During times like these Mob often asked himself; what would Master Reigen do?
He had no idea. It was too early to call him, especially since it was a Sunday. Master Reigen liked to sleep in on Sundays, most people did, Mob included. If this had been a normal Sunday then he and Ritsu and Teru and Sho would have all been asleep in a big pile on the floor or Ritsu's room, or more likely it would have just been him and Teru in his room, but either way they would have gotten some sleep. Sleep was important, not just in Body Improvement Club ways, but also in terms of his powers.
He lost control when he got tired.
He looked over. His phone was floating up off the ground. He caught it and put it back on the charger. Five fifty right in the morning. The sun was starting to rise, it was kind of pretty. The way the sky was turning purple. He had always liked sunrises. So maybe this was alright. Maybe it was best to look to the positives of this situation.
There must have been others.
He looked around the room. Oh! It looked like Ritsu had finally nodded off. He was sitting up with his arms and legs crossed and his head resting on Sho's shoulder. His feet were draped over Teru. He was maybe sleeping maybe not, sometimes he just laid down with his eyes closed. Sho hadn't rested his eyes once last night, he had been too busy staring at the stranger passed out on Ritsu's bed.
Another positive!
All of his friends were here, for one thing, which was always great but also he had maybe made a new friend. Sho had said that this was his brother. Apparently his dad knew a lot of women. Mob was still having trouble taking apart everything that he had seen, and experienced, when he and Touichirou had both left their bodies and essentially became one person sort of. There had been a lot about Sho's mom in there, and then also a bunch of other girls. The kind of thing that Mob knew was none of his business. Adults did adult things that he didn't want to know about…and then sometimes those adult things ended up passed out in his house.
But this was a good thing.
Not about the kid being passed out, no, but about Sho having a little brother, or maybe a big brother, or even a same age brother. Mob had no idea how old this kid was, he didn't even know his name, and he wasn't wearing a uniform so Mob didn't even know if he was in middle school yet. Definitely too young for high school. That was good. It was better if they were all the same age, it made being friends easier. Mob hoped that Sho got along with this guy whoever he was.
Brothers needed to get along, to be friends, otherwise what was even the point of being brothers?
"Don't touch my toast…" muttered Ritsu as he rubbed his eyes. Mob stayed still. Ritsu was coming out of sleep. There was a chance that he would go back into it. He used to wake Mob up all the time back when they had been little enough to share a room. Back before that terrible thing happened…it didn't matter. There had been a thing, it had been terrible, and now it was over with and they had moved past it and Ritsu had forgiven him and-
-and Ritsu still had the scar. Mob could see it right on his forehead.
Sho patted Ritsu's hair back down. Mob hadn't even had to ask, not that he would have. Scars were scars, the past was in the past, and he and Ritsu were friends again. Another positive, he and Ritsu loved each other, but not a new one so he wasn't sure if it counted. He hadn't even been aware, back when things had been bad between them, that they had even been bad. His own little brother had been suffering so much and Mob hadn't even known…
That was a negative.
If Sho ever had any questions about being a good big brother Mob wasn't the person to ask. He had been so worried about improving his own life that he hadn't been paying enough attention to Ritsu. Maybe because he and Ritsu were so close in age. It wasn't like with Sho and his brothers and sisters. He much older than all of them, especially the little baby…or did they count as kids when they were two? He didn't know about babies. He wasn't the person to ask about big brothering when it came to much younger siblings either. He would do his best with Sho and this new kid, though.
Another positive. He had a new goal to work towards.
The sunlight was even brighter now. It was coming through the window and hitting him right across the eyes. He used his powers to close the curtains. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to risk waking everyone off. Everyone but Sho.
Sho had been awake all night.
Mob felt his aura pull in close. His whole body tensed up. Mob's did the same thing when he was scared. Mob quickly pulled his aura back in close. The last thing that he wanted to do was scare anyone, especially his friends. That would have most certainly been a negative. He had managed to control his powers, though, so that was a complete and total positive. Controlling his powers was getting easier and easier these days. He was finally growing out of…things.
But not completely.
As he pulled his aura in the kid's aura lashed out. Mob put up a barrier, quickly, before anything could happen. Nothing happened. One of Ritsu's notebooks just fell from the shelf. It landed on the pile of things in the corner, the things that Mob had found on the road and assumed belonged to the kid. He hadn't looked, none of it had seemed like any of his business. He didn't like to be nosy even if he was incredibly curious. It wasn't every day that he met another esper, let alone one his age, let one that may have been…like him.
