"Get in, quick!" said Reigen as she got the door to her apartment opened, finally. She threw the door opened and ushered Mob inside just as the wind picked up again.
Reigen hated the rainy season…and it wasn't even the rainy season yet!
She and Mob had been out at a job. She trusted Serizawa and Tome to hold down the fort, and Rei to make sure that there would be an office to come back to in the morning. The fact that it would be covered in glitter and whatever crafts Rei was into at the time went unsaid. It was nice to do things just her and Mob sometimes, and it gave them time to talk, not that Mob had said much.
She had been happy for Reigen, she had said at least, so there was that.
"How is it this rainy this early in the year? Global warming is such a pain, Mob, remember, always separate out your recyclables. We've all got to do our part before THIS becomes our existence." Said Reigen as she kicked off her shoes in the genkan. She kicked them over into the pile with all of the other shoes. Mob took hers off more slowly and made sure to face them the right way.
She had to be polite, it was her first time in Master Reigen's house.
Well, apartment. Mob didn't know why she had always been picturing a house whenever she pictures where Master Reigen lived. She had always pictured a big pink and grey house with a garden. Well the building Master Reigen lived in was grey, at least, and her couch was pink….and also there were a lot of plants. Lots of books, too, up on shelves and stacked on the floor and strewn around the little coffee table. The coffee table didn't have any coffee on it, but it did have empty beer cans, cup noodle cups, and a glass that said something in English with some red drink still at the bottom.
Mob thought that it might not have been fruit punch.
"Sorry about the mess! I didn't think that I'd be having company! You can come in, Mob, and make yourself at home!" said Reigen as she walked over to the living/dining/tv room area and picked up an old take-out bag. She quickly tried to toss her empty beer cans and noodle cups and food wrappers and God only knew what else she had managed to accumulate since the last time she cleaned.
"…ok…" said Mob. It took her a moment to step out of the genkan. This was Master Reigen's actual house! Well her apartment. This was where she lived! Mob had known her for years and had never once been to her house before! And here she was! She didn't mind that it was messy or cold or that she herself was soaking wet from the sudden storm and shivering. This was so cool!
Mob wanted to touch everything.
She wanted to touch all the plants on the shelves, flip through every single book, look between the couch cushions, go through all of Master Reigen's streaming history on…she didn't even know which streaming apps Master Reigen had! How did she not know! She had been friends with Master Reigen for much longer than she had been friends with Rei and Tome but they had all been to each other's houses a million times.
Maybe because Master Reigen was an adult.
That was it. Mob had never been in a single adult's house before. Well formerly single. Master Reigen and Serizawa had confessed to each other and were boyfriend and girlfriend now. Master Reigen told her in person but Rei and Tome had told her through text and also Sho had woken her up in the middle of the night to tell her in person. Mob was happy for Master Reigen, she really was, because everyone deserved to be as happy as she and Teru were….and they were happy.
She wondered if Master Reigen and Serizawa had kissed yet.
But she knew it was none of her business. She just wondered how it worked with adults. They were complicated. Their lives were so busy. They were so busy that they went right to…bed stuff…sometimes. She knew that Master Reigen did…and she was never going up on any roofs with Rei and Tome and a telescope ever again. It was none of her business what Master Reigen did but she was still…curious.
Curiosity killed the cat.
The cat!
"Mob, you ok? You're shivering like crazy. Hang on, let me get you a towel…and something dry to change into. Sit tight." Said Reigen. Maybe bringing Mob by hadn't been the best idea. They were closer to her house and the most logical thing seemed to be to wait out the rain somewhere warm and dry. Though judging by how much rain was hitting her windows, and how the wind was whipping the building, it didn't seem like this storm would be letting up any time soon.
"I'm fine, Master, just a little cold. I'm more worried about the cat….please don't tell anyone I have a cat." Said Mob as she followed Master Reigen across the living room and through a door. Mob didn't know if she was supposed to follow but she wanted to see what was beyond that door. She wanted to know what was behind every door and in every drawer and behind ever picture and hidden under every floorboard in Master Reigen's apartment.
