Master Reigen never took more than a fifteen minute cigarette break.

It had been….Mob reached into her skirt pocket with her powers and checked her phone…six minutes. Six minutes since Master Reigen felt the cigarette box in her jacket pocket and declared that she was going for a walk. That meant cigarette break, she just didn't like to let on how much she smoked, because she said that she was trying to quit. It was a bad habit, she said, and one that she didn't want Mob and everyone else picking up on. It was important to quit bad habits, Master Reigen had said, even if it was hard.

"Want to stop?" asked Teru, his thumb pressed against her cheek. He could feel it, probably, how warm she was. How red she was. She was always so warm and so red when they did this. From the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes she was red. Not that Teru had ever seen how red she was. Not that he had ever seen her from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes.

Because that would have been a lot.

Especially for the storage room at work.

"No…I mean we still have time before Master Reigen comes back…she usually smokes for about fifteen minutes…so we have time…." Said Mob. She leaned into his hand. He seemed so much taller than her when they were like this…close like this. He wasn't that much taller than her but now…now it seemed like he was…and she was so much smaller…but in a good way. Kind of like he could keep her safe. From what she did not know. She had always been the one to keep him safe after all. There was nothing to be kept safe from.

Well besides getting caught.

"So I'll take that as a 'keep going' then." Said Teru. Mob closed her eyes. She wasn't the best at reading people but he was making himself loud and clear then. She closed her eyes and stood up on her tiptoes even though he wasn't that much taller than her. Maybe that was why Master Reigen wore high heels, so she wouldn't have to do this. Maybe Mob should have taken up wearing high heels. Maybe she should have taken up wearing high heels and pretty dresses and makeup because at that moment, the moment before it happened, she was so afraid that he would size her up and say something like 'you're not pretty enough' or 'you're not normal enough' and just walk away and out of her life forever-

But he doesn't.

He kisses her. His hand is still at the side of her face and he still kisses her. Soft and warm and perfect. She tastes kiwi when they break apart. That's his chap stick. She isn't wearing chap stick or lipstick or lip gloss or lip liner or lip stain or any of the multitude of things that you were supposed to wear on your lips so that they would be pleasant to another person and now, in the moment between kisses, she feels like maybe she should have. Maybe she should have been better prepared for this. Maybe this isn't enough for him. Maybe-

Another kiss. Another kiss to remind her that, yes, she IS enough for him. That she is the one who he's kissing, not anyone else, and he must have been enjoying himself. He must have wanted to do this with her. She was enough and she was his girlfriend and he wanted to do this with her and-

And his hand was around her waist. His hand was at the dip in her waist, the space where it flared out into her hip, and she had no idea why it felt so…what was the word for this, even? Like her stomach was full of pop rocks. Like someone had lit a firecracker in her chest. Like she was going to float away.

And she was.

The tips of her toes were leaving the ground, now, and she was taller than him. His hand was still on the side of her face and his lips were still pressed to his and she could still kind of taste kiwi and this moment was just so-so-so-so-

Perfect.

They broke apart for air, a necessity of life, and she slowly touched down. He pulled her back down to Earth where she belonged. Even though he made her feel like she was standing somewhere on top of the world, the universe, looking out at the vast expanse of everything…and she kind of was. He was everything. In that moment Teru felt like her everything. She felt like the world was him and her and that room and outside there was just….nothing. Not in a bad way, of course, but in more of a nothing to worry about sort of way. She had been so worried about getting caught…but now she wasn't.

She didn't want to.

Besides, Tome said that she would give the signal when Master Reigen came back. Mob remembered, then, that they had never agreed on what the signal was! And now, now that they had paused, the worries were coming back. What if she got caught? What if Master Reigen came in and found them in there together? Teru was supposed to be 'just visiting' because he distracted Mob, Master Reigen said, and also he and Rei argued about colors and decorating and stuff…but Rei wasn't there that day…but still…still maybe…

And then he kissed her.

And then there were no more maybes. No more worries. Because how could she worry when she was with him? She was with him and everything just felt so perfect. His hand on her waist, the other one had moved up to her hair. Some had come loose from her braid, her braids were coming undone, the ribbons had fallen, no, floated away…so much was floating. Floating because of her.

She was floating.

But he was holding onto her like a balloon. Like her hair and her waist and her lips were the string of a balloon and she was the part that was full of helium and she could and would and was and is floating away and-and-and-

"Reigen! Wow! You sure came BACK fast! It's nice to see you HERE again! Wow! I hadn't realized how much I'd miss you until you came BACK!" Oh. That must have been the signal. Mob came crashing to the ground….and so did several boxes…and she was the only person around who could have made such a crash, Serizawa was visiting his mother and Sho never hung around unless Serizawa was there, so of course Master Reigen knew that she was in there now…and Mob could not think of an excuse as to why she and Teru would have been in the storage room alone together. Maybe they were…playing sardines? With two players? In the storage room during work hours in which she was supposed to be sitting at her desk waiting for supernatural walk ins?

"You need to get your hearing checked, Tome, you know I always did suspect with all of the yelling-" said Master Reigen. Mob could hear the click, click, click of her shoes. She even knew which pair of shoes it was, the work ones with the really pointy toes. She was walking there in shoes perfect for kicking someone out….

"Ha! You're so funny Reigen! You're always so funny! Wow, boy are you funny! Why don't you just come back in here and tell some more jokes?! In here, right here!" said Tome. Well she shouted really loudly. Not loud enough that Mob couldn't hear Master Reigen's shoes come to a stop outside the storage room door…

"Do you have any idea how to turn invisible?" whispered Teru. Mob shook her head.

