Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ritsu

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?

It wasn’t like Shou meant for it to be, but seeing Ritsu at Reigen’s party made him realize that yeah- they haven’t really seen each other lately. It wasn’t hard to figure out why, Shou made little to no effort for it. Could he really be blamed though? The past few months were nothing short of insane. For one, things with the remaining Claw members had to be settled. Despite his mother, Serizawa, and some government officials claiming he shouldn’t bother himself for multiple reasons- most of all being the fact he was fourteen- it was still his responsibility anyway. The only one who was able to take his dad down in the first place was fourteen at the time- these adults had no idea what they were doing. It would be stupid to try and handle rough espers without a powerful one on scene anyway.

That was the biggest issue, but far from the only one. There was the matter of rekindling his relationship with his parents. Shou officially was living with his mother, though he appreciated Serizawa’s offer to take him in. It wasn’t necessary, he had two parents that, to his knowledge, were getting along fine. Even if one was in prison with little to no chance of parole, they could still make this oddly work. Shou was used to making odd situations work out. It didn’t matter that last visitation his mom said she wasn’t interested in seeing him that day.

Yikes. This wasn’t worth thinking about. Today wasn’t the day to get a headache. He had a solid visitation schedule with his dad down, and not much more outside of that mattered right now.

The last- the most stupid- yet most pressing issue was an idea pitched to him by his mom just that morning over breakfast. She wanted to enroll him in a public school.

Shou shuddered at the thought. There was little to no reason for him to do that and they both knew it. He was smart, athletic, and far more experienced than the average fourteen year old. He didn’t need an institution breathing down his neck and forcing him to dress or act a certain way.

“I just think it would be a nice opportunity for you to make some friends your age.” She had very gently countered. He hated when she took that tone. It was full of reason and care, and not one Shou could easily counter.

He laid back against the rooftop he was currently occupying, giving a frustrated sigh at the memory.

As much as he really wanted to argue with that, he wasn’t able to come up with anything good on the spot. His mom had only stared at him with a small smile when he insisted he still kept in touch with Serizawa, and that counted as friends enough. Apparently, even though he and Serizawa played video games together, for some reason the man didn’t count now that he was a well adjusted adult or something. 

That didn’t mean he didn’t have friends, though. He did have friends! At least one friend, and he was going to secure that friendship right now. Judging by the sound of the front door of the house he currently laid on opening and closing, it seemed that said friend had just gotten home. Shou jumped down from the roof onto the balcony, using his powers to open the lock and sit comfortably at the desk, feet kicked up. All this just in time for Kageyama Ritsu to open the door to his own room and do a double take. 

Shou liked how bewildered the expression on his face was. Ritsu was funny without ever trying to be.

“Suzuki?” He asked with an undertone meaning. Shou knew what he was trying to say, something like ‘Why the hell are you in my room? Is something wrong? Are you going to burn down my house again? Pretty please tell my big brother if you are!’ probably along those lines. Despite understanding, that isn’t what Ritsu said, and Shou opted to not reply to vagueness. 

“Yo! Ritsu! You’re in the student council? No wonder you’re late.” Shou gestured to the arm band still pinned to his uniform. Ritsu moved to place his bag down, beginning to take the arm band off afterwards. He didn’t look entertained.

“I’m the vice president.” Yeah, that checks out. “It’s my responsibility to make sure I’m one of the last to leave- I should get into the habit if I’m going to go through with taking over the presidency next year.”

Shou spun in the chair absentmindedly, already bored.

“That’s way too much responsibility. Is the power even worth that kind of effort?” He questioned, rolling his eyes. A certain bitterness came with the thought- power and responsibility over others was ruined by his dad, and tainted by his mom suggesting he get involved in shit like that. Now probably wasn’t the best time to get into a mood about this. “You should just do whatever you want while you’re there. I mean, you already spend hours doing busy work that literally no one wants to do. You finish school just to do more work? It’s kind of stupid when you think about it.”

The world suddenly stopped spinning, and he was face to face with Kageyama Ritsu. Ritsu lifted his hand up from the armrest that he forced to a halt, glancing over Shou with a deep expression as he backed away and sat down on his bed. Clearly, gears were turning in his head. Shou stared back, trying to play off the suddenly weird tension in the room.

“Nothing’s wrong then?” Ah, right. Ritsu caught onto the fact that there’s no reason for Shou to be there, no fires or emergencies or dads trying to take over the world.

“Nope.” Shou looked away as he sunk further into the chair. He hoped he came off as nonchalant and not like a turtle trying to retreat into its shell.

“Then why are you in my room?” 

“You left the window open.”

“I didn’t.” 

“Fine- I’m demonstrating how easy it is to break into your house.” 

“That’s a waste of your time, you wouldn’t do that.”

“You know what else is a waste of time? Staying almost three hours after school ends for some student council meeting.”

“Take your shoes off.” 

“Huh?”

Shou glanced down at his sneakers, then back to Ritsu, and down to Ritsu’s socks. He probably could’ve guessed that this was something that Ritsu would take seriously. Oops. Shifting to take them off, Shou set his sneakers to the side before sitting crisscoss on the chair. Did this mean he was officially invited to hang out? Ritsu wouldn’t have him remove his shoes if he meant for him to just leave right away. That’s probably how that worked. Despite the silence building between them, Shou couldn’t help the delight that coursed through him. This was different from overthrowing Claw or running into each other at crossdressing cafes or even hanging out at Reigen’s party. It was just the two of them, together with no purpose but the need to kill time. It was fun! It was exciting! It was… a little bit awkward, honestly. 

“We should do something.” Shou proposed at last, making Ritsu reply with a head tilt and a raised eyebrow. 

“What do you want to do?” This is why Shou liked Ritsu. He just kinda… went along with stuff. Despite appearing stiff and boring, Ritsu was shockingly cool in strange or spontaneous situations. Part of Shou wanted to wager that he even enjoyed it. Maybe that was why he felt comfortable being so brash like this.

“Gee, it’s your house, I don’t know what there is to do here. Aren’t you supposed to host?” Ignoring the obvious issue of Ritsu not inviting him over. When Ritsu didn’t offer any solutions to that, Shou shifted gears.

“Wanna go into town?”

— 

Shou didn’t see any good reason to think in absolutes. However, a first hangout felt weirdly important. Way more important than Shou was expecting or wanting it to feel. He didn’t like expectations being put on him, and normally he was pretty good at taking the pressure of expectations and slamming them into the metaphorical garbage. After all, ever since his first meeting with Ritsu he was positive they were going to end up as friends. He just took a while to get around to it. However, somewhere between Ritsu changing out of his school uniform and Shou dragging him out the window insisting it would be faster, Shou had a bit of a realization.

He had an evening to convince the guy that was kidnapped not once, but twice by his dad’s evil organization that everything between them was totally cool and that he should be his number one closest and best friend for the rest of their lives. But the second kidnapping was for a good cause! Shou needed reliable backup for his plan, just like he needed to burn down the house to protect the Kageyama family from Claw. Obviously. That stuff wasn’t worth lingering on- he had to focus on the task at hand: gaining a best friend. 

