Rei did not have a learning disability.

She didn't know why Ritsu thought that. So she had been letting her grades slip a little so that she would have an excuse to talk to him and to spend time with him, it wasn't like she was failing out of school or anything like that. No, she just needed a little help in math and literature and history and Japanese. Her parents didn't need to get so worked up over her grades like they had been lately and they certainly didn't need to threaten to ground her.

The only reason that they hadn't was because she said that she was going to tutoring afterschool.

Which she sort of was. She was sitting at Ritsu's kitchen table with a bunch of books in front of them. Just her, him, and the books. All alone in a big empty house. His parents were at work so that meant that his mom wasn't around to stick her nose up in the air and do that snobby person sniff thing that she did and his dad wasn't there to sit at the table with them and make dad jokes, really bad dad jokes, and laugh at them like he was the funniest guy in Japan. Even Mob wasn't around. She was probably with her boyfriend. So was Tome. Everyone had a boyfriend but her….

It wasn't fair.

"….so just divide out the x and then plug it into the equation there to find the slope…" said Ritsu. Rei nodded and pretended to listen. She knew how to find the slope intercept whatever already. She just needed an excuse to be alone with him. She didn't understand him one bit. She was there, they were alone, and she thought that she was sending out very clear signals that she was into him.

She smiled at him a lot. When you liked a guy you had to smile and giggle and play with your hair a lot. Go had gotten it and so had Takeshi, back when she had gone out with them. Ritsu was a thousand times smarter than both of them put together. Why wasn't he getting it?

She had baked him cookies. She had baked him perfectly round cookies, there was this food hack where if you baked them in a cupcake tin they out totally round and also she had used malted milk, something that was super hard to find, to make the cookies soft and chewy and kind of nutty…and it had only taken her trying out cookie food hacks for hours to try and get them just right…

She had worn bright red lipstick, which the internet said clearly meant 'I want to kiss you'. Which she did. She had wanted to kiss him since the day she had first met him back when he showed up at the Awakening Lab…and that was even before she knew how wonderful he was. He had saved her life so many times. He had been there for her when she was scared and thought that she was going to be kidnapped…or killed even…and then on that day when the world almost ended….he had been there for her.

She had worn her skirt rolled up and the top two buttons of her school skirt were undone. She had seen the older girls, her sister and her friends, roll up their skirts and undo their top buttons on the way to school and Rei could think of no clearer way to tell Ritsu that she wanted to kiss…and maybe some of that stuff that came after kissing…maybe. She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure if she wasn't sure. She wasn't even sure what all of those things were. She knew that there was a difference between stuff she had read and stuff that people did but she had no idea what that difference was…and she wanted to figure it out…with Ritsu.

"….and then that's pretty much it." Said Ritsu. Rei nodded and tried to look interested. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Some modernist thing made out of metal on black wood, so joyless. That was what his mother considered design? Well when she and Ritsu got their starter home she would not let it go to crap like this…not that she would ever insult her mother-in-law's decorating to her face.

"Ritsu, you're so smart." Said Rei with a sigh, the breathy sort of thing that pretty much told the guy 'take me, I'm yours!' or something like that.

"Not really, and don't feel bad about yourself, Rei. Even if you have trouble learning things you have other talents." Said Ritsu. Rei tried to keep her face from falling. Right. Thanks to her brilliant plan he thought that she had some kind of learning disability…not that there was anything wrong with that! She just…maybe should have thought her plan through better.

"I don't…well sometimes school is kind of hard for me but you're there to help so…thank you. For everything." Said Rei. She held eye contact with him. He broke it first, and not like he was nervous either, like he wanted to get back to work.

They were alone together and all he wanted to do was homework?

Was it her? Even if he didn't like her back he was still a guy. She knew how guys were. Guys were supposed to be a thousand times worse than girls about these sorts of things and she knew how she was so…it must have been something about her. Maybe she wasn't his type…maybe he didn't think that she was pretty or…or anything….

"You're welcome. Anything for one of sister's friends. Do you want to work on more math or get started on Japanese?" asked Ritsu. Rei wanted to pick up her math book and slam it over her head over and over again, or maybe his to knock some sense into him. What did he want, a written invitation? 'Ritsu, kiss me already' in perfect kanji?

