Reigen didn't go to Costco all that often.

It was far away, for one thing, and also she didn't have a Costco card. She went to Costco with her mom on the rare times when she came to town but mom was not in town for one of their mother daughter lunches/ lectures on how nobody wanted a Christmas cake after the twenty fifth, no, it was just Reigen on her own.

With her boyfriend's Costco card.

It was so…adult. The whole thing. She was there in Costco on her own with her boyfriend's Costco card. Her boyfriend. The man who she was dating. The man who she was seeing in an exclusive romantic sense. Who she lov-liked a whole lot. She had borrowed his Costco card and now she was in Costco on her own and…and that was it. She was an adult out in the world doing adult things.

She was almost thirty. This wasn't new to her.

She had been living on her own since university. She had been doing her own shopping since high school. This was not something new to her. She wasn't doing anything that she hadn't done before. She wasn't doing anything unusual for a woman her age. She was shopping in a Costco on a Sunday afternoon. That was normal. She had borrowed this Costco card from her boyfriend. That was also normal. She was used to it, she had to be, because she'd had weeks to get used to it. Being in a proper adult relationship.

Being a proper adult.

That was it. That was why she was so fixated on this. That was why all she could think of while she walked past industrial sized boxes of laundry detergent was the fact that she was shopping in a Costco on her own like the adult she was, what she was fixated on, was the fact that she was…being an adult. She was just so…normal. This whole thing was just so normal. Her being there…and her being with him…in the way she was with him.

It was all so normal.

She stopped in front of the detergent she needed. She'd run out and, honestly, it was cheaper to do all of her shopping for God only knew how long at once at Costco and take a cab home than run to the convenience store for everything. Buying in greater volume and all of that. It was about time that she did something about her finances. She had always spent money as soon as she made it but now she had to be responsible.

That was part of being in a relationship.

Dates were an expense, true, but there was also the fact that…and she hated that it had even crossed her mind…there was the potential that they would marry their fortunes together. Well she paid him, she knew how much he made and all of that, but they could still…they could still come together. Their lives. It had been something that she had been thinking about for a while, since they'd bought that damned air conditioner, how they could just…be together. How the natural order of things went. A man and a woman met, went out for a while, had sex a few times, and then decided to make it all…permanent. They moved into each other's spaces and learned each other's habits and just…merged lives. They merged time and schedules and finances and cookware and flatware and argued over who forgot to move the clothes to the dryer and…and all of that.

And it started with an air conditioner.

Well it would for them. That had been a lot of money to go fifty/fifty on. It had been worth it, of course, because it had been a very hot summer and the office had been an oven. It was either buy an air conditioner or start teaching hot yoga. Reigen went with the air conditioner and…and that had been ok. It had been ok that he had wanted to help her…even though she had done it alone for so long…and he had only done it because he was her…her boyfriend…

She decided to go with a different detergent than her usual kind. This one was in even more extreme bulk.

She almost dropped it as she pulled it off of the shelf. If Serizawa had been there then he could have gotten it easily with his powers or just by hand. He was strong, very strong, strong enough to pick her up. She blushed a little as she remembered the last time that he had picked her up. It was after the kids went home, just him and her in the office, and she had been ready to get going…she had actually asked him if he wanted to stop off for ramen on the way home…but then he just sort of looked at her…

And then he asked if he could kiss her.

He wasn't usually so bold as to just come out and ask her. Of course she had said yes, that was one of the main perks of being in a relationship after all, and then he had done something totally unexpected. He had held her around the waist and then he just…lifted her. He lifted her up and sat her down on her desk and then he had kissed and…and it had been so…

Unexpected.

But in a good way. A way that she had never seen him be before. A way that she had never known that he could even be. She had seen him shy, awkward, sweet, endearing, romantic, but never so…she didn't even have a word for it. The way that he had been that made her toes curl and a shiver run up her spine and a bolt of lightning pass through her heart. The way that he had been…it had been so…well….she didn't want to call it that but there had been no other word for it.

Intense.

That was the word for it…even though they hadn't done anything at all that could even be classified as being intense. They kissed, they made out, and sometimes he felt her up. That would have been intense if she had been fifteen years younger. She had done so much more than that….and that wasn't the point. She wasn't comparing him to anyone else. She just…she just had no idea why it even felt so intense with him. What they did. Maybe because they had gone in baby steps up to this point…or maybe because he hadn't done anything at all before and there was something to being someone's first everything…or maybe because she felt…she felt like…

She loved him.

She starts walking quickly. She starts walking like she can outrun her own thoughts and feelings. She can't outrun her own mind but she still tries. As she walks she tries to think of something else, anything else, but she can't. She can't even remember what she had come in for…she really needed to start writing down her shopping lists instead of keeping them all in her head…and she knew that she must have needed something and-

Ooh! Body wash!