It wasn’t like he and Ritsu were strangers. They’ve seen each other in public a handful of times. Shou texted him, even if Ritsu answered maybe once or twice a week. Plus what was his competition? Ritsu probably didn’t have that many friends. He had no internet presence (Shou checked) and didn’t seem like the kind of guy to be partying on the weekends. It should be an easy mission. 

Now that he had him out and about, he just had to figure out stuff to do. That task was hard given he was forgetting every single thing that could be done in Seasoning City. He wasn’t from around here! Ritsu should make more effort for this. 

“Wanna get curry? I saw a place a few stores down.” 

“No thank you, Nii-san is cooking tonight. I promised I’d try his dinner and give honest feedback.”

Starting off weak. Really weak. There was another pause as they walked. Shou shoved his hands into his leather jacket, trying to think up another friendship solidifying solution. One that didn’t involve food.

Ritsu pathetically threw him a bone.

“I’m sure Nii-san wouldn’t mind if you joined us.” He offered, but it didn’t really sound like Ritsu wanted him to be there. He didn’t really strike Shou as the type to wanna see a lot of change in his routine. 

“Nah, that’s fine, my mom’s cooking tonight, I’d rather have that.” He answered honestly. For Shou, making sure his friendship with Ritsu was secure was enough trouble for one evening. He didn’t even want to think about the existence of Ritsu’s brother. His feelings towards that guy were just complicated enough as it is. 

Ritsu nodded. 

“Maybe we just wander around and see if there’s something going on in the city.” Ritsu suggested, and since Shou had no further backup plans, he agreed.

They ended up just kind of… walking around for a while. They talked, well, Shou talked a lot. A lot. About cleaning up Claw- about adjusting to living with his mom- about the last movie he saw- about this new MobTube streamer he found- about some video game lore and hamsters and his opinions on the different outfits people around them wore- Has he always talked this much? It wasn’t normally a concern he had but… Ritsu really didn’t have much to say. He did come off as a ‘don’t speak unless there was something important to say’ type of guy. That was fine for group hangouts or life and death situations but c’mon, this was the time to talk, right?

He wasn’t bored, was he?

This was the first time in Shou’s life he felt worried about his impression on someone else. He knew where his ranking was at Claw- fucked up as the system might’ve been, it was easy. He was an esper that rivaled some members of the ultimate five at the ripe age of thirteen. It was simple and made sense. There were too many factors in this “real life” situation. 

Ritsu was apparently Vice President of his school. That gave him social points. Shou 

was scared to even go to school, that had to take away some points. His mood soured slightly as he wandered behind Ritsu at some manga store they ended up in. There was merch and books and all sorts of things to overwhelm his attention span and keep him distracted, but all of it felt disinteresting at this point. Shou didn’t feel like he knew most of these series anyway.

Ok, this is fine. Just reset mentally and get back in the game. Nothing was wrong. They were hanging out and that was fine, Shou just had no fucking clue what to do. Ritsu absentmindedly trailed through the books, finger dragging across them one by one. Did he read much? Probably, he was kind of a nerd. Plus he was already out of the manga section and moving to novels. Shou picked a random manga off of the shelf, absentmindedly flipping through the pages and pretending to read it or even care. 

Here was the issue. He’s never really… done this. There was this uncertainty of what a hangout was even supposed to look like. If it went poorly, would Ritsu even tell him? He could always show up and try again, but then his track record would be tainted. This was hard, which was stupid because Shou wasn’t supposed to find things like this hard. Dealing with his parents or fighting adult espers was hard. Training with the ultimate five as a kid was hard. Dancing around weird mind games with his dad was hard. Yet he developed the skill set needed to ace all those tasks. 

A more daunting thought clouded his mind all at once. If he couldn’t survive hanging out with the one guy he was already supposedly close to- someone who already knew so much about Shou personally, things he wouldn’t be able to explain to the average teen- then how the hell was he going to survive being put into school? All at once anxiety dropped in his stomach. He was beginning to panic, and he knew it. This wasn’t the time or place. He was trained to control his more sporadic emotions at difficult times, but maybe his body was having a hard time registering this as a “difficult time” given there were no rocks being thrown at his head or some bullshit like that. 

Suddenly he felt like turning to Ritsu and beating the answer to friendship out of him. Shou could beat him in a fight for sure, that would be easy. 

Breath. Get your aura under control. 

His dad’s voice echoed in his head. It didn’t help.

He just needs to get out of his head. Shou did his best to refocus on the manga in his hands. He didn’t spend a lot of time reading manga, but he really liked the art. Lately, he was trying to sketch more. It was nice to see the little tips and tricks artists did to make shortcuts for manga panels. On the page he opened, there was a group of people at some poorly drawn (seriously, Shou could do better than this!) park hanging around and having fun. It was a wide shot, followed by a mid shot one a character. He was surrounded by the other characters, they all looked happy. The dialogue was a monologue from the boy about how grateful and fortunate he was for all his friends- 

Shou slammed the book back on the shelf he found it with so much force, a few books on the higher shelves began to fall. Before Shou could react they paused, a blue aura surrounding them before neatly placing them back where they belonged. Ritsu was standing right next to him. Blood rushed to his face at the embarrassment of his outburst being witnessed. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he looked the other way.

“I hate that series too. Nii-san tried for years to get me to read it- but the art sucks. And the story is cheesy.” Shou blinked, hardly following what the hell Ritsu was talking about before the Kageyama was onto the next complaint. He held up another manga that Shou didn’t recognize- the coloring of the cover was awful though. “Have you ever read this one?”

When Shou shook his head, Ritsu continued. 

“Don’t bother. Nii-san owns a copy, so I read it one summer. It’s about a member of the student council- it’s definitely written by someone who’s never been in a leadership position before. Not that leading is hard , but here’s the issue.” Ritsu stepped closer, putting a hand on Shou’s shoulder as he lowered his voice. “Student council would be a lot more fun if some of the members in it weren’t so damn annoying.”

Shou’s eyes widened. The shock turned into a loud laugh that he couldn’t have prevented even if he tried. A few people glanced over, and Ritsu put a finger up to his own lips to shush him. The small smile on Ritsu’s face told Shou he wasn’t that upset by it. 

“It’s true. They’re fine people. I can just tell whenever they’re trying to shove work onto me from laziness. This one member thinks he’s really smooth about it. He’s not.” As Ritsu continued, Shou nodded along. Wow, he really didn’t care much for work drama. There was plenty of it at HQ that he rolled his eyes at. Yet he found himself hanging onto every word Ritsu said involving the treasurer of the council and how they completely messed up the budget. 

“I didn’t know you had it in you to talk shit.” Shou teased finally once Ritsu seemed to conclude the story, finding themselves in an entirely different section of the store by this point.

“I’m not 'talking shit;' I’m just retelling you what happened.” Ritsu countered, “I didn’t know you had it in you to beat up books you don’t like.” He raised an eyebrow. Apparently, they weren’t moved on from this. Shou shrugged.

“The storyline sucked.”

