Sometimes the best thing to do was to seek wisdom from those older and wiser than you.
Master Reigen had said that, well she had said that there was nothing wrong with asking for advice when you needed it, but this wasn't the kind of thing that Mob could just go to Master Reigen with. This was too…private. That was a good word for it. Too private to talk to someone like Master Reigen about. Someone as old as her.
She knew what Master Reigen would say.
She'd say the same thing that Mom had said when she trapped Mob in the car to tell her about…stuff like this. She'd tell Mob that she was too young, that she had her whole life ahead of her, that there were more important things in life than boys, that boys couldn't be trusted because they were only after one thing, and that she had better not get pregnant. Or maybe she would just end up saying something totally different. She was about Mom's age, all adults were kind of the same age to Mob until they became old people, and…well it made sense that she would say the sort of thing that mom would have said…or maybe she'd say something different. Mob didn't want to go through the embarrassing process of finding out.
Nope.
She didn't want Master Reigen to know that she was thinking about doing this kind of thing. If Master Reigen knew then she would think about it and then Mob would have to think about how she knew all of this and, yes, she knew that Master Reigen had probably done this kind of thing a hundred times before with lots of different boys but…but Mob didn't want to THINK about it. So of course she couldn't ask about it.
But that was ok.
She knew someone else who was older and wiser. Not as old as Master Reigen but older. Tome knew about this kind of thing. She had been boyfriend and girlfriend with Inukawa since they had been in their first year of middle school and now they were still together even though they were in high school. If that wasn't true love then Mob didn't know what was. Tome had done it before, too, a bunch of times. She was always talking about it no matter how much Mob kind of wished that she wouldn't. It was just weird, thinking about Tome and stuff like that…
But not as weird as Master Reigen or, God forbid, Mom, so really Mob was out of people to ask about this.
"Um…Tome?" asked Mob. She had been trying to figure out how to ask about this all day. That was why she had come here specifically when she knew that Rei would be busy visiting her cousins. She didn't want to talk about this kind of thing with Rei around since Rei was still a little bit in love with Ritsu and…yeah, not something she wanted to think about one of her best friends thinking about doing with her little brother. It was just her and Tome, and it was getting late, so she had to say something…but she just hadn't had the chance.
She hadn't taken videogames into account.
"Mob, keep up, the point of the escort mission is to, you know, do some escorting." Said Tome as, once again, this stupid npc walked head first into danger. Like…why? If she had been younger she would have thought that it was some kind of conspiracy, that self aware npcs were trying to kill themselves once they realized the truth of their existence, but she wasn't a kid anymore. She knew the truth.
Whoever coded this was a moron!
"I am, but, um…" said Mob as Tome leaned down to the side and picked a poke stick out of the box with her teeth.
"I need you, Mob, so you do this while I get some sustenance." Said Tome. She didn't know why Mob had invited herself over to play this with her, she was terrible at these kinds of games. Pretty much anything that wasn't a farming or pet sim, really. Not that she was going to complain in any serious way, it was nice to have someone to play with, someone to play seriously with. Somehow she was the least lazy member of the telepathy club four years running.
She needed more friends, more Mob and Rei-like friends. Sometimes she, amazingly, did want to get things done even if those things were knocking out all the annoying quests in this stupid game.
"Do you just want me to feed you?" asked Mob
"Oh yeah, I forgot you could do that. Feed away." Said Tome as she opened her mouth.
"Do you want me to pause the game, too?" asked Mob as she used her powers to feed Tome poke sticks. Tome shook her head.
"Can't pause an online game." Said Tome through a mouth full of strawberry frosted deliciousness.
"Oh…ok. That's…I forgot about that." Said Mob
"An honest mistake, Mob, an honest mistake. Now, more sustenance." Said Tome as she opened her mouth. Mob got back to it…but apparently she wasn't much of a multitasker. Either that or she somehow didn't see the volley of arrows that just took out their stupid escort-ee.