She had some at home. She had plenty at home, actually, but she could always use more. After all body wash wasn't going to go bad or anything like that. You could never have too much body wash. In fact if you thought that you had enough then you obviously didn't because you couldn't just go off and neglect your basic hygiene like that. No, she was actually doing the responsible thing and buying more. After all she did take a lot of showers, it was sweaty work she did, and one day she might have trusted too much in having body wash in reserve and then she might end up reaching over and finding none. Then she would have to go through her whole day smelling terrible and she could not handle that.

There. Now she was thinking about something besides her love life.

"Seaweed and….mango? Cucumber and….tomato? Carrot and…well carrot and Dead Sea mud at least makes some sense…." Muttered Reigen as she went about popping off body was caps and smelling them. Well now she knew why these were so cheap. The carrot one was ok though. She flipped it over and checked the ingredients. Thanks to Rei she knew what to look out for in soaps.

"Master Reigen? Why are you talking to the shampoo bottles?" Reigen just about jumped a meter into the air. Thank God that she was wearing gym shoes that day or she knew she would have ended up on the ground.

"Mob? What are you doing here?" asked Reigen as she composed herself. Wow. Seeing Mob outside of work or work related things. Always kind of weird. Sort of like she was intruding on something…even though they were in a public place. It was just so weird seeing casual Mob. Well she did, occasionally, see Mob out of uniform during the school year but this….new.

What was she even wearing?

It looked like cosplay. She looked like she stepped right out of a magical girl anime and into life. Everything but her expression. Still that same expressive non expression she always wore. Some might have mistook Mob for bored but Reigen knew better. She was happy to see her. Reigen could tell by her eyes…even though she was wearing what must have been an entire pallet's worth of eyeshadow. A full face of makeup actually.

Reigen wanted nothing more than to take a picture just to document the adorableness of this all…and also maybe to tease Mob with when she was older. Not in a mean way, of course.

"My mom said that she needed me and Ritsu to help her cover more ground. Why were you talking to the shampoo?" Said Mob

"This isn't shampoo, this is body wash, and I was not talking to it. I was just…talking to myself." Said Reigen

"Oh…ok. If you're lonely then I can stay and talk to you. Well I can do that but I also have to get more soap, too. The kind we always get even though there are so many other kinds. Mom won't let me pick the soap because she's the one paying for it." Said Mob. Reigen made a mental note to give Mob a raise. Everyone deserved proper grooming products. Knowing Mrs. Kageyama Mob was probably still stuck with all of the kids' stuff she had been using for her entire life. Honestly, Reigen did not understand parents sometimes. She'd let her daughter have whatever she wanted grooming wise. It was important to look you best…though she probably wouldn't let her Daughter have at the makeup like mob had. Though it was nice to see her mother giving her more freedom. Reigen wouldn't assign some arbitrary age to when her daughter could start wearing makeup. Just so long as she looked nice and wasn't buying anything from those shady sights and-

And Reigen did not have a daughter so there was no point in speculating about how she would bring up a daughter who did not even exist.

"You aren't missing anything. Here, smell this weirdness." Said Reigen as she hand Mob a bottle of lemon and grape scented body wash. Mob scrunched her nose and passed it back as soon as she smelled it.

"That was terrible, Master Reigen, why would someone make something like that?" asked Mob

"Well there's something for everyone I guess." Said Reigen as she put it back on the shelf. Why someone would need a four pack of that, a four pack of economy sized bottles of that, she would never know. At least Mob didn't like it either. At least Reigen knew, now, that she was not the weird one.

"I can see why my mom only lets me get one kind of soap, now." Said Mob

"Don't worry, most soap isn't this weird. There's a whole world out there, Mob, just waiting for you to dive into it." Said Reigen. She had loved that back when she had been Mob's age. Discovering new scents and products and stuff had been one of her favorite afterschool activities. Well one of her favorite family rated after school activities…which maybe Mob should have took up considering the barely concealed mark on her neck…

Well at least Reigen knew what all the makeup was about.

"But if I dove into body wash it would sting my eyes…unless it was tear free. Or unless I was wearing goggles I guess." Said Mob

"Tear free is a lie, Mob, a terrible lie. You'd be better off wearing goggles." Said Reigen

"It would be cheaper to use water, though, wouldn't it Master Reigen?" asked Mob

"Not if you were using these bottles. Jeez, who needs four economy sized bottles of this shi-stuff?" asked Reigen

"People with big families, maybe, or people who never stop taking baths." Said Mob

"Never stop taking baths?" asked Reigen

"Yes. I saw, well me and Rei and Tome saw when we were sleeping over at Tome's house, this show where this one lady took seven baths or more a day. That's bad for your skin, Rei says so. Tome thinks that eventually you would just grow gills. I don't think that would happen but I do think that taking that many baths is too many baths. I mean I like baths too but not that often. Maybe because my bathtub at home is too small to lay down all the way. Teru's tub is big enough for two peop-um…and-and-um….your hair looks nice today! That's a really good sloppy bun….and…um…your hair tie is nice. The...um…pink is a nice color." Said Mob. Reigen could feel Mob's nervousness, the crackle in the air from her powers, and she chose not to address what she had just heard. First of all she hadn't been going for a sloppy bun and also…what the hell? Mob had been about to say that her boyfriend's tub was big enough for two. She could have figured that out in plenty of ways that had nothing to do with the poorly covered hickey on her neck…and Reigen was not going to think about it. Reigen was not going to think about how Mob was fifteen now and older and probably going to get up to the same things that Reigen had gotten up to when she had been fifteen….