"No. That's Sho's trick." Said Mob. It was one of the few things that she couldn't do. It was hard to see when you were invisible, and it hurt a little too, so she had just given up. She had no idea when she would have needed to be able to turn invisible at the time. She wished that she had future vision, another power she didn't have. If she were Rei then she could have planned ahead. But she was not Rei, she was Mob, and she wished that she could switch places with Rei at that moment because at least then she wouldn't have been about to be in trouble….

"Uh-huh, sure. Anyway where's Mob?" asked Master Reigen

"The bathroom!" shouted Tome

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, sure. Ok, so if Mob's in the bathroom then where'd Haystack go?" asked Master Reigen. Mob crossed her fingers, toes, and braids. Tome could be a very good liar sometimes. She always knew just what to say to adults. She could convince her mom that she was sleeping over at Mob or Rei's house when she was really out in the mountains watching the stars or doing couple stuff with Inukawa. Tome would save her. Besides, Tome owed her for levelling up her character in Fantasy Hell for her all weekend.

"The bathroom! I mean home! I mean he went home because Mob was in the bathroom here! He's at home." Said Tome. That was a good lie. Mob couldn't have thought up a better lie herself…well she was a very bad liar. But Tome was a good liar, not that it was a good thing to be good at, lying. Sometimes people had to tell lies to save the feelings of others, that was what Master Reigen said, and she had been telling the truth then…

"Uh-huh. Ok so Mob's in the bathroom and her boyfriend went home to his own bathroom? That's the story you're going with?" asked Master Reigen. Mob knew that tone. That tone was accompanied by a shake of her head and then mutterings about things that she could not understand. All of those things meant that Master Reigen didn't believe a word that she had been told.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'STORY!?" said Tome. Mob could hear the scraping of her chair against the ground. She knew what that meant. Tome got up really suddenly and also might have climbed up on her desk even though Master Reigen told her a bunch of times not to do that. Mob heard Master Reigen sigh. It was almost drowned out not only by Tome's shouting by also Teru's laughing. Mob shook her head.

"Sorry. Nervous reaction." Whispered Teru. Mob knew what he meant. Her nervous reaction was making things float. Things, heavy things, were starting to float around them. A crystal bumped into a candle holder and the sound was as loud, to Mob, as a thunderclap.

"It really is a great story, you know, except for one glaring flaw. You see, if you're going to tell me that Mob's in the bathroom, you'd better make sure that the bathroom door isn't opened." Said Master Reigen

"Well obviously you scared her away! Jeez Reigen, can't you give someone a moment of privacy! You can't just go barging into places because it's your office!" said Tome

"Yes. Yes I can. I can but I choose not to. That's why I'm not going to investigate why my storage room is whispering and giggling." Said Master Reigen. Mob covered her mouth. Oh no. Well Master Reigen might have…assumed that it was ghosts! Yes! Ghosts were a perfectly valid explanation for-

"And don't give me any crap about spirits, either, because I know for a fact that spirits don't like to hang out around Mob. Besides, that's where I keep the salt. You hear that, Mob? Whenever you're done in there I'm going to need some salt!...got to exorcise any memory of this day from my existence…." Master Reigen was doing that thing where she talked to herself. Her shoes were clicking away, now, which was good.

Right?

Mob didn't know. All she knew was that Master Reigen wanted more salt and she had to give it to her…so that was what she did. Red faced, messy haired, she handed Master Reigen a thing of unblessed table salt from the restaurant supply place. Master Reigen didn't say anything but thank you…

And she also told Teru to get a move on.

And she also told Mob to hang back after Tome left. Mob waited at her desk while Tome took her time leaving. Master Reigen actually kicked her out when she retied her shoes for the sixteenth time. Mob wished that Tome had stayed. She didn't want to be alone for whatever awful thing was going to happen. What happened to people who kissed in the supply room? Termination? Flagellation? Mutilation?

Maybe nothing so dramatic.

Even though Master Reigen was certainly being dramatic. She was sitting at her desk with her fingers stabled together and a look on her face that Mob could not place. She sometimes looked away, started a sentence, and then just trailed off. Mob sat perfectly still, even her powers were still, as she waited for the hammer of judgement to fall upon her.

"Mob…listen….I'm not going to be a hypocrite but just…don't grow up too fast. Ok?" said Master Reigen after a while. Mob nodded. She nodded again when nothing else happened. She had been kissing at work! When she was supposed to be working! Also she had been kissing! Master Reigen would have been totally justified in telling her that she was in trouble and she…and she wasn't allowed to come by anymore…

But Master Reigen didn't say that.

She didn't say anything.

Her words just hung in the air. Don't grow up too fast. Mob didn't think that she was growing up too fast. She thought, if anything, that she wasn't growing up fast enough. She still hadn't done much of anything…not that she wanted to…well she did but not that she was going to. She wasn't growing up too fast at all…

"That's all. Just don't grow up too fast. I'm not going to tell you what to do or what not to do, God knows it didn't work for me when I was your age, but I will ask you to not grow up too fast or do anything that you're not one hundred percent ready to do." Said Master Reigen. She was looking right at Mob. Mob nodded again.

"I won't grow up too fast, Master." Said Mob because she felt like she should have said something. It felt like she should have said something because the long silence would have started again and the long silence could have been filled with the sort of things that her mom would have said to her….but Master Reigen was nothing like her mom….

"Good, good, good…good….and Mob…" said Master Reigen

"Yes?" asked Mob, her voice just a bit higher than it usually was. Now her hair was standing up again…and her desk was trying to follow it…

"Please, for the love of God, don't do any 'growing up' in the storage room again."