"Mob…" whined Tome
"Sorry, sorry, I was just…distracted." Said Mob
"No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have had you do two things at once. I didn't know you couldn't multitask with your powers." Said Tome
"I can." Said Mob. Tome gave her a long look.
"So what was all that then!?" asked Tome, maybe a little too loudly. Mom or Dad, most likely Mom, started pounding on the wall. If she had been alone she would have pounded back but, of course, she wasn't and she didn't feel like getting Mob sent home. Then she'd be back to the lonely malaise of a weekend by herself.
"Um…" said Mob
"Don't tell me you got bored." Said Tome
"No, no, not that." Said Mob
"Oh come on, I know that this isn't your thing." Said Tome
"It's not…not that…" said Mob
"Then what?" asked Tome. Mob was being weird…maybe something was going down! Maybe the world was in danger again! Not that she wanted it to be in danger, she just didn't want to be left out this time. Reigen hadn't been left out and she didn't have powers either. Really, it was the courteous thing to do. If you were going to save the world you called your best friend.
"I…" said Mob
"Do you need me to help you save the world again?" asked Tome
"No! Nothing like that at all!" said Mob. She didn't even want to think about that day…and especially not what could have happened if Tome had been there. She didn't have any powers, she would have died, just like Master Reigen had almost died…and Mob didn't think that she ever could have recovered from that. One of her friends dying because of her.
"Damn, it's never anything interesting." Said Tome with a sigh.
"I didn't say that it wasn't interesting…I mean that isn't to say that it is…um…" said Mob
"Which is it? Interesting or not?" asked Tome
"The thing is…um…I was just thinking about…something that I wanted to ask you about…something really important." Said Mob quickly. This was as good a chance as any, she figured. She just needed to get the words out. She didn't know why she was so nervous, it was just Tome. She knew about these things and she was never embarrassed by them. She was older, for her this kind of thing was nothing. She did this kind of thing all the time, it was probably boring for her. Mob….well, she hadn't even gone past kissing yet, and even that was kind of…not boring but not…not exciting either…
Tome probably knew what she meant, that is if Mob could ever get the words out.
"I'm listening." Said Tome, leaning in close. She wondered if this was a 'close the laptop' situation. She had worked hard to get this set up so they both could see and play, she had even found her other controller that worked with this piece of junk, but…well Mob had said that it was important…
Even though this wasn't 'save the world' important Mob important…well, it had a bigger chance of being important than when things were 'Rei important'.
"Um…ok. It's about me and Teru…" said Mob as Tome leaned in close. Mob didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. At least this way she didn't have to speak very loudly…but now she had to whisper and that, somehow, made it feel more real…but this was why she had come here, to talk about this kind of stuff…and like they had said in health class, if she wasn't mature enough to talk about it then she wasn't mature enough to be doing it.
Not that she was…that was kind of the problem.
"Did you guys finally do it?" asked Tome quietly. She had no idea if Mom was listening. She could be so old fashioned about this kind of thing. When she had found about Inukawa she had tried to transfer Tome to an all-girls school. Thankfully, though, Tome didn't get good enough grades to even get the privilege of sitting the entrance exam.
"Tome!" asked Mob. She pulled her braids over her face. They were trying to float away. She was trying to float away. How could Tome have just come out and ASKED that?! Just…how could she have just put those words together like-like it was nothing!?
"So did I guess right?" asked Tome as Mob did that thing where she hid behind her hair. That was why she kept it so long, instant stealth mode. Of course the rest of her was still visible so it wasn't much of a perk.
"N-No…that's the problem…" said Mob softly. She let go of her hair and drew her knees up to her chest. It felt weird saying it out loud. Like…like she was saying something wrong but also admitting that there was something wrong with her. She was a girl, she wasn't supposed to want to more than her boyfriend did, and her boyfriend was supposed to want to do this kind of thing to begin with. What was wrong with her that he didn't…that he didn't like her like that?