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

She reached over and put her hand over his. There, how much clearer could she possibly get?

"Um…Rei?" asked Ritsu. Ok, now he was nervous. Nervous was good. Guys that got nervous were guys who were interested. Go had been nervous, so had Takeshi. Guys didn't grow out of it either if Serizawa and the time he spilled and entire cup of tea on his lap because Reigen took off her suit coat and she was wearing the lacy white top with the dark colored bra underneath was anything to go off of.

"We can take a break if you want to." Said Rei. Her hand was still over his. He made no move to hold her hand back. None at all. Maybe he was nervous. Mob said that he had never had a girlfriend before. Yes, that must have been it!

"We should really get back to work if we want to get done before my mom gets home." Said Ritsu. He pulled out her Japanese workbook and handed it over to her. Maybe she had pushed him too far. But that didn't make sense. She knew that going too fast was how she had messed up with Go, and Takeshi, but that didn't make any sense. Ritsu was mature. He was a mature guy and there was no reason that he wouldn't want to kiss her and do all of that other stuff that came afterwards and be her boyfriend and all of that. None at all. She was pretty and nice and a whole lot of other things…but apparently not the things that he liked. What did he like? She had no idea. They went to different schools so it wasn't like she could observe him…and she wasn't about to ask Mob that…

"I can't believe that our schools use the same book. That makes this easier, anyway, since we're at about the same place. This part is kind of hard but-" said Ritsu. The last thing that she wanted to do, then, in that moment was her stupid homework. She was so rarely alone, totally alone, with him…or any guy for that matter. She was not wasting this opportunity. She was not hanging out with Mob and Tome and listening to Tome talk about her and her boyfriend and then she would get Mob talking about her boyfriend and Reigen and Serizawa would have gotten together and then she would be the only one without a boyfriend and she'd die alone with a bunch of cats eating her face just like her sister had said and even Riko had a bunch of boyfriends and-and-and-

She tried to hold his hand again.

He still didn't hold hers back.

"Rei…um…I think that you're really nice and…and I don't dislike you…I really don't! The thing is, Rei, I-" said Ritsu. Rei stopped listening after he said that he didn't dislike her! That was progress!

"I don't dislike you either, Ritsu, actually I…I like you…a lot." Said Rei. There. She had just come out and said it. It was hard saying that, being so direct, but maybe she needed to be direct. Maybe because he never had a girlfriend he couldn't tell that she liked him…that must have been it….

"Rei…I-" said Ritsu. He was going to say it. He was going to say that he liked her and that he wanted to kiss her and then come the next time she went to hang out at Sprits and Such she wouldn't be the only one without a boyfriend! She held onto his hand, her fingers laced with his, and she leaned forward. There was no clearer way to say 'get a clue and kiss me Ritsu' than that. Hell, she was about to say it out loud.

"How could you call Reigen?! Now she's going to know that something's up! And my happy endings idea was a good one!" the door was thrown opened and the house shook. Rei immediately let go of Ritsu's hand and held a book as close to her face as possible.

"Well she said that we could accept the job and keep the money. All we need to do after that is go to the store and get Master Reigen a new pair of shoes. That'll be easy." Oh no. Mob was home. Mob and…Mob and Tome were hanging out without her!? Wait, no, they went to the same school. This wasn't like that time when she thought that she was friends with those girls from class 1-4 but they didn't even like her and made fun of her behind her back….but her real friends were not like that…

"I am not working on my day off! Mob, I have a better idea. We just see if your mom has similar shoes and then-" said Tome

"I thought that we were going to look for money in the couch cushions. We can't steal shoes from my mom, she'll be upset and also stealing is wrong." Said Mob. Rei could see her from her space in the dining room. Ritsu was hiding under a book, too. It was awkward…because this was her friend's little brother and they had been ten seconds away from making out right there…

"Well if you could use your powers to fix them so they weren't so damn uneven-" said Tome