Not that she was planning on snooping or anything.
"Oh yeah. Sho was telling me about that. How's that going, by the way, did your parents find out yet?" asked Reigen as she kicked a pile of clothes out of the way of her door so it could open all the way for the first time in a while. The living room had been a mess but her bedroom was a disaster area. She didn't usually have people over, that was her excuse, she preferred to do her hooking up at his house or hotel room or whatever. That way she could make an easy get away in the morning without all of the awkwardness.
Not that she would be making any early morning getaways….possibly ever again.
But not that she planned on having Serizawa over either. It was too soon, way too soon for that, and he obviously needed time. He still asked her if they could hold hands so anything more would be….a lot for him. Not that she thought about this that often. She respected his boundaries.
"No, not yet, but mom wants to know why me and Ritsu don't want her in our rooms anymore. Dad says that it's because we're growing up but mom is getting suspicious. Sho wants to take the cats, the momma cat and her babies, back to his house because even though his mom said no more pets she lets him do whatever he wants. I want to keep the cats because I love them and I've always wanted cats…even if the momma cat scratches a lot. There are five kittens, too, and sometimes they're kind of loud….do you like cats, Master Reigen?" asked Mob as Master Reigen began to look through her dresser drawers. Her dresser, from what Mob could see of it, was pink too. Lots of clothes on top of the dresser.
Master Reigen was so lucky. If Mob had left her clothes out like that mom would have been so cross with her.
"Not six of them, Mob. That's too many cats. Besides, you know I'm a dog person." Said Reigen as she pulled out a T-shirt and pajama pants that might have fit Mob. She couldn't just stand there in wet clothes, she'd get sick, and what kind of master would Reigen be if she let her student catch pneumonia like that.
"I know….I don't understand why but I know." Said Mob
"Because dogs are the most loyal, most cheerful, animals in the entire world. Dog is man's best friend. Cats are man's roommate who occasionally scratches you and sheds all over the house…kind of like my roommate back in university." Said Reigen. Mob felt the scratches on her arms through her wet school shirt.
"Master, I think that we should agree to disagree before we fight again. I don't like it when we fight." said Mob
"Yeah, back then that was…not good…back then. Here, you can change into this so you don't catch your death." Said Reigen as she wrung out her wet hair. Mob mirrored her actions even though they were getting the floor wet. She was handed some clothes. A shirt and pants. Mob frowned.
"What's up?" asked Reigen as she noticed Mob's frown. Hey, they may have been her happy doggy pajamas from she didn't even know when but they could possibly fit Mob and they were clean. The even smelled nice, too, mom was right about keeping bars of soap in her dresser drawers.
"I don't like pants." Said Mob simply. She didn't want to be rude or anything but she HATED pants and had hated them for her entire life. Even tights and leggings were uncomfortable.
"Huh. You know, I have never once seen you in pants in all the years I've known you." Said Reigen with her hand on her chin in that classic 'thinking' pose. Heh. She had just never noticed, or given much thought to the fact that, Mob never wore pants. Not even in the winter time.
"That's because I hate them. They're itchy and I can't move in them. I don't know how boys can wear nothing but pants all day." Said Mob simply
"I didn't know you felt so strongly about pants, Mob…" said Reigen. She wore pants sometimes, yoga pants were a little piece of heaven, but skirts were easier to move around in. Longer ones, like Mob like, she just wore the shorter ones because, well, she was young and attractive and she knew it.
"I hate them more than any other kind of clothes." Said Mob simply. Seriously. Reigen nodded. Well then, she was learning all kinds of things about Mob. She went back to her dresser and pulled out a long nightshirt. This one also had a dog on it, a German shepherd, the best sort of dog…not that Mob agreed with that.
