the future to tell her when she'd mess up but she only felt the big things coming. She needed to learn to get a clue and rely less on her powers, especially if she was making her friends uncomfortable.

"It's ok. I'm sorry too. I was just a little mad, I think. I don't know. Lately everything's been making me mad and my stomach always hurts a little." Said Mob. She pressed a hand to her stomach. It felt weirdly hard. Maybe she hate something bad….not that she could think of anything that might be making her sick…the milk was definitely good.

"Wait, hang on. I've got a charm for that!" said Rei. She made a bunch of charms in crafting club and she knew that she had one for anxiety in there somewhere. Mob was probably anxious, Rei felt sick to her stomach, too, when she was anxious. She got moody, too, sometimes. She dug though her back and found a charm for anxiety squished underneath her math book and next to her recorder.

Not a very big peace offering but one none the less.

Mob took it.

And Reigen let out a sigh of relief, one inaudible over the sound of Tome cursing and dropping ten yen coins into the swear jar. Crisis averted.

Serizawa just watched this all unfold and tried to piece any of this together. He wondered if he would ever be able to understand girls.