"Wait, hold up. He said 'no'? What, is he gay or something?" asked Tome
"I don't think that he is, I mean if he was it would be really weird for him to be in a relationship with me." said Mob. She had never even thought about it, Teru just plain not liking girls…but he'd had so many girlfriends before her, and girls that he had just hooked up with…but what if it had all been a cover like in that one movie that Tome had put on once that hadn't been a movie at all, in the end…
Great. Now she was worried and embarrassed at the same time.
"Unless he just needs a girlfriend so that nobody suspects." Said Tome in a tone that she had thought, really thought, had sounded lighthearted. It obviously hadn't judging by the look of pure panic that had taken over Mob's face.
"I didn't know that I had to worry about that." Said Mob quietly. What if their whole relationship had been a lie and he had never even cared about her and she was stupid and nobody would ever love her and she'd end up old and surrounded by cats but the cats didn't love her either because she was unlovable and then-
"Damn it! Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to freak you out." Said Tome as she put an arm around Mob. The hair on her arm stood up as she made contact with Mob's shoulder. Yeah, she was really freaking herself out…ok, from now on Tome was going to handle this with care and sensitivity.
"It's ok, I'm not very freaked out, just a little. I didn't even think that it was an option…but it would make sense. Either that or he just…he doesn't like me." said Mob. It would have made more sense, a lot more sense, that Teru just wasn't into her like she was into him. She had seen the girls he'd gone out with before, the girls who went to his school. She wasn't pretty like they were. She was just…Mob. She was like a background character, that was why people had started calling her 'Mob' in the first place.
Why would Teru have wanted someone like her when he could have had anyone else?
"I don't think it's that, I mean he did change his entire outlook on life because of you, guys don't just change like that for anyone." Said Tome as she pulled Mob close. Mob nodded and rested her head on Tome's shoulder.
"But if he liked me then he'd want to do more than kiss, right? And I had to ask him to kiss me. I just…I don't know, maybe there's something wrong with me." said Mob
"There's nothing wrong with you…I mean, ok, you've been wearing your hair the same way for your entire life and your mom buys your clothes but it's not like you're deformed or anything…and if you were and he didn't want to do it with you then fuck him." said Tome
"But…if he didn't want to do that with me but I made him wouldn't that be wrong?" asked Mob, pulling away. Tome shook her head.
"I didn't literally mean to fuck him, I mean that he can go fuck off if he's going to be like that. Fuck is a word that means many things, Mob, so you need to work on your grammar!" said Tome, jabbed a finger into Mob's chest. There, she was smiling now, at least a little bit. There, mission partially accomplished!
"I don't normally use that word, it's complicated. This whole thing is just…it's really complicated." Said Mob
"Well that's what you have me for. Think of me as your wise best friend, big sister, and upperclassman. I know all." Said Tome
"Can you help me? I mean do you know how to get Teru to want to…um…with me?" asked Mob
"Did you try asking him like I told you to already?" asked Tome. If this guy wasn't into it after Tome's great advice then he was probably secretly gay or something. He did love to shop, do his hair, and there was that one time he went to Lush with them and walked out with more stuff than all of them put together.
"I can't just come out and-and ask him if he wants to…um…uh…I can't even get the words out now and I'm just talking to you!" said Mob
"Not in person, I mean over text or whatever. Remember, I already told you what to say." Said Tome. She had given some pretty damn good advice before, some of the best she had ever given, and she had no idea how to top that. Why did this guy have to be so weird? All she'd had to do was ask Inukawa if he wanted to do it, then set up a time and place, then get a bunch of condoms, and then just kind of…well first times always sucked so it didn't matter!
"You did but…but if I ask him and he just says no then…then I don't know what I'd do. I mean it would be so awkward and also I don't know if I'd cry, I probably would, and then I'd be sad and that would make it even more awkward…" said Mob
"Ok, so how about you make him think that it's his idea?" asked Tome. That had worked with Inukawa…sort of. She'd managed to get him all hot and bothered over her, at least, so that had been something. All it took was a week or two of rolling up her skirt, touching him a lot, and wearing just enough makeup to look good while not so much that she broke the dress code. Teru was proving to be a tougher case, though Mob of course wasn't making this easy either.
Kids. Tome was glad she had never had these sorts of problems when she had been their age.