“Why?”

“You’re the one who said you didn’t like it first.”

“I know, but what didn’t you like?” Shou frowned. Clearly Ritsu knew what he was doing. If they were gonna play a game, then fine- Shou could play a game.

“I thought the backgrounds weren’t drawn well. Also, the dumb speech that one guy gave about friendship was cheesy. It pissed me off. If they’re gonna write about friendship, they might as well do it accurately.” It was all true technically without actually hitting on the truth. Ritsu nodded.

“How do you normally do your friendship speeches?” It was asked in a playful enough tone. 

“Uh- I don’t. Cause they’re cheesy. And dumb. If I’m friends with someone, I don’t need to give them a whole speech about how we’re friends.” He’s avoided topics from his dad for years. Compared to Toichiro Suzuki, Ritsu was an amateur at drilling for answers. There was a moment of no reply, as if the Kageyama was calculating his next move. Shou was already prepared.

“Ok. Well, we’re talking about it, and it doesn’t seem to be upsetting you as much anymore. You seem actually really calm right now.” Ritsu turned to fully face him. “Your aura isn’t lashing out anymore either, it definitely was while you were standing there reading it. You were staring so intensely at that book I figured that whatever was in there was making you angry but- I’m guessing I was wrong. So, what happened?” Shou stared at him with his mouth agape. Of all the things, Ritsu had to be honest and direct about the situation. Maybe Shou wasn’t prepared after all. 

Half-truths. He wasn’t ready to pour his heart out to Ritsu, but maybe if he told him just a little bit. Ritsu’s never made fun of him before.

“My mom’s enrolling me in school. I don’t really wanna do it.” 

“Which one?”

“I dunno, it’s closer to my side of town. Lemon Pepper Middle I think.” 

“I know that one. We compete against them in soccer sometimes.” He was taken off guard a little at that as he jumped to a conclusion.

“Wait- you play soccer?”

Ritsu looked back at him.
“No. I can, but I’m not on the team.” Shou deflated a little bit. “Why? Do you play soccer?” 

“I mean, kinda. I think playing sports is fun.” 

“Okay, so when you join one of the teams at your school, I’ll visit your games wherever you go up against Salt Middle.” Ritsu spoke so calmly about it, he couldn’t understand the immediate joy that rushed through Shou at hearing that.

“Really? You’ll come be my personal cheerleader?”

“I can’t miss the opportunity to watch you get fouled.” 

Ritsu laughed as Shou punched him in the arm. It didn’t fix things, but at least he had something to focus on now. He wasn’t going into this whole school thing completely blind anymore.

– 

In the end, they hadn’t done anything crazy. Shou dragged Ritsu to a pet store to show him the hamsters. Ritsu told Shou weird facts about the architecture in a few of the buildings in the city. Apparently they covered that in class recently. Ritsu found the weirdest stuff interesting. Shou really liked how much of a weirdo he was. At one point in the evening, Ritsu showed interest in a notebook. Shou suggested they just shoplift it.

“Do you steal often?”

Shou shrugged.

“How much have you stolen?” 

“I dunno, that’s not the kinda shit you keep track of. Few thousand yen worth of stuff?” Probably less than that.

Ritsu dragged Shou to his school despite it being after hours and made him donate 5000 yen to some dumb fundraiser to make up for his crimes. Sure, Shou paid for it, but he laughed at Ritsu for being such a stuck-up dork the entire time. 

After a few hours they were back in Ritsu’s neighborhood, heading back towards his house. That probably meant the hangout was going to end soon, which sucked. Shou didn’t want it to end. It was the most fun he had in… well, it might be the most fun Shou has ever had. 

Ritsu didn’t talk a lot, but he definitely listened. 

“I don’t know the video games you were talking about earlier, but Nii-san and I have a few multiplayer ones. He’s never beaten me at Mario Kart.”

“Ohhh you’re so screwed.” Shou replied, poking him in the shoulder as he did. Ritsu gave a questioning look. “Ritsu, if you think your brother is any good at video games, then you have no idea what I’ve had to deal with playing with Serizawa.”

Ritsu didn’t laugh, it was more like a snicker, but Shou was counting it as a win anyway. 

“Dinner’s probably been done for a while now. I should go.” Ritsu paused, “Are you sure you don’t want to stop by?” 

This time, it sounded like maybe Ritsu considered that possibly there was a chance he actually did want him to be there. Not by much, but it was progress.

“I should go home.” They both stopped in front of the Kageyama residence. He should probably say something casual. ‘Hey, this was the best day ever, let’s just do it every day.’ Yeah that wasn’t gonna work. ‘I want friends to prove to my mom I’m socially competent, are you in or what?’ If that joke didn’t land it would be weird.

“You should text me next time you’re coming over.” Ritsu suggested. A smile spread across Shou’s face.

“You never answer my texts.” 

“I still read them.”

Wow. What a dick. This was who his best friend was?

“You’re so brave for doing the bare minimum, Ritsu. Maybe I’ll text you. Maybe I won’t.” 

Ritsu rolled his eyes before giving a small wave and heading towards his front door. 

— 

Shou went home, opting to not tell his mom about the fact that he indeed had friends. He was gonna, but it suddenly felt embarrassing to talk about Ritsu. Instead he finished dinner and laid in bed, staring at the ceiling for a while and thinking about the evening. Eventually, he grabbed his phone and pulled up Google.

‘How soon can I hang out with my new friend again without it being weird?’

Chapter Text

Tome

Suzuki Shou was about a week away from his death sentence. 

School was coming up. It was definitely an official thing now; he was going to spend his second year in middle school with a ton of other middle schoolers just as annoying as him. Maybe he wouldn’t feel so annoyed by it if he was going to the same school as Ritsu, but Shou didn’t live close enough to Salt Middle. He wasn’t willing to wake up that early to use the bus every day, and after the… explosion… of Ritsu’s older brother, Shou had sworn to at least try  to limit his psychic power use, so traveling with them wasn’t an option.

The end of summer was barreling towards them, and Shou wasn’t ready for the impact. He liked having plenty of time to screw around, to work a few shifts at a cafe, or bother Ritsu. Especially to bother Ritsu. That was something nice- he and Ritsu hung out regularly now. Sometimes he even texted Ritsu warning him of his arrival ahead of time, though most of the time he didn’t. He had to keep him on his toes! And Ritsu really didn’t seem to mind that much. 

Shou began holding over him the idea that maybe Ritsu even liked his surprise visits. 

He’d count that as a point of himself in their constant competition to outdo each other. Other examples being: Ritsu was taller, but Shou was more athletic. Ritsu had better grades, but Shou knew all sorts of psychic tricks that Ritsu didn’t. They recently had the realization that Ritsu was a whole half year older than Shou, which was a devastating blow to discover. It was going to be hard to find a way to top that. For the first time in his life, Shou could honestly say with confidence that he was just a normal kid. He wasted his summer just like the rest of them. No training, no Claw, nothing like that.

Maybe the only thing that kept things abnormal were the prison visits. Lately, he has been doing them by himself. Apparently his mom wanted to take a few weeks off for some dumb reason. The thought of asking Ritsu to tag along definitely crossed his mind once or twice, but it felt too complicated. 