"Try this, it'll probably fit, and leave your school clothes I'll hang them up to dry." Said Reigen as she grabbed some yoga pants and a T-shirt and left Mob to get changed. The rain was still coming down like it was the height of monsoon season in the tropics even though it was barely spring and they were nowhere near the tropics! She wrung her hair out again and sighed. She couldn't take Mob home in that. They'd drown before they got to the end of the block. She fished her phone out of her pocket, thank God for waterproof cases, and checked the time.
It was getting late.
She knocked on the door.
"Hey Mob, it's getting kind of late and the rain's not going to stop anytime soon it looks like…" said Reigen
"Ok Master. I can just make a barrier to keep the water off and walk home. Thank you for having me over." Said Mob
"Mob, Mob, Mob what kind of master would I be if I let you walk home through this?" asked Reigen
"….not a very nice one?" said Mob
"Exactly! So I was thinking that you could just stay over and I'll walk you to school in the morning. That depends on what your mom says, of course." Said Reigen. There was a moment of silence in which Reigen worried, for a moment, that Mob was upset…but then she could see anything light begin to float, including her hair.
"Do you mean a sleepover?" asked Mob, finally. Her hair was floating, now, everything in the room was floating. Clothes, books, makeup, even some plants. Not the violent sort of floating that happened when she was upset. This was a happy, slower, sort of floating. She was happy. This was great!
A sleepover with Master Reigen!
"Yeah, sure, a sleepover." Said Reigen. She swore that she heard Mob jumping up and down on the other side of the door. Adorable. This could be fun. She hadn't had a sleepover since she was Mob's age.
"This is going to be so much fun!" said Mob to herself as she tossed off her wet clothes and put on the dry ones Master Reigen lent her. This was so great! They could stay up all night! They could hang out and watch TV and talk and play games and she could paint Master Reigen's nails and braid her hair and so her makeup…
She had so much makeup!
She had one of those tables with lights and a mirror, mom called it a vanity and she had one that Mob wasn't supposed to go near, but Master Reigen's was different. It looked more like Rei's than mom's. Mom had her makeups arranged by type and shade and occasion. Master Reigen didn't' have any system at all, it seemed, for her make up. There was nail polish too! And headbands and hair ties and hair clips and-and-and-
This was going to be so much fun!
Mob had been on plenty of sleepovers before. Well not plenty since she only started to go on sleepovers since she became friends with Tome, and later Rei, but she knew what happened at them. She never thought that she and Master Reigen would ever have a sleepover but now that it was happening she was so excited! The most excited! She was so happy that it was raining outside! Now she not only got to visit Master Reigen AT HER HOUSE but she got to have a whole sleepover too!
Breathe. Don't forget to breathe.
Mob reminded herself to breathe as she tossed off her wet clothes. Master Reigen let her change on her own, which she was grateful for. Mob didn't even like changing for gym class let alone in front of people she was friends with. This nightshirt was so soft! Even if it did smell kind of like smoking. That was probably because everything in the apartment smelled like smoking. That was because Master Reigen smoked even though she was always saying how terrible it was for you. She smoked a lot more at home than at work, it seemed, if the overflowing ashtray on the bedside table was anything to go off of.
Mob knew that she should not have been snooping.
It was an invasion of privacy. It wasn't a nice thing to do. She knew that it was wrong but…she had never been in Master Reigen's room before. She just had so much stuff that it was impossible not to be at least a little but curious. Mob wasn't even snooping per se…not like how mom liked to go through people's medicine cabinets when she visited them and then talk about what she found with dad….she was just curious as to what…what book it was that Master Reigen had left opened on her bedside table.
Love in the Time of Passion.
Oh. It was one of those books that mom read all the time and wouldn't let Mob touch. Mob decided to leave that one alone. She didn't want to make Master Reigen lose her place even though Mob had never read a book like that before. Well she read manga about love but manga wasn't real books. Emi said so, not that Mob talked to Emi that much, but she said that manga was not books because manga had pictures and works of great literature did not need pictures. Master Reigen might have thought the same way, she didn't have any manga in her room.