"How do I do that? I mean he'd know that it wasn't his idea, right?" asked Mob
"Wear something short and tight, something that shows a lot of skin. That way he'll think about you naked." Said Tome. She knew that she was retreading old ground but, hey, that was the best that she could come up with. It had sort of worked with Inukawa and it wasn't like guys were all that complex!
"But I don't have anything like that." Said Mob. That was the same thing she had said before…well, obviously it worked otherwise Tome would have been in the same predicament she was in now.
"That's what stores are for, Mob, that's what stores are for." Said Tome with a wave of her hand. Mob nodded, finally taking in Tome's sage advice.
"Oh…ok. I've never bought anything like that before…how did you know what to buy? Or did Inukawa just ask you to…um…with him…sorry. I shouldn't have asked that, it was way too personal." Said Mob
"I'm a modern woman, Mob, I don't have those kinds of hang ups." Said Tome
"Not at all?" asked Mob
"Of course not. If it's ok for guys then it should be ok for us too. I'm not going to be ashamed of the fact that Inukawa and I have a healthy sex life. That's more than most people have." Said Tome
"It is?" asked Mob. She hadn't thought of it like that. If most people weren't doing anything then maybe she was normal? Or maybe everyone was just in the same sad, kind of annoying, boat that she was…as much as she didn't want to be alone in this she didn't want other people to feel the way that she did, either.
"Yeah, why do you think the birth rate's so low?" asked Tome
"My parents said that it's because of the cost of living." Said Mob
"No, well yeah, but no. It's because everyone's so hung up on their hang ups that they aren't having any sex at all let alone good sex." Said Tome. Mob nodded and leaned in even closer. Good, at least she was listening now. She really should have listened before, that way she wouldn't have been in this mess. It felt good having someone listen to her, finally, even if it was about this and not something important like the fact that mankind was being watched by intelligences greater than their own and the rest of the opening monologue from that old movie.
"But…" asked Mob
"But?" asked Tome. Mob looked away, clearly embarrassed. How Mob of all people could have had these kinds of hang ups Tome would never know. What was she afraid of, people thinking badly of her? She could lift buildings with her mind. Anyone who challenged her on anything was a moron. If Tome had been the one with powers like that she would have done whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and anyone who had a problem with her could take it up with her psychic powers.
"How can you tell if it's good or bad?" asked Mob quickly. She had been so wrapped up in making it happen that she hadn't even thought about making it good. Now that she thought about it she wasn't even sure if she knew what to do. In the stuff she had read it had always been the boy that did, well, everything. The girl was always just kind of there, she just went with what the boy wanted. She was expected to know how to make it good, right? This was…this was…
This was a lot but thankfully she had Tome to tell her what to do.
"Trust me, you'll know." said Tome with a shake of her head. She had heard, before, that sex was like pizza. When it was bad it was still good. Whoever said that had probably been a guy. It had been good-ish the first time…good-ish. Not horrible but…well, it had gotten better eventually.
"But I don't know, that's the problem. I don't know what to do to make it good. I don't even know what to do, now that I think about it." Said Mob, her braids starting to float away. Tome put a hand on her shoulder and took a deep breath.
"Mob, breath. Come on, I don't need you freaking out and wrecking my house." Said Tome as she took a deep breath. After a moment Mob joined her.
"I would never wreck your house, not on purpose." Said Mob
"Well don't do it on accident either. I need to live here. Otherwise I have to go and live with my grandparents and they don't even have wifi." Said Tome
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to freak out. I just…got worried, I guess. I mean I was so focused on…stuff…that I didn't even think about other stuff." Said Mob
"There's nothing really to worry about. You just kind of know what to do." Said Tome with a shrug. She had been amazing, of course, it was Inukawa who hadn't had the first clue what to do. But she wasn't going to tell Mob that her first time was probably going to suck, then she'd end up a virgin for the rest of her life and it would have all been Tome's fault.