Anyways. Enough about that. He still had to figure out what to do today.Ritsu wasn’t available today, so Shou went to his second-best option.

It was a semi-common for Shou to just kinda.. Show up to where his friends were. Can’t be rejected if they don’t know and all that. It was never hard to find where Serizawa was either. Hopefully he could drag him away from Reigen long enough to discuss the latest episode of the show they were watching together. It wasn’t even that good or bad of an episode but at least it was something to do outside of staring at his ceiling or walking around town waiting for Ritsu to be done cramming information into his head in preparation for school.

The bell rang as the door to spirits and such flew open.

“Yo! Serizawa!”

“He’s not in today.” Reigen answered, settling back into his chair, probably having expected an actual customer. Serizawa’s absence was disheartening to hear, but Shou wasn’t going to let it stop him. Instead he walked further into the office, flopping onto the couch.

“Aw, seriously? Where is he?” He complained. Suddenly, the black haired girl spoke up. He recognized her vaguely from a few group gatherings- but couldn’t say he knew her name or really… Anything about her. She was loud. Shou wasn’t qualified to judge that.

“He got a migraine. Probably from the job this morning- some whole spiritual mess that barely made sense. I mean c’mon- a spirit who was messing with traffic? I still think it was a prank call. The stress Serizawa got from driving around was insane.” 

Reigen rolled his eyes, seeming to agree with the girl.

“The client is barely responding. It’s a chance it was a wild goose chase-” The phone began to ring, and Reigen cut himself off to pick it up, going immediately into some kind of rehearsed spiel. It made Shou cringe. 

Shou looked back over at the girl. Not a psychic it seemed, which was a shame. She’d probably be fun to tussle with given her insane confidence. For the hundredth time this summer, Shou tried to remind himself of his own deal to use psychic powers a little less. The girl spoke up, looking him up and down with a suspicious expression.

“You’re Ritsu’s friend, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

Her eyes widened, as if putting two pieces together.

“How’s that going?” 

Shou squinted.

“I mean, good? We hangout. How’s your friendship with..” Who was she friends with again in this weird and disconnected circle? “... Ritsu’s brother going?”

“Oh it’s not like that. He’s like a cute little brother to me.” She waved her hand as she spoke. Shou has officially lost track of this conversation. He sat up straight, stretching slightly. Maybe coming here was a waste of time after all. The loud clack of Reigen hanging up the phone immediately pulled both teen’s attention towards him. 

“Hey! Red, you’re a psychic, right? How do you feel about filling in for Serizawa.”

… Huh.

“The client called back. I told them they have one more chance- you two are gonna head out there and see if a spirit really is causing abnormal traffic.” The black haired girl stood, seemingly immediately up for the job as she grabbed a jacket. 

“You’re not coming, Reigen?” 

“No, I’ve got a client lined up- but it’s better if you two go. Don’t use a car, the traffic is just gonna be bad again. I bet it would be fine if you took your bike though, Tome.” 

Shou watched as they planned out his evening for him. Honestly, was there anything else to do? Ritsu hadn’t replied yet which meant he probably wasn’t going to. The sun was already beginning to set. He might as well do this. It’s honestly always a good idea to have some good brownie points with Reigen Arataka- that was kinda just a well known fact amongst espers. The only exception being Ritsu. 

Hey, if he did this, he could bring some insider info to Ritsu to discuss. Ritsu loved to talk some smack about Spirits and Such. Shou assumed it was because he didn’t have the option to talk to anyone else about it.

Tome threw on her jacket, and without question Shou followed her out the door.

—

Shou held onto the girl- Tome’s- shoulders as she biked them down the side of the highway. He had started off counting how many red cars were stuck in the large traffic jam, but that honestly got really boring after like twenty or so. His attention turned to Tome, who seemed dead focused on getting them to the location. Part of him was impressed. He never biked with someone on the back before, but he doubted it was very easy. From the sound of her heavy breathing, it probably wasn’t. Why was she so determined to help Reigen out, anyway? He must pay well. That was the only good conclusion Shou had. 

The bike slowly came to a stop at a seemingly random point along the highway. Shou looked around, confused.

“Yeah, I’m not getting anything. You sure this is the spot?”

“Just- gimme a minute-” She panted as she grabbed her water and gave a quick drink. The sun was down, so he wasn’t worried about her overheating. Hopping off of the back of the bike, Shou looked around again. The sky was honestly beautiful once they were a little bit out of the city. Slightly tinted red orange from the last remaining drops of sunlight, while a dark blue overtook it. Taking a photo probably wouldn’t do it justice, but he couldn’t help but get the feeling that this would make a nice painting. Maybe he could try to replicate it- he wasn’t a great artist by any means. His mom and Ritsu seemed to like his work though. Maybe it’s worth a shot.

“Do you feel anything at all? It’s supposed to be way up ahead but- Mob and Serizawa are always able to tell when we’re close to the source.” Shou turned his body, allowing his gaze to linger on the sky a moment longer before meeting Tome’s eyes. He agreed to do this job, but didn’t promise he’d put in that much leg work. 

“Nnnnope. It’s probably a fake. Looks like we’re wasting our night.” 

“Seriously? You’re barely even trying.”

“How can you tell? You’re not psychic at all.” 

This seemed to be a sore spot for her, as she immediately huffed. 

“Alright break is done- let’s just get to the spot and figure this out.” 

Shou stood in place for a moment longer than necessary just to be a little annoying, then walked over and hopped back onto the back of her bike. He crossed his legs as they began to move again. At least it wasn’t a steep uphill anymore. As she began to pant again, Shou tried assessing the situation. It was honestly just a traffic jam. Stuff like this couldn’t be what Reigen dealt with on a daily basis.

“Why do you even do this, anyway? Working at Spirits and Such with no powers- I mean how did Reigen even hire you?” 

“Because I’m helping people- and exploring the paranormal- I can do that even without powers.” She spoke, but it was clear she would rather stay focused on moving forward instead. That didn’t stop Shou. 

“I mean sure you don’t need to be an esper to live life and be happy- but you kind of do need to have some kind of powers to work at that place.” Reigen went up against his dad and lived- even though he couldn’t feel any powers from him, Shou just kind of accepted that Reigen was either cursed, blessed, suicidal, or just damn lucky outside of the average person. Either way it didn’t mean just anyone could do what Reigen did.

“Hey are you trying to distract me? You’re being rude.” Tome finally complained. Shou smiled. 

“I’m just curious! I don’t know how you-” He was cut off as Tome gave a sharp and sudden turn, making Shou yelp as he clung onto her. They were suddenly going downhill- fast. What the hell was she doing-? 

The ground in front of them cracked, causing Tome to dodge hard on her bike again. It was delayed, but Shou felt something seeping between those sudden cracks in the ground. He stared dumbly before instinct began to kick in. 

Suddenly the bike was up off the ground, causing Tome to yell out an exclamation of joy. Much to his surprise, she was pretty damn stoked about riding a bike up in the air E.T. style. She pointed down.