Lots of books about love and romance. A few about dogs, too. Also some about telling the future and spiritual things like that. They were all scattered around Master Reigen's bedside table. There were some socks there, too, and a couple headbands. Mob wondered if maybe she should have cleaned up a little bit. There was a lot of stuff just…everywhere. Master Reigen was lucky like that, if Mob had kept her room like that mom would have been so cross with her.
She wondered what it was like, not having a mom around all the time.
Adults could do whatever they wanted, even keep their stuff on the ground. Even leave their beds unmade. Master Reigen had a bed, not a futon, and it was pink and grey. Well the sheets were pink and the blanket was grey and the pillows were shaped like dogs….which looked like it would be uncomfortable. Mob laid down on Master Reigen's bed really quick just to check.
Yup. Uncomfortable.
Wait, there. She had a real pillow, it was just at the foot of the bed. Or maybe she slept with her feet to the window and her head to the door. Tome slept like that, she liked to be able to look out the window as she fell asleep. Master Reigen kept her room like Tome kept hers. It was messy like Tome's but Master Reigen didn't have any outer space or videogame or anime posters up. She didn't have any posters up at all, not even over her computer desk, which struck Mob as being a little weird. Mom hadn't let her put up any posters because it was bad for the walls. Master Reigen was an adult, maybe she was worried about the state of the walls too.
Mob did not understand adults.
She didn't understand adults one bit. Even Master Reigen was kind of hard to understand sometimes. Like the way that she didn't have a picture of Serizawa anywhere in her room, it seemed like, even though he was her boyfriend. She had liked him for a while, at least that was what Rei and Tome said, they were better at those sorts of things than Mob. When you liked someone and they agreed to be your boyfriend then you at least took some pictures with them. She and Teru had taken a bunch of sticker pictures and Mob had put them up all over her desk and wardrobe. Rei wasn't anyone's girlfriend but she had a picture of her and Ritsu, well her and Ritsu and everyone from that time they all went out and tried to see how many people could fit in a photo booth at once, tucked into the corner of her mirror. Tome had a framed picture of her and Inukawa on her desk and as her background on her computer.
Maybe adults were different like that.
Mob wondered how else adults were different. She knew that they could do whatever they wanted but they seemed to do…nothing…with that freedom. They could stay out with their friends as long as they wanted and wear whatever they wanted and eat whatever they wanted and do whatever they wanted but it seemed like all they ever did was worry about things. Bills and work and getting enough sleep and gaining weight and all of that other adult stuff.
Master Reigen didn't worry about all of that stuff but she did worry. She was more fun than most adults, though, it seemed.
When Mob grew up she knew that she wanted to be just like Master Reigen. Even if her room was kind of messy. Even if she did leave clean clothes and dirty clothes together on her floor. Even if she did smoke a lot even though it made you sick. Even if she didn't have a picture of her boyfriend as her computer background, not that Mob was doing a lot of computer snooping or anything like that. She had just been curious as to what Master Reigen's computer background was, that was all. Now she knew, it was of a basket of puppies.
Also she saved text documents to her desktop.
Mob read some of the titles. It was all work stuff. She had some folders, too, but Mob knew well enough not to go opening up other people's folders. Tome taught her that one. She said that if someone had a folder labeled homework then it didn't have homework in it but instead stuff that Mob did not want to see. Also if someone had a folder labeled like it had pictures of naked people in it then it was either full of naked people or cool stuff like bomb making recipes, in which case then it was ok to open and look through.
Master Reigen didn't have anything like that but Mob still knew enough not to look.