He was Touichirou's son after all.
Sho had a pretty good grasp on his powers but he said that he had been awakened, which was different than being a natural esper like Mob was. He wondered if this kid was a natural esper. He felt like it. He felt just like Touichirou. This was actually kind of interesting, the way that other people's auras were. The way that they were passed down. He hadn't even thought about it before. He had just thought that powers were something that randomly happened. His parents sure weren't espers, he knew that for a fact. He wondered how it happened, how people even got powers in the first place…
Another positive.
"What are you so happy about?" whispered Sho. Mob felt Sho's aura against his. He felt mad, he'd felt mad since they'd found the kid. He had no idea what there was to be mad about. Sure this was kind of bad, they had managed to bring the kid home but they had no idea what they were going to do with him, and also if mom and dad found out about this then things were going to get very bad very fast, and also if he was seriously hurt then they were going to have to explain to people what had happened and why they hadn't brought him to a hospital when they had found him and then people would be very disappointed in them….
Ok, yes, there were a lot of negatives and things to be worried about.
"I was just trying to think of the positives." Whispered Mob. Sho raised an eyebrow.
"I can't see anything positive about this." Said Sho
"We made a new friend, you have another brother-" said Mob
"That's not a positive, not even a little bit'." Said Sho, not even whispering a little bit. Ritsu lifted his head and rubbed his eyes. He kicked Teru, too, as he turned. Teru just turned onto his side…oh, so he was asleep. Ritsu was starting to wake up though. Sho fixed that. He put his arm around Ritsu and pulled him close.
He was so glad that Ritsu had found love, if anyone deserved to it was him.
"You don't get it. You've only got Ritsu. It's…it sucks, alright? When you just wake up and you have new brothers and sisters and you're just supposed to be a brother and…and it's hard, ok?" whispered Sho. Mob nodded.
"I can help you, if you need it. I've been a big brother all my life…most of my life. Ritsu was born when I was one but I don't think that it counts, before Ritsu was born, because I was a baby and I don't really remember that time in my life too well." Said Mob. Sho sighed.
"You still don't get it. You're….you're supposed to have Ritsu. You both have the same parents and your parents don't cheat on each other-" said Sho
"I don't know that for sure. I hope that they don't." said Mob with a shudder. Dad cheating on mom? Mom cheating on dad? No way. The thought of his family coming apart like that…the room shook a little. He had to get it together before he woke everyone. And brought his house down, but waking everyone up would come first.
"Ritsu's older brother, come on. Your parents don't do it with other people. Your parents are the kind of people who need it explained to them." said Sho
"You can call me by my name." said Mob looking away. The only thing worse than thinking about mom and dad cheating on each other was thinking of them being together. Parents were NOT allowed to do that…well they had to, that was how they became parents in the first place, but it was a weird thing to think about. Almost as weird as thinking about your little brother being in love and stuff like that...maybe it was best if family didn't think about that part of their other family memebers' lives.
"I know….Mob. It's just weird." Said Sho
"Calling me by my name or thinking about your parents being in love with other people?" asked Mob
"Both…and anyway my dad wasn't in love with Tsuchiya, and probably not with whoever this kid's mom is. He's like my age…no wonder mom left. Or maybe he's older. I don't know, mom says that she only married dad because she was going to have me. That's why she married my other brothers and sister's dad too…" said Sho. Mob wondered if it would have been weird to ask his parents if they'd had health class back when they had been kids. His parents were about the same age as Sho's parents, right? All adults just felt like adults to him. If there had been health class back then Sho's parents, obviously, hadn't been paying attention.
"Oh." Said Mob
"Yeah, so it's like…ok? I have another brother, probably. I mean he looks like dad and his aura feels like dad's and it's just…come on!" said Sho. He was getting kind of mad again, Mob had done something wrong. This always happened when he tried to talk to Sho, well a lot of people, but mostly Sho. Master Reigen said that he had a right to be kind of sensitive with everything that he had gone through in his life. Mob agreed, Sho had been through a lot, and that was just the parts that he had seen…it could have been much worse than Mob ever knew.
Poor Sho. Maybe accentuating the positives would help! There was no way Mob was going to screw that up again.