“Look! There!” Shou looked down. The cracks suddenly healed themselves just as quickly as they appeared. The side of the highway was just as good as when they were biking on it.

“Whatever it is, it’s been causing all these cracks in the road- that’s why the traffic is so bad! The drivers must keep swerving to avoid them and causing all the accidents. Quick- exorcize- hello?” She reached a hand out and grabbed him by his jacket. It was only then that he realized the sudden rush of adrenaline must’ve made him go invisible on reflex. He’s made this mistake before during training, but it’s been a while. He allowed himself to become visible again, and whatever impressed comment she made, he ignored it as he tried to zero in on the spirit.

Except there were too many cars- too many people. He’s never exorcized a spirit before, his powers have only ever been used to fight . How was he gonna know that he did this right? It should just be second nature, right? Serizawa did it all the time. Ritsu’s brother did it too. Did Ritsu know how to do this? He probably should’ve thought to ask at some point. Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of not using his powers frivolously, though? What even were the rules to that-

“Hey hey hey- we’re going down!” Tome barked out, peddling the gears as if that would do anything. “Catch us- catch-”  She turned around, grabbing at him harder this time. It caused him to tear his eyes away from the spirit and look at her. In a moment, her rage seemed to disappear. Shou wasn’t sure how to read the look on her face, but it oddly reminded him of Reigen. He also didn’t know what that said about whatever look he had on his own face at the moment, and he didn’t really want to know. 

Suddenly she elbowed him in the stomach, hard. He let out an ‘oof’ as she pointed towards the sky.

“Take us higher, Red! I’ve got an idea.” He blinked, listening immediately. Maybe it was just the amount of confidence she directed with. He knew there was no way she knew more about psychic situations than him- but she’s also been working at Spirits and Such all summer, so maybe she wasn’t full of it either way. She directed them down towards the forest- he lowered the bike, fast at first before slowing down and placing them gently on the ground. Tome was already jumping off of the bike before they were settled.

He followed behind as she began to dodge through the trees, back towards the highway. 

“On my mark- Take care of the spirit!” Whatever the hell that meant. He stuck closeby to her, looking in the direction she led them. It was becoming a bit more obvious what she was thinking- attacking from the side was riskier since the spirit could counter back, but he had a clearer shot at the cracks in the ground. The closer they were as well, the less risk of hurting the people in the area. He allowed determination to set in as he began to run ahead,

“Ready, Tome!” He announced as he got into place. He felt the familiar feeling of his aura activating, red energy wrapping around him as he extended a hand. Second nature kicked in, and confidence with it. The spirit suddenly burst up from the ground, appearing agitated at the very feeling of Shou here to cause issues. It was an ugly thing, reminding him almost of a mole mixed with a snake. 

“Right! Three, two– get it!” It was easy. Way easier than ever fighting other psychics. It took some energy, sure, he was positive he wasn’t half as graceful with it as Ritsu’s brother, but it didn’t take nearly as much effort as he thought. Anything that has to do with psychic powers I can figure out . He bragged that once, and couldn’t help the prideful smile at the thought that he still had it. 

The remaining energy speckled through the blue sky as Shou wiped the sweat from his face. The cracks disappeared, and despite being jammed, traffic seemed to naturally begin moving again. His powers were used for good and it felt… nice. This was something he was attempting to do when he and Ritsu were going after his dad, after all.

“Well, did you get it?” Shou paused, looking back at her. 

“Yeah! I- wait, you couldn’t see it?” He asked. Tome shook her head.

“... Then how did you know the right time to hit it? Or where to go to attack it from?”

“I didn’t really.” She walked over and patted him on the back, it was painful with how hard she did it. “You just looked like you needed a nudge in the right direction! You were pretty scared, huh?”

Ah. False confidence. That.. explains it all honestly. He swatted away at her, feeling his face get uncharacteristically warm. 

“I wasn’t! I’ve dealt with way worse than that-”

“What’re you, fifteen?” 

“... I will be in December, yeah.” 

“Oh no- that doesn’t count. That’s like saying I’m seventeen when I still have a month left before my birthday.” Tome laughed. Shou wasn’t sure what was so funny, but his face only felt hotter now.

“Whatever- I’m not the one who does this everyday.” Nor does he think he’d want to. Yeah, it felt good to help people. He could see why Serizawa did it. But it wasn’t for Shou. There was no good reason to freeze up back there, especially not with his background. He was just out of practice, that’s all.

Geez, was this going to keep happening the longer he stayed out of fighting with his powers?

“This was actually my first job that Reigen let me lead.” Tome dusted her skirt off, looking around as she did. Probably for their abandoned bike. He stared at her in slight disbelief, before a smile spread across his face. Wow, she was an idiot. He liked her.

“How much are we getting paid for this?” He asked as he followed her into the woods. She paused, throwing an arm around his shoulder casually. 

“Suzuki, was it? Is that what Ritsu calls you?” Tome asked. He frowned.

“You can just call me Shou.”

 “Well, Shou, we do this for free.” 

Shou opened his mouth, only to close it again. Yeah, Ritsu was going to like hearing about this one. It wasn’t that he needed the money, but damn. Serizawa better not be getting ripped off by this guy. Not that it would be Shou’s problem anymore, but he cared for Serizawa enough. The anti-Reigen propaganda that Ritsu fed him was beginning to have some first hand perspective for sure. 

Tome picked up her bike, delighted to see it still in good shape. Maybe scratched up here or there, but she didn’t seem to mind. She wiped some of the dirt off of it, though it didn’t seem to do much.

“If you still want to make some money, I’ll pay you 300 yen to fly us back on the bike.” She had a glint in her eye that he found amusing. 

“Make it 500 yen and I’ll throw in a few loopdeloops.” 

“600 yen, the loopdeloops, and I wanna go high enough to see a really cool view of the city.” 

– 

They both hollered loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood at the third loop. Tome had a white knuckle hold on the handlebars of the bike, her arms stiff as she held on for life, but it didn’t seem to bother her much. The bike shot up higher into the air, slowing down to an easy drift as they calmed their laughter. As Shou caught his breath, he stared down at the city, holding onto Tome’s shoulders to keep himself steady. The view was… beautiful. For the second time today he thought it was something he might try to replicate in a drawing, but honestly Shou doubted he’d have the skills to actually portray this one. Keeping it as an idea for some other day wasn’t bad. 

“You must do this all the time.” Tome was now leaning on the handlebars, appearing more relaxed than before. The wind up here wasn’t as bad as he expected, it blew just enough to make her hair a bit of a bother though. She fixed it every few minutes to be out of her face. He looked from her back towards the city, sitting up right so he could turn to the side. He placed an elbow on his knee, and his face in that hand.

“Not really.”

“Really?” She shifted to look at him, awkward as the angle was. “I don’t get it. Serizawa, Mob, Ritsu- they never seem to want to use their powers for anything besides jobs. I get it, they don’t make you special, but if I was an esper I’d honestly use them way more often. Not for anything big but- I mean at least for stuff like this.” She gestured towards the view. “What am I missing here?” It was a good question, but Shou wasn’t sure if he was the most qualified to answer.