There were certain things that you just did not want to know about a person. Things that were not meant for mortal eyes. Things that Mob could live the rest of her life not knowing about Master Reigen. Not that Mob even got why adults would do…stuff like that. They had relationships and when you were in a relationship then you had another person to do stuff like that with. Well unless you were her. Mob didn't know exactly what she wanted but she knew that she wanted…something…or at least to be asked. How would she know what she was and was not ok with unless Teru just asked already?! Of course Mob knew that she wasn't supposed to want to do anything like that. Mom said that good girls didn't want to do things like that. Mom was super old though, over forty, and Master Reigen said that older people had older ideas about things like that. Mob hoped that it didn't make her a bad person to want to do stuff like that with Teru.
But everyone wanted to do stuff like that.
So then it must not have been a bad thing. Master Reigen did stuff like that, and had done so before she was in a relationship, so it must have been ok. Not that Mob would ever do anything like that. She was Mob. Teru even said that he wasn't going to push her to do anything. He said that he knew that she wouldn't want to do anything because she was her…Mob didn't fully even know what that meant. Because she was so boring? She knew that she looked boring. She knew that people said that she was plain and boring.
She got up and went to Master Reigen's mirror.
She stared at herself. She still even looked like she was in elementary school. She looked plain and boring and young so of course Teru wasn't going to want to do anything more than kiss her…and she even had to ask him a million times to do that. She knew that she should have been happy with what she had. She and Teru kissed and held hands and cuddled and went on dates and walks and he even let her ride on the back of his bicycle sometimes even though it was dangerous and they had tipped over a few times….she should have been happy. She should have been super happy but she wasn't.
She rested her head against the cool glass of the mirror. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She had spent so much time wanting to be Teru's girlfriend and then she had spent so much time wishing that he would kiss her and now that she was his girlfriend, and he had kissed her, but she still wasn't happy with what she had. She needed to stop thinking about this. She was having a sleepover with Master Reigen. There she went again, still not happy with what she had.
She needed to be happier.
She was having a sleepover with Master Reigen! They could have so much fun. They could do sleepover things like…makeovers! Master Reigen had a lot of makeup, more than Mob had seen in her makeup bags even, and she wore it every single day. She must have liked makeup, then, and Mob kind of liked it too. She liked it when Rei did her makeup and she liked doing Rei's makeup. Tome's, too, when they got her to join in. She liked other sleepover stuff too like watching movies and playing videogames and playing flashlight tag and staying up late talking about stuff...and also braiding hair…
And Master Reigen had really long hair….
"Hey Mob, you ok in there?" asked Reigen knocking on the door. Her entire apartment had been trying to upend itself and it was either Mob of a ghost, she'd believe either. Reigen knocked again and was almost smacked with the door as it opened suddenly.
"Oh, good, you're ok. Anyway I was thinking-" said Reigen
"Master Reigen…." Said Mob. Reigen hadn't seen her eyes that wide in…ever. Her hair was floating around her but not like she was about to explode. There was that energy around her, though, the sort that usually preceded and explosion…but Mob seemed fine….
"What's up?" asked Reigen as she shrank under Mob's gaze. That was…intense…
"Can I...braid your hair? And do your makeup? And-and-and-" said Mob. This was going to be just like when and Rei and Tome had sleepovers but even better because it was Master Reigen! This was the third greatest thing to ever happen to her in the history of her life!
There was only thing that Reigen could say to that. Really, only one thing.
"Sure, but with your hands, not your powers." Said Reigen. She changed and sat down at her vanity. She had let Mob braid her hair before but she had never let Mob do her makeup. She hadn't even known that Mob knew how to do makeup. She never wore it, well her mother didn't want her to, but Reigen knew teenage girls. She had been a teenage girl once and no matter how much her mother forbade and forbade Reigen hadn't listened. Well Reigen was not Mob.