Mob's life was her own and she could do whatever she wanted to do.

"Thanks. That what I was going for. You look…nice. Going for the magical girl look?" asked Reigen

"Teru picked out this dress for me and he likes it when I wear makeup like this. Well he says that I'm pretty all the time but I know that he likes me best when I dress like this. He has an outfit that matches this one, well not a dress because he's a boy, but he has clothes that match and later on we're going to get dinner together and I'm really excited and-" said Mob. Reigen knew that Mob had two modes. There was quiet Mob and then there was talking a mile a minute Mob. She only did that when she got excited. She was very excited now.

And Reigen was excited for her. She had to be supportive…even though Reigen wanted to take her and shake her and tell her that she was way too young for what she was getting up to.

"Shige! Where are you with that soap!" called Mob's mother down the aisle. Mob jumped, practically, at the sound of her mother's voice. Reigen gave her a sympathetic look. She knew that feeling well…and she was not going to project. Her relationship with her own mother was not Mob's relationship with her mother.

And it would not be her relationship with her daughter, either.

Reigen's thoughts stayed on her hypothetical future daughter after Mob said her goodbyes and went back to her mother's side. Reigen hadn't ever given much thought to being a mother aside from a few pregnancy scares and way too much money spent on various types of birth control. She didn't feel a ticking biological clock urging her to go out and mate with the first man she saw before her eggs ran out and she withered and died like a husk. She had actively avoided being anyone's mother for so long…

Well there were the kids.

She was a cool aunt, at best, when it came to the kids. She didn't want to be a mother figure. Too much responsibility and too much breathing down teenager's necks. She saw nothing inherently wrong with what those kids were getting up to in life. Love, makeup, boys, sneaking out to each other's houses in the middle of the night, none of it bothered her. They got up to what they got up to and all she asked was that they were safe. That was the direct opposite of what a mother should have been.

Or maybe she was just projecting thanks to her own experiences with her own mother.

She…she didn't hate the idea of having a daughter. A son…she had no idea what she would do if she had a son. She had never been a boy, never had a brother, and her father had walked out when she had been a kid. She didn't know anything at all about raising boys. That was probably why people tended to pair up before they had kids…not that Reigen had ever been paired up before. Not in any serious way. Before, if she had gotten pregnant, she knew that she would have been on her own. She also knew that she could not have done it on her own hence the birth control.

Why was she even thinking about this?

They hadn't even had sex yet and she was thinking about….ugh! What was with her? She was turning into one of those baby crazy, relationship obsessed, women. She was…she didn't even know what was the matter with her. She had barely done more than kiss him, she hadn't even known him a full year, and now she was thinking about all the ways she would be a better mother to their daughter than her mother had been to her.

Did she even want that with him?

Yes. The answer was yes. The answer was yes and she had no idea what she was supposed to do about this. She wanted to spend her life with him…and…and she had never felt that way about anyone else before in her entire life. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with this information. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with herself. She was moving too fast. At some point she had started moving too fast without even having had gone anywhere. She couldn't even believe herself. She was…she didn't even know what was up with her. To be thinking like this so early…or even at all…

He couldn't know.

If he knew then he would get freaked out and he wouldn't stick around…and rightly so. He had just started to live his life, to properly live his life, and he did not need her coming to him with all of her stupid, way too fast, wants and stuff. She was his first everything…or she would be once they got to the everything…and he might have even decided that he would rather have had…she didn't know. She didn't know why she would even think that about him. He wasn't that kind of guy. There was no person more loyal, more sweet, more caring than Serizawa Katsuya. He had literally risked his life for her. He had betrayed the person who had saved him just so he could save a woman he didn't even know….

She loved him.

She loved him and instead of a sticky, sappy, sweet feeling settling inside of her it was, instead, the feeling of…panic. Panic and fear and just…too much! Way too much! She got to moving. She was there to shop, not panic, and she was going to shop. She was going to shop and think about…about anything other than…than how she felt. The love she felt, the things she feared, and the fact that she wanted nothing more than to marry her life to his….

They had just started sharing a Costco card. Now was not the time to be thinking about sharing lives.

Too fast. She was moving too fast, both physically and mentally, and she had to just…stop. Just stop and breathe and think. Think about…about something else. Think about shopping. Think about all the things you need to do…and she did. She thought about everything that she had to do…and she tried her best not to think about him…about how she…loved him…about how he could have said no…to everything...

She loved him, it was scary, and she had shopping to do.