“It’s fun to have powers, I’ll admit it. I use them all the time to sneak into Ritsu’s house.”

“I knew it!”

“I’m trying to cut back on using them through.” She made a face, and he shrugged. “They’re a part of me, can’t ignore that. They’re also the reason my life went the way it went. I feel like if I use them too freely I’ll end up like…” He paused. Was there a graceful way to say this? “It’s just more trouble than it’s worth sometimes. Like- I don’t know- a cheat button on the daily crossword. Makes the crossword boring and a waste of time.”

Tome considered this, giving a hum as she did.

“I guess that makes sense.” Her voice made it sound like it didn’t. “I want to do cool things in my life. It’s your only life, might as well make the most of it. I know working hard to reach your goals is fulfilling or whatnot but-” She gave a sigh. “I’m trying to discover the paranormal here! That’s why I’m at this job, you know. There’s a serious lack of understanding between the paranormal, humans, and aliens!” 

Huh. Oh well, he can go with this.

“Dude, I’ve had powers my entire life and I don’t know anything about aliens.”

“What? See! This is what I’m talking about. I have a lot to catch you up on, Shou.” He didn’t think he’d mind that much, it could be cool to learn some conspiracy theories. “If you haven’t used your powers to talk to aliens, what have you used them for? Don’t say building muscles.” 

“Why would I say that? I’ve used my powers for a lot of things. Easy transportation, learning to fight, figuring out how other people’s tactics work- but mainly I guess, uh, my dad had an evil organization and wanted to raise me to use my powers for evil and commit crimes and turn around in chairs while drinking wine and petting a cat in my lap. Stuff like that.”

“Oh. Yeah. Scary.”

“We’re fine now though.”

“I’m happy to hear that. Did he- actually nevermind.”

There was silence again. He didn’t mind it, they weren’t far from Spirits and Such now. Tome stared at the sky, looking like she had something else she wanted to say.

“For a long time, my mom wanted me to grow up to get a high paying job. I can’t prove it but I’m pretty sure she’s super disappointed in me. When I told her I wasn’t going into a career in medicine, she kind of gave me this look like- I don’t know.” Tome shrugged. “If you have issues with your dad then… I guess even having powers like these really don’t protect you from issues that all humans have.”

He didn’t reply to that. The same issues all humans have. Something about that felt so… reassuring. Like he was normal. Slowly he brought the bike down to the ground in front of Spirits and Such, making them invisible while doing so as to not draw attention. Once settled, Tome offered for Shou to come inside and help explain what happened to Reigen, but he refused. 

“I think I’m just gonna head home tonight.” 

“Oh- lemme give you your money-”

“Nah, it’s on the house.” 

Tome put a hand on her hip and smiled.

“Alright, Shou, next time you stop by though I’ll buy you an ice cream.” She offered. It made him scoff.

“I’m not five.”

“You’re also still months away from being fifteen.” 

“Extra sprinkles, then.”

“Aye, Captain.” 

With that he was off. The next time Shou stopped by Spirits and Such, he had more than one employee to distract and annoy.

Chapter Text

Teru

Turns out, Middle School was only slightly the end of the world.

His private studies had certainly had a different path than the school's studies. For example, they’d have exams on topics he felt like he learned ages ago. Those topics made him easily the smartest in the room, knowing grades above the other classmates. Other topics he’d feel entirely lost on, looking around the room and seeing if anyone else had any idea what the fuck was going on. It made for some… interesting experiences. Multiple times now Shou has confidently blurted out the wrong answer, resulting in his classmates snickering. The first time it bothered him a lot. Every time after that he didn’t care much. They seemed to stop finding it funny once Shou didn’t have any reaction. No matter the question, Shou was always just determined for class to move along. He hated when teachers would pause and wait for an answer. Honestly, from what Shou could tell, most of the school hours seemed to just be filler.

Sometimes he’d spend an hour waiting for his classmates to finish an assignment he did in thirty minutes. Sometimes he’d look around and be horrified to realize he was the last student working. Really, wouldn’t it make more sense if they all just did their own thing on their own time? Why have to always wait for each other to catch up? It just added a layer of public humiliation to it all.

“That’s why this school stuff sucks, is pointless, and you should tell mom to pull me out.” Shou ranted into the telephone. It made his voice sound distant and static. Leaning back in his chair, he stared at his father on the other side of the glass window. Toichiro nodded along to Shou’s woes. Visitations only happened once every week or two and were limited to an hour max. Shou had no issue filling the entire time with a status update on his life each week. It was easier than sitting in silence or- even worse- talking about their emotions. His dad seemed happy to be in the loop on his life. Well, maybe not the loop, but the glorified loop which conveniently didn’t include any of the issues or mistakes Shou made.

Mom said it was for the best that they could only see him in small doses. Shou found himself kind of agreeing. He loved his dad, sure, but it was still complicated. Thinking of him brought up conflicting feelings over and over.

“I always had your tutors focus on things I considered factoring into the bigger picture of life. History, languages, math- it makes sense you would do better than the average student in these topics.” Again, it was complicated, and his reaction to this perfectly illustrated that. On one hand, he was delighted at the pride Toichiro had in his voice when talking about his son’s studies. On the other hand, he wanted to say ‘oh shut up and stop acting like you had anything to do with this’ before hanging up the phone and ending their session early. “You should do your best to keep a high status, it will help once you graduate. Refusing to allow your classmates to mock you was clever.” Shou’s eyes didn’t meet his. Toichiro never did let up on some core ideals, and it was better to just ignore it than feed into it. Luckily, his dad moved on pretty quickly.

“Two weeks ago you mentioned an interest in sports.”

Shou sat up again, a smile spreading across his face.

“Soccer tryouts are this week. I’ve already been to a few practices. I’m better than most of those chumps, this’ll be a piece of cake.” There was no huge reaction from his dad, but Shou could tell he was amused.

“I will be expecting to see a trophy in future visits then.” God. Expectations.

“Oh, multiple trophies. And gold medals. And probably the deed to the city.”

“I do not think they give the deed to the city out to soccer players, Shou.”

“They’ll start once they see me play!” 

The sessions ended shortly after that. It felt weird to leave the prison. Going through the metal detectors, waiting in the holding rooms, he knew Joseph was reviewing their conversations. Sure, his dad was nice in small doses, but even if Shou wanted him in bigger doses that wasn’t going to be an option. It was fine, he didn’t need that anyway. But the lack of choice still peeved him off.

— 

Getting a spot on the team was easy. Shou didn’t need his powers to be good at the game- he was already athletic. He liked the game too, it was fun, and he had experience working on teams before. Sure, it was with throwing together a ragtag team to overthrow his dad, but it still counted.

In no time, the co-captains were chosen. It was between him and this girl Chiyo, and the team decided that two captains were better than one. Shou didn’t mind much. She was good at strategy with defense, while he handled offense. Clearly she’d been playing for much longer than him as well. It was fun, like they were in kahoots. They trusted each other- or at least she trusted that he’d always make the goal whenever she told him to.