"….and then we can stay up all night! And we can play games…do you have games? Do you have videogames? Do you have board games? We can play other things, too! We can play hide and seek and guess what I'm thinking of and flashlight tag and truth or dare, wait not truth or dare, because it's not as fun without Tome. Also Rei and Tome said that I'm not good at it because I don't ask good questions or think up good dares….we can play truth or dare if you want! And we can make cookies, we do that at Rei's house, and we can climb onto the roof and look at the stars, we do that at Tome's house, and we can play videogames and watch movies all night, we do that at my house-" said Mob as she braided Master Reigen's hair with her powers and covered her in makeup by hand.
"Mob, you know you have school in the morning, right?" asked Reigen as she felt yet another braid being added to her hair. She opened her eyes, briefly, and this earned her an accidental poke with a mascara wand.
"Master Reigen, don't move or I'll mess up." Said Mob as she picked up another mascara. You could never have too much makeup, Rei said so, and she knew a lot about these things. Besides, this eyelash stuff said that it made your eyelashes extra long. That was good because the one before said that it made your eyelashes extra thick. It was important to have balance when you did your eyelashes. Tome said so, that was how she got her eyelashes so nice.
"Sorry, sorry, I was just saying that we can't stay up all night, you have to go to school in the morning and I have to get to work." Said Reigen as she closed her eyes again. She felt a familiar tug at her eyelashes. Mob was really going heavy on the mascara…and now the eyeliner.
"Ok, but can we stay up late? I don't have a bedtime, not really, but I'm supposed to be quiet so I don't keep Ritsu up." Said Mob. She put down the eye lash stuff and picked up some of that cheek stuff, blush or rouge, Mob didn't get the difference. No, wait! Rei said that you were supposed to do all the layers of foundation first. First all the eye stuff and then the foundation and then the other stuff.
"We can stay up kind of late but remember, you have school and I have work. Next time we'll stay up late." Said Reigen. Not that she was sure that there would be a next time. She was having fun. This was fun. She had forgotten how much fun it could be to just sit there and let someone else paint her up. Even if that someone didn't have the first idea what they were doing.
"Next time we should bring Rei and Tome too. Rei could probably do your makeup better than I can." Said Mob as she put another layer of the foundation on Master Reigen's face. They were all mostly the same color and Mob didn't know what went where so she just used it all. Better to be safe than sorry.
"I'm sure you're doing just fine, Mob, besides it's not like we're going out anywhere so go nuts." Said Reigen. She wondered if she was going to end up regretting those words as she heard some of her drawers opening. Her vanity table drawers, thank God, and not her bedside or deskside drawers. Thank God that Mob wasn't the snooping type or she would have been traumatized. For a moment Reigen thinks that she might have left something incriminating out. She'd do a sweep through the place later when Mob was done. No need to give Mob something to discuss with a therapist in ten years.
"Ok, I just don't want to make you look bad. I don't really know what I'm doing. I can't even remember what the highlighter is for. Rei's been talking about it a lot. She stole some from her sister's room and she says that it makes all the difference but I can't tell." Said Mob
"Honestly, Mob, I have no idea what it's for either. I tried it once but it just made me look way too shiny." Said Reigen
"Oh….I'll leave it alone then." Said Mob
"No, you can try it, like I said it's not like I'm going anywhere so go wild." Said Reigen
"That's true. It's really late. Where would we even go?" asked Mob. She wasn't usually out this late. Right now her family should have been finishing up dinner. What did Master Reigen usually have for dinner? Was she lonely being here all on her own? Or did she spend all of her time with Serizawa now since they were dating?
"It's also raining buckets out there. I wouldn't go out in this even if you paid me." Said Reigen. The rain was still pounding on the windows. She wondered if the roof would start leaking again. Well if it did then it was the landlord's problem. Mob wouldn't care. She had been worried, a little, about Mob seeing the state of her home but this was Mob. She didn't care. She was fourteen, her room was probably just as much if not more of a disaster area.