"I did my best. Things like to be back together but not always perfectly." Said Mob. Rei could see her and Tome rifling through the couch cushions. She wondered, then, if she could spontaneously develop invisibility. Right. This was her friend's little brother…

"So you can put skyscrapers back together but shoes are too hard?" asked Tome

"No, most of those are still structurally unsound, the city says….and anyway I don't think that we'll find much money in the couch. We should just take the job, Tome, even if it is our day off." Said Mob. Rei's ears perked up. Job? A job without Reigen…they had never done a job without Reigen. Reigen had always been there even when she let Rei tell people's futures…

"….fine…but only if I can keep what I found in your couch!" said Tome

"What did you find?" asked Mob

"Forty yen, a heart shaped button, and a pink hair tie." Said Tome

"I need the button for my sweater but you can keep the other stuff." Said Mob

"Deal. Anyway, come on, let's get this done with so we can go have fun. Anyway I'm gonna raid your fridge really quick." Said Tome. Rei ducked down and put her book on top of her head.

"Ok but don't drink all but one last drop of soda pop this time, my mom got mad…last…time…" said Mob as she crossed the dining room. Rei took the book off of her head and waved.

"Hey…Mob." Said Rei quietly. Mob was staring at her, now. Her eyes darted between her and Ritsu like she was one of those cat clocks with the eyes that swished back and forth.

"Hi…sister…and Kurata…" said Ritsu as Tome came out of the kitchen with a block of cheese in her hand. She picked off a piece and ate it thoughtfully, it seemed. Rei made eye contact and Tome gave her a look.

"Rei…did we have plans?" asked Mob

"No…Ritsu was just helping me with my homework…that's all." Said Rei quickly. Ritsu was looking anywhere but at her. Mob just looked thoughtful. She was reading the titles of the books on the table almost like she needed confirmation. Rei didn't know why she was so nervous, well she did, but she shouldn't have had to be. Tome was always saying that shaming was wrong, and Reigen agreed, but this was her friend's incredibly cute and brave and sweet and mature and smart little brother…

"I have…things to do…in my room. Sister. Kurata. Re-Kurosaki." Said Ritsu. Rei frowned. Too polite. They didn't have to be…he had called her by her given name before…but now she was Kurosaki again. Damn it! She had made so much progress on that front and now…well there was always next time…even though she had no idea when they'd be alone again…

"So Mob and I are going on a solo job because we broke a pair of Reigen's unnecessarily expensive and impractical work shoes and we'll just leave you to…Mob's little brother. Have fun, tell me how it goes. First call, you got it?" said Tome

"I-I wasn't-" said Rei. She looked into the future. Mob wasn't mad at her, which was good, and it looked like the best outcome of this day would be if she went with them…because she and Ritsu were going nowhere fast….

"Are you in love with my brother? I mean really in love with him, not just liking him a whole lot." Said Mob

"Um…I really like him but I don't know if-" said Rei. Well now that was too much. She didn't know if she was in love with…he had saved her life so many times…and he hadn't even been scared once…

"Would you ever break his heart?" asked Mob

"No! I would never, ever, ever do anything to hurt Ritsu! I…I really like him a lot and I want to be with him all the time…but I would never do anything to hurt him…" said Rei

"You know, Mob, if you stop cock blocking Rei and she ends up with your little brother you guys would be sisters." Said Tome. Mob chewed on that for a long moment.

"….I've always wanted a sister. Ok. You can marry Ritsu." Said Mob

"Um…ok…sure." said Rei for lack of anything else. Well she could tell Mob that she was thirteen and not about to go making choices like that right then and there but she was not going to get into all of that right then.

"Well it looks like you're going to be pretty busy over here for a while so…come on, Mob, let's go make some money!" said Tome

"Wait! Take me with you." Said Rei

"No way am I splitting the money three ways. We're already using most of it to get Reigen a new pair of unwearable shoes." Said Tome

"Rei can come if she wants to." Said Mob. She was hard to read, sometimes, and very overprotective when it came to Ritsu. But this was good. She wouldn't have to agonize over how to break it to Mob that she and Ritsu were going to be a thing now…if they even were.

She checked the future.

Still nope.

But at least this job would go reasonably well…