In no time, Lemon Pepper’s soccer team was on the map. Game after game, week after week, they were nailing it. 

The bus on the way to the next game was buzzing with excitement. 

Shou decided he liked being on a team. They weren’t really close, but it was fun. He stood up on his seat in the front, leaning over the back to be as loud and annoying as possible. They hyped him up for it, he was kind of like a mini-idol for being their best player. Finally, as Shou was attempting to have a conversation about a viral video with one of the team members at the very back of the bus, the coach told him to sit down for the remainder of the trip.

Flopping back into place, he kicked his legs as he stared out the window. They should be there soon. Chiyo sat next to him as some kind of formality as captains. She bounced her leg anxiously. This game was important, but for Shou and Chiyo it was for two entirely different reasons.

For Shou, they had no option but to win this game. Once they crushed this team, it meant they’d get the go-ahead to face Salt Middle next. Finally- finally- he would get to show off to Ritsu his skills. He was good, his team liked him, and he had yet to miss the winning shot. He’s practically been waiting since the beginning for Ritsu to see it. Shou didn’t really care about most people’s opinion on him, but he definitely cared about Ritsu’s. He was his best friend, after all, and wanting his best friend to view him in a cooler light was something everyone strived for.

For Chiyo, apparently it was because they were up against what was the best team of the past two seasons or whatever.

“Relax, they can’t be that good.” 

“Suzuki, I know you were homeschooled or something, but they crushed everyone last year.” 

“Then it’s gonna be a tough loss for them this year, won’t it be?” He laughed, and despite her firm attitude, Chiyo loosened up a little as well. 

— 

After arriving at the opposing team’s field and getting set up, they finally began warm up drills. Shou found himself grateful for it. It was something to put his focus into after a weird anxiety decided to make itself at home in his stomach upon arrival. It wasn’t anything more than a tingle on his neck, so he discounted it as baseless paranoia. Unfortunately, Shou was finding himself more and more on edge about stupid shit that didn’t matter recently. Taking it and shoving it way off to the side normally fixed things. He didn’t have time when this game was important to win!

He kicked the ball up into the air, catching it on his chest before bouncing it up again and kicking it towards Chiyo.

“Heads up!” The ball hit against her stomach in a way that looked just a little painful, but she barely reacted. He jogged over. “C’mon Chiyo, where’s your head at?”

Shou slowed to a stop, following her line of sight across the field towards the opposing team. They were also warming up. The uniforms were a purple with a teal blue accent, clashing with their own green and yellow. He pushed Chiyo playfully.

“Don’t be intimidated. The rumors are scarier than they are.” He tried to reassure. The team looked competent, but he couldn’t really judge based off of warm up drills. They were unified and seemed excited, but it didn’t threaten Shou. If anything, excitement coursed through him. They were going to win this, it was gonna be easy. 

“I don’t see him.” Chiyo said.

“Mm?”

“Their captain, the star player- I don’t see him.” She was beginning to get excited, “Suzuki, if he’s not here today, we might just have a chance at an easy win! God I hope he has a cold or something.” Wishing sickness wasn’t something Shou was supposed to condone, but it made him bark out a laugh anyway.

“It’ll be a piece of cake.”

—

The game would start soon. As center striker, Shou made his way towards the middle of the field, sizing up the other guy. Where Shou stood with pride and confidence, the other kid seemed anxious beyond comparison, looking around without really paying much attention to Shou. Easy win.

“Kenzo-kun! I’m here!” A voice yelled, and his opponent suddenly relaxed- in fact the entire opposing team seemed to have a wave of relief wash over them. 

Shou’s gaze followed everyone else’s. The apparent savior was lightly jogging across the field, clearly intending to replace ‘Kenzo.’ If this was the ‘star player,’ Shou considered it poor fucking taste to show up minutes before the game was about to begin. Clearly this guy didn’t know shit about how to lead, and Shou was meant to be intimidated? He just had to keep his confidence. The team is watching me. If I’m calm, they’ll be calm.  

His thought process was brought to a halt as the guy was only a few yards out, and the sickly feeling crawled up his stomach again.

An esper. Their captain was a fucking esper.

But that isn’t what put him on edge. No, it was the fact that somehow, somewhere Shou definitely knew this guy, but he couldn’t recall who the hell he was. A random esper who he recognized could only mean bad news. Either someone who used to be in Claw, someone who was still loyal to the fallen organization, or someone who maybe was hurt by Claw. None of these were ideal. The other team captain stopped, standing across from Shou. He was oozing confidence, and much to Shou’s annoyance he stood inches taller than him. 

If he was lucky and kept a poker face, maybe the other guy wouldn’t recognize him back

“Suzuki Shou.” Fuck. “Of all the people to see out here, I honestly have to say I didn’t expect you.” He spoke lightly. Shou took a moment to size him up. His nails were painted multiple different colors, studded star earrings fit his ears, his hair was on the longer side and tied up to accommodate for the game. It rang a bell, just not one Shou recognized the tune of.

Think Shou. Where has he seen him? No scar- so he probably wasn’t ever in Claw’s rankings. That was good, right?

The blonde raised an eyebrow as Shou stared at him.

“Nothing? I’ve always heard that you were a talker. Guess you’re taking this game really seriously. I’m not going to go easy on you, you know.” The referee flipped a coin. Black Vinegar had the option to choose offense or defense, the captain chose offense. “I’ve got a reputation here to hold up. Honestly, consider this revenge for all the trouble you’ve caused me.” The way he spoke was weird. His tone indicated he was joking, but Shou felt an underlying tension beneath it. It made his blood run cold. 

School was supposed to be where he got to escape it. Here he was Suzuki, co-captain of the winning Lemon Pepper soccer team. Now, there was a player on the field who knew him as something else. Suzuki Shou, son of Suzuki Toichiro, former heir to Claw, the terrorist group. 

What a fucking headache.

Shou had to act fast to separate the intensity of his reactions. This was still a school setting, esper or not this wasn’t a Claw mission. In response to his opponent, Shou scoffed. Two can play at this game.

“Like I need you going easy on me. I can already tell you’re a lousy captain. What message do you send your team by being late?” It was the usual tactic. Get him angry. Push at his buttons so he loses focus and drops his guard. The blonde’s expression didn’t snap but rather became more amused.

“I have priorities. I wanted to make sure our favorite audience members were comfortable, is all.” Shou squinted, genuinely confused on what he was yapping about. The blonde nodded his head to the side. Taking the bait, Shou gave a glance in the direction he gestured to, and suddenly his stomach dropped.

There, in the very front row, sat Kageyama Ritsu, accompanied by his older brother.

Ritsu was going to see him play.

Right here, right now. Ritsu was going to see him play.

Shou wasn’t prepared for this.

The whistle blew, and before Shou was out of his stupor the blonde had the ball. In under two minutes, the first score for Black Vinegar was made. Shou barely moved from his starting point.

Shou, get your head in the game. You can’t let small setbacks distract you. 