"Master, I just realized something. I don't know what you do after work." Said Mob
"Me? I come home, I watch TV, I have dinner, read stuff on the internet, then I pass out and I do it all again." said Reigen giving Mob the basics of what she did. No need to tell Mob everything. Not that she was going to be going out, getting drunk, or hooking up with anyone in the foreseeable future. Not that she missed it. She just hadn't done the girlfriend thing in a while.
"Oh….ok." said Mob
"What's up?" asked Reigen
"Don't you get lonely being here all alone? Or do you spend all of your time with Serizawa now since you're his girlfriend? Are you going to move in with him? Are you going to get married? Are you-" asked Mob quickly as she brushed sparkly powder all over Master Reigen's face quickly. She was fine with Master Reigen going out with Serizawa. She was happy for her, even. Love was a beautiful thing and Master Reigen deserved to have someone who loved her. She wasn't going to replace Mob or close the business or anything like that. Serizawa wasn't the sort of person to make Master Reigen do that and Master Reigen was not the sort of person who would let someone tell her what to do anyway. She had stood up to Sho's dad after all.
"Mob, slow down. He and I literally just got together. We haven't even discussed any of that yet." Said Reigen. Kids. Everything was so dramatic with them. These things took time, lots of time, time that Reigen most certainly had. She wasn't worried about them not moving forward and eventually dying in the water like an injured shark or anything like that. No. She was not worried at all.
"But you're adults and you like each other. Isn't that what adults who like each other do? They move in together and get married and have babies and stuff?" asked Mob
"Not right away! Mob, you've been reading too many of those weird mangas, you know that? They're poisoning your mind." Said Reigen
"They are?" asked Mob
"Of course they are, Mob, and I am not just talking about the weird one with the neck biting-" said Reigen
"Alpha/Beta/Omega? It's not that weird once you get used to it." Said Mob
"I read three volumes of that thing and I could not get past the neck biting." Said Reigen with a laugh. Mob shook her head.
"It's romantic. It means that they're going to be together forever. That's what you're supposed do…isn't it? When you're in love?" asked Mob. Reigen took a moment. She reached behind her and played with one of the braids Mob had plaited into her hair. Mob was young, she believed in love and romance and happily ever after. Reigen didn't want to rain on her parade….but she didn't want her to walk around with her head in the clouds either…because heartbreak came for everyone eventually.
"In a perfect world, yes, but life doesn't always work out that way." said Reigen
"It doesn't? I mean I know that people break up but it most work out for some people, right?" asked Mob
"Some but not all. I mean, things don't always work out the way we plan…and that's ok. Sometimes we have set backs but it's important to get back up again and keep…going." Said Reigen. Even though she was, in that moment, the world's biggest hypocrite.
"Are you talking about breaking up?" asked Mob. She couldn't imagine anything worse that could happen in a relationship. The thought of breaking up with Teru…it's so sad and scary…and she doesn't think that she could get back up again if that happened...
"Well…hey! How about I braid…or I guess rebraid….your hair?" asked Reigen quickly. She got up and sat Mob down at the vanity. She undid Mob's braids and grabbed her brush, the nice one with the gold colored handle that she got for Christmas, not her usual not so gently used pink one that was missing half of it's bristles but still got the job done.
"That feels nice." Said Mob as she let her hair get brushed. Mom used to brush her hair when she was little but it had never been this gentle.
"I'm trying to go slow. My mom used to brush my hair like she was trying to rip it out at the root." Said Reigen as she brushed even though Mob's hair didn't need it. How was her hair this straight? Reigen had always been jealous of the actually Japanese girls…not that she was jealous now. No, she was almost thirty, too old for that.
"My mom used to brush my hair like that too." Said Mob as she leaned back and let Master Reigen work the brush through her hair. It was so nice. She usually just brushed her hair as fast as possible, it never occurred to her that it could be nice. She just let herself enjoy this…or she tried to at least. She just couldn't help but think about what Master Reigen had said.
"Master? Are you worried about you and Serizawa breaking up? I just can't stop thinking that you're scared of that." Said Mob. Reigen stopped brushing for a moment as she contemplated just what to say. She always had to be careful when it came to the kids, especially Mob, because she was so, well, young and sensitive.