"But I don't know what to do now and I'm not even doing anything." Said Mob
"Let him worry about what to do, guys are a lot less picky than we are. They get off no matter what you do. They're the ones who have to actually have some kind skill." Said Tome
"Wait…so I have to worry about him being bad at it?" asked Mob. Something else to worry about…the last thing that she needed was something else to worry about. What if Teru was bad at it? What if he was so bad at it that she didn't ever want to do it with him again but he wanted to and it was just a great, big, mess? Or what if…there were too many what ifs!
"Most guys aren't that great the first time, but they learn pretty fast, you just have to tell him what you like. They can be kind of dense like that." Said Tome
"That's another thing I have to worry about, then, since I've never done this before with anyone. I have no idea what I like." Said Mob. Tome gave her a long look and raised an eyebrow.
"So your search history is squeaky clean?" asked Tome. Mob gasped and shook her head.
"No…but that's not what I meant. I meant that…with another person….um…don't look at my search history!" said Mob as she held her phone close to her chest. Tome, thankfully, didn't try and take it from her. She just laughed…which wasn't great but it wasn't as bad either.
"Relax, Mob, I'm not going to go through your search history. There are some things in this world that are sacred and search histories are one of them." said Tome
"Thank you." said Mob
"I'm not sure what you're getting so worked up over, though. Just tell him what you like, make sure you're ready, and you'll be fine. There's nothing to worry about." Said Tome. Well, there was nothing to worry about aside from getting pregnant, or sick, or your parents finding out, or worse…your parents catching you…but she wasn't going to worry Mob about all of that. Judging by the look on her face she was worked up enough as it was.
"But I am worried about…about a lot of things like…um… how it feels? I mean does it…does it hurt? I mean I heard that it did." Said Mob quietly. Something else to worry about. She had never been the best at dealing with pain, and she didn't want this to hurt anyway. This was supposed to be an amazing, beautiful thing, not…not something that was going to hurt or…or…
Or something that she was going to regret.
"No, or at least not for me, but I was totally ready." Said Tome quickly. Yeah, this was not something that she needed to get Mob all worried about.
"How do you know if you're ready?" asked Mob
"Mob, if you can't tell if you're ready for a guy to shove his dick inside of you then you've got bigger problems than I can address." Said Tome
"Oh! I didn't know you meant…I know what you mean now!" said Mob
"Good, I was scared for a minute." Said Tome
"I know what you mean now, you don't have to be scared and…um…let's not talk about that part." Said Mob
"You sure you're ready for this? Remember health class? If you're not mature enough to talk about it then you're not mature enough to do it…not that they were mature enough to answer any of my questions…" muttered Tome. Some of those had been legitimate questions, only a few of those had been jokes, but of course all they had said was 'let's move on' and 'this is not a comedy club' and 'if we find out which boy this disciplinary action will have to be taken'…stupid health class.
"I am, I mean I think that I am. I mean how did you know that you were ready? Emotionally, I mean. Not…um…the other thing." asked Mob
"It took a couple of weeks before I was ready but when I was I just kind of knew." Said Tome
"You knew in two weeks?" asked Mob, her eyebrows disappearing up into her bangs. She and Teru had known each other for way more than two weeks before they even starting holding hands let alone all the stuff that they hadn't even started to do, yet.
"When you know, you know." said Tome with a shrug. Poor Mob. Young, naïve, Mob. She still had so much growing up to do. Tome didn't know why people complained about getting old, it was nice to be the older and wiser one out of the two of them.
"Wow…you and Inukawa must love each other a lot." Said Mob. If this had been an anime her eyes would have been twinkling. That was truly the most beautiful thing that she had ever heard in her life.
"It's not always about love." Said Tome. Inukawa hadn't said it, yet, but…well it wasn't like they had to be in love to do it, and anyway he must have been since they'd been together for this long. It was one of those things that went without saying. She was old enough to know how it worked. She wasn't like Mob and Rei, getting all hung up over all the minute details.