"But…um…maybe he's nice? I mean you get another brother and I think that I'd like another brother to be friends with…sorry. This is just kind of…kind of different for me. I've never even thought about the possibility of my parents having more kids than me and Ritsu." Said Mob
"Yeah, most people don't get it, but that's fine. I don't expect people to. I'm not dad, I don't expect people to get crazy shit like this." Said Sho
"I don't think that you're crazy." Said Mob
"I never said that I was crazy, I said that this was crazy, and don't pretend that it's not. My secret half brother is passed out on Ritsu's bed. This is, objectionably, pretty crazy." Said Sho
"I didn't-" said Mob. He was interrupted by the creaking of bedsprings. He turned to face the bed, so did Sho. He wasn't sure if it was the collective force of both of their auras, the sound of the bed moving, or Sho turning so fast that he bumped into people but immediately Teru and Ritsu woke up.
"Objectively…learn Japanese…." Muttered the boy as he turned onto his side. He was facing them, now, and…yes. In the light of day, and looking at him dead on, Mob could see it. He looked exactly like Touichirou. It went beyond the eyebrows. It was his entire face, his hair color, even the faint freckles across his face.
"At least we know he's not dead." Said Teru as he stretched and sat up. He reminded Mob of a cat sometimes. The way he just sort of stretched and…oh, right, he was starting to stare. People didn't really like that. He looked away.
"We should wake him." Said Ritsu, sitting up much more quickly. He tried to get up but Sho grabbed him by the arm.
"You should stay here." Said Sho. Something passed between them, a serious of looks both on their faces and their auras. Mob had no idea what they were saying to each other. He wasn't a part of that, that was just for Ritsu and Sho. Sometimes people in love could communicate without saying a single word. It was beautiful in a way that Mob would probably never know.
"What are you talking about? This is my room and that's my bed." Said Ritsu
"I'll get you another bed! Just stay here!" said Sho
"You're being ridiculous." Said Ritsu, pulling his arm away from Sho.
"I'm not being ridiculous! This is just…this is just something that I have to do on my own, alright? This is my problem, not yours, even though he's sleeping on your bed…and anyway it doesn't matter who's bed he's on because it's not like he's moving in or whatever." Said Sho
"I'm not letting you do this on your own, Sho, so stop it already. This is my room, my bed, and you're my-!" said Ritsu, whispering so loudly that he might as well have been talking.
"You have to, Ritsu. You're not getting hurt because of me, not again! You think that you wouldn't freak out if you woke up in a strange place with strangers strangers being strange-" said Sho
"Maybe, if your goal isn't to wake him up, you should stop talking." Said Teru. Sho groaned and shook his head.
"He's my brother and I have to-" said Sho
"…have to call mother and father…didn't say I was leaving…." Murmured the boy as he kicked the blanket off of himself. Everyone froze. Mob didn't know why. He knew why he froze, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He couldn't speak for the others. Sho had seemed like he knew what to do but now he was frozen too.
"…failed…can't believe I failed…." Said the boy as he rubbed his eyes and turned his head from side to side, kind of like Sho did when he woke up. This poor guy, he was going to be so upset when he woke up here. Sho had been right. Mob knew that if he had been in this guy's place then he would have been upset, too. He had to do something. Nobody else was. It was like Master Reigen said, if you want something done though not necessarily right you had to do it yourself.
"You didn't fail, I mean I think that you didn't." said Mob. Everyone was looking at him now…and maybe trying to help hadn't been the thing to do after all.
"….moron…you know I did…stuck in the past…" muttered the boy
"It's not the past, though, it's still 2019." Said Mob. That had, apparently, been the wrong thing to say if the boy's aura was anything to go off of.
"2019?!" shouted the boy before the room was covered in his bright, red, aura. Mob put a barrier around everyone. This wasn't good at all! He had no idea what he had said or done and…and this was not good! Mob kept his barrier up while he syphoned off the boy's excess psychic energy. He always hated doing this, he had enough trouble keeping his own power under control, the last thing he needed to do was add more energy to his body. It also felt weird.
Familiar…and weird.
Familiarly weird. Mob had no idea how long it had lasted but by the time it was over Ritsu's room was completely trashed and everyone was freaked out…but it could have been worse, right? Mob wasn't sure how it could have been worse but he was sure there must have been a way. He didn't much want to know how much worse it could have been. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with things as they were. At times like these he could only ask himself, what would Master Reigen do?
Probably run away, but that wasn't an option since this was Mob's house. So now he had to stay and maybe fight…even though he really didn't want to.