"I…it's never fun. I mean I don't want us to break up, nobody wants that, I just…I don't like to move too fast. You're young, not that I'm old, but for you it's all this great big hurry. For people my age it's a lot slower going, ok? I don't know if I'm going to marry the guy and we'll move to a big house in the country and have forty sons and forty daughters or anything like that but I do know that it's been a good week and that's enough for me right now." Said Reigen as she pared Mob's hair into two sections and began to braid it. Just two braids, not the…Reigen couldn't even count….braids that Mob had plaited into her hair.
"….how do you know if you're going to break up, though? I mean…nobody's ever broken up with me before…and I don't want to start." Said Mob
"Well if one of you has been unhappy for a while…but I don't think that you and Haystack are going to break up any time soon." Said Reigen as she finished one of Mob's braids. How did she have so much hair? And had it always been that long? Damn Mob was lucky.
"How did you know I was worried about me and Teru breaking up?" asked Mob
"Because I know you." Said Reigen simply.
"I don't think that me and Teru are unhappy but he won't…I mean we…" said Mob. Reigen could feel her hair trying to float away as well as Mob's. She knew Mob. Nervous. But what was getting her so nervous?
Oh. One of those things.
"You're fourteen, Mob, slow down…and before you ask how I know let me reiterate that I know you. I know when you're nervous, Mob, and I know what you're nervous about. I was your age once too, you know, and please listen to me when I say that you are way too young. Ok?" asked Reigen as she finished Mob's braids. They looked nice…not that Mob noticed. She was looking down at her feet, now. Reigen sighed.
"Ok, ok, you're not that young. If you want something then I guess…talk about it? Communication is key. Just…always communicate and be safe in…whatever it is your do." Said Reigen
"Master! I don't even…." Said Mob. She tucked her head down into her nightshirt. Well Master Reigen's nightshirt. Reigen shook her head and gave Mob's braid a tug. Not a hard tug, just a playful one. Mob knew, she didn't need to be told. Master Reigen could read her and she could read Master Reigen, which was good because she had trouble reading people a lot of the time. She understood Master Reigen though. it was nice, like they were best friends.
Master Reigen was kind of like her best friend.
"Come on, let's go do some sleepover stuff." Said Reigen. She grabbed a candle off of her vanity and walked over to the kitchen. Mob followed her, her feet sinking down into the carpet. It was nice. Her house only had wooden floors. It was nice in there, even if it smelled like smoking.
"Master, what are we doing now?" asked Mob as she entered the kitchen. It wasn't like her kitchen at home. Mom had everything in it's place and Mob wasn't allowed to touch anything because she might have messed something up. Master Reigen just sort of had things…everywhere…but that seemed normal for her. Not a lot of dirty dishes, everything was just sort of…out there.
Also she had lot of cups and plates with dogs on them. That was nice.
"We, student, are going to divine the mysteries of the future….with candle wax." Said Reigen as she turned the stove on and lit the candle. The kitchen was then filled with the smell of what the candle promised was the spirit of Christmas. It smelled like gingerbread and gg nog and chemicals but it was still nice.
Also apparently Mob was going to either grow up to be a painter, a lumberjack, or a wax saleswoman if the candle was to be believed.
Or maybe it meant that nail painting would come next, which it did. Master Reigen had almost as many colors as Rei did, and she was better at staying in the lines, too. Mob had to use her powers, it was just easier, and she painted Master Reigen's nails in twenty different shades of red. Mob didn't even know that they had twenty different shades of red but they did and Master Reigen had them all and they all looked nice. Mob's nails were just one shade of pink, mom said that she was too young for red, not that Mob got how she could be too young for a color. Colors were colors and they were all good.
The whole sleepover was good.
Mob thought so and Master Reigen agreed.
They needed to do this more often.