"I know about hooking up and stuff but you and Inukawa are boyfriend and girlfriend so you must be in love, right?" asked Mob
"Yeah, sure…but this isn't about me, it's about you. Now we need to think up a battle plan." Said Tome
"I thought that we were getting ride of all the boring quests first before we went to the combat zone." Said Mob as she picked up her controller. Tome knocked it out of her hand and shook her head.
"Mob, this is not time to be thinking about videogames. You have a serious problem here and we need to figure out how we're going to address it. We didn't overcome obstacle after obstacle to get you and Teru together only to have it all end here!" said Tome
"But…we didn't really have to do anything…" said Mob
"Well, we're doing something now so…let's brainstorm." Said Tome
"Right! We can…um…what worked for you and Inukawa?" asked Mob
"For us? Well I had to drop him a few hints before I broached the subject with him." said Tome
"I'm not good at giving hints." Said Mob
"It's nothing too complicated. I just wore a lot of makeup, rolled up my skirt, and touched him a lot. Sent him some flirty texts and pictures-" said Tome
"Tome! You can't send pictures of yourself! It's illegal, they said so at school, and if other people got their hands on them then…then they'd see you naked and stuff!" said Mob. She pulled her skirt down over her knees and closed her eyes. She couldn't imagine anything worse than the whole school, no, the whole world seeing her naked. She'd have to live in her room for the rest of her life like Serizawa had tried to, there would have been no other way.
"Relax, I didn't go that far. I just stuck my knees in a bra and zoomed in really close. Nothing serious." Said Tome
"Boys like…knees?" asked Mob. Well now she was more confused than ever. She knew that boys liked breasts, and butts, and stomachs, and legs, and there was that one boy who had gotten in trouble for taking pictures of girls' feet during gym class…and that other boy who they caught with a flash drive full of pictures of girls' armpits…actually, yes, now that she thought about it she totally believed the knee thing.
"If you name it guys are into it, but it wasn't about knees. If you put your knees in a bra and zoom in it looks like cleavage. It's cleavage without, you know, actually risking taking pictures of your cleavage." Said Tome. Plus as an added bonus if your mom walked in on you taking pictures of your knees in a bra you could just say it was an internet thing.
"Oh…that's really smart, Tome." Said Mob
"Yeah, I know, that's why I came up with it." Said Tome. Or why she read it in a magazine…but Mob didn't need to know about that part. It would have done no good to shatter Mob's image of her now when she was at such a delicate time in her life.
"I don't really have a nice bra, though. All I have are undershirts and sports bras." Said Mob
"Are they at least colorful?" asked Tome
"No." said Mob sadly.
"White?" asked Tome. Mob shook her head…damn. What could have been worse than plain white?
"No, tan…like Mom's…and Grandma's. She says that I don't need pretty ones because it's not like anyone's going to be seeing them…and I didn't want to correct her." said Mob
"Good move…ok, we just have to figure out-" said Mob
"Rei's good at decorating things, maybe she could make one of mine look nice?" asked Mob
"Rei's out of town, Mob, time is of the essence." Said Tome. Rei was too young, anyway, to involve in all of this. She wasn't mature enough for this kind of serious subject matter. Once she fixed Mob's love life then she would get on to fixing Rei's…though figuring out how to crack this fixation she had on gay guys was going to be tough. Tome was into yaoi as much as the next guy but Rei took it to a whole other level.
"Ok but…but then what do we do?" asked Mob
"Mob, just this once, I will let you borrow one of my nice bras." Said Tome. Mob scrunched her nose at the suggestion…honestly! How could she have scruples at a time like this!?
"For pictures, Mob, not to wear…and anyway it's a bra, it's not like we're sharing underwear. Even I won't go that far." Said Tome
"Oh, ok. I'm sorry to have doubted you." said Mob. She was never going to doubt Tome again. Sure, her methods could be unorthodox at times but she did know what she was talking about. From now on Mob was going to do whatever she suggested…even if it was kind of silly feeling, like putting her knees in a bra, taking pictures, and then using those pictures to trick her boyfriend into thinking that she was sending him pictures of her actual breasts…
It felt silly but Mob knew to trust the wisdom of someone older and wiser than she was.