He didn’t know if the voice in his head was his dad’s or his own, but it was right.

Shou glanced from Ritsu to the blonde back towards Ritsu. Ritsu’s eyebrows were furrowed, and Shou understood it meant he was trying to puzzle out what was happening. God, two minutes and he already looked like a fucking idiot in front of his best friend.

Ritsu’s brother was there too. How Shou didn’t detect his aura was a fucking mircale, honestly. He waved a small flag in the colors of Black Vinegar’s school. In return for his support, the blonde gave him a wink and a wave.

Oh.

Fucking hell. He remembered now.

Hanazawa Teruki. 

It was beginning to click into place now. Ritsu mentioned him pretty often. Apparently he visited quite often, or at least had Ritsu’s brother over at his apartment plenty of times. Ritsu was close to him, but he was really more of Ritsu’s brother’s friend. 

More than that, they have met before. Reigen’s birthday party, sure, but Shou spent that party catching up with Ritsu. They saw each other briefly at Claw’s seventh division. Teru showed some promise there, but didn’t outshine the Kageyama brothers.

Then there was his dad’s downfall.

It wasn’t something Shou knew about until one of he and Ritsu’s late night debrief sessions. Hanazawa Teruki, in the span of one fight, figured out how to beat Ryo Shimazaki. How does one just figure out how to beat Shimazaki? Shou knew first-hand how difficult he was. It took several training sessions to even begin to decode how to stop him. Granted, Shou was younger at the time, but still. Ritsu recounted the experience with so much admiration in his voice, it had almost made Shou jealous. Most of the time when Ritsu talked about Teru it was with annoyance for the blonde’s constant attempts to impress his older brother.

And now here they are.

At a soccer game. Versing each other.

With the Kageyama’s watching. 

This felt like some kind of set up.

The game went on. In between breaks he rubbed his head as Chiyo lectured him after he fouled one of their players. Hanazawa had scored four goals already, and Shou’s team only managed one. He was too distracted. By everything.

“You have to get your head in the game, Suzuki.” She said, a shaky sternness in her voice. She was panicking. This wasn’t good. He gave a frustrated sigh. 

“Okay, regroup. We still have plenty of time on the clock. I’ll turn it around.” He was Suzuki Shou. Anything that had to do with psychic powers he could figure out, and even though neither of them were using their powers, he could figure out Hanazawa Teruki. He glanced over at Hanazawa celebrating his latest goal with some teammates. They made eye contact. The smuggest expression was on Hanazawa’s face. Shou snarled and turned back to Chiyo. 

“I want heavy offense on their captain. His two other strikers aren’t as confident as him- the team doesn’t rely on them much since Hanazawa handles every goal. It’s a major flaw. Their defense is strong, though. I want our midfielders to overwhelm him- if me and one other striker can get past Hanazawa then I’m positive we can get a score in.”

Chiyo nodded, a renewed determination in her eyes. She moved to bring the team around and fill them in. Shou wasn’t listening, he had to shove aside this dumb anxiety. Why didn’t Ritsu mention he’d be coming? Fine, it would be hypocritical of him to expect a warning text, but this was different from unplanned hangouts! He still had another chance to make things look good.

The new strategy worked the first time, scoring a goal with ease.

It worked again a second time, but just barely.

By round three Hanazawa caught on, apparently determined to ignore the rest of Shou’s team in favor of breathing down his fucking neck. They ran back and forth, Hanazawa refusing to leave Shou’s side, identifying him as a strategic threat. It left Shou entirely useless, relying on his teammates to get the job done.

Shou successfully passed the ball to one of his strikers, expecting the loss of the ball to be enough to shake Hanazawa. It wasn’t.

“Wow, nice play,” Hanazawa stated, voice low, “Ritsu looks impressed.”

Shou’s head whipped over to Ritsu, completely missing the ball being passed back towards him. Hanazawa caught it instead, dashing off to the other end. The anxiety he was running on was replaced with rage. Hanazawa wasn’t going to score again- Shou was going to get that stupid ball back-

And he was successful with it, mostly.

Shou stole the ball back with grace, not even touching Hanazawa as he did. Yet somehow Hanazawa had decided to find himself on the ground holding his leg in agony. A whistle blew in his ear as a referee stood over him, yellow card in hand. Shou looked down, fists clenching at the insincerity on Hanazawa’s face. He was faking it- Shou knew he was faking it. Hanazawa knew Shou knew he was faking it. 

His jaw clenched tight as he turned around, storming off. He picked up on one of the audience members yelling something about bad sportsmanship. They’d see bad sportsmanship if he was forced to watch this asshole a second longer in his dumb act.

The game continued on, neck in neck until time on the clock was limited. By some miracle, Hanazawa had walked off his injury pretty easily. Figures. 

As the minutes ticked down, Shou had the realization for the first time that they might actually lose this thing. At this point he was certain that Ritsu found Shou average at best. But there was another issue, one Hanazawa mentioned at the beginning of the match that Shou hadn’t even considered until now. 

His reputation- His comfortability and status at Lemon Pepper was being threatened now. Shou was an annoying student with average grades and a loudmouth, but was protected from any social repercussions because he was good at this dumb sport.

All that was threatened because stupid Hanazawa Teruki seemed hellbent on making sure Shou didn’t do a damn thing this entire game.

If looks could kill, he’s certain the glances Shou gave him would at least leave Hanazawa in the hospital. Was this all to impress Ritsu’s brother? The guy stopped paying attention like forty minutes ago in favor of making a dumb flower bracelet out of clovers.

That probably was a factor, but it couldn’t be all. By the look Hanazawa was giving back, this was personal on some level. At least Shou was taking it that way.

It didn’t matter. If he could just score one more time, his team would be in the lead. They could easily stall for a few minutes till the game ended. He wasn’t underestimating Hanazawa anymore. Shou got hold of the ball, only to have it stolen mid pass by Hanazawa, who gave him a sarcastically apologetic look. Shou might actually hate the guy.

Chiyo was competent, Shou was glad she was his teammate at that moment. She got the ball back from Hanazawa, immediately turning to give it to Shou. Shou caught it, running. Hanazawa was, of course, fucking on him again- in the way of his shot. He tried to dodge around, but it was useless. No passes were open- if Shou could just get through- 

It wasn’t faked this time. Part of him cringed as he watched Hanazawa roll across the field, a gasp from the Black Vinegar audience as their beloved star player went down. Dirt covered his face and arms as Hanazawa finally stopped rolling and started to pick himself up. Shou hadn’t meant to put some psychic power behind that shove, and by the lack of any barrier he was certain Hanazawa wasn’t expecting it either.

Shame made his cheeks burn red as a dread filled his stomach. Hanazawa had a pained smile on as he got up. Shou hurt someone using his psychic powers.

He didn’t dare look towards the Kageyama’s. 

The referee was above him, holding a red card and blowing the whistle.

I threw the game. 

Disappointment at himself boiled up as he sat on the bleacher. Despite the accident, Hanazawa was fine, waving a hand and letting those dotting on him know. Shou wasn’t surprised when he stole the ball and scored again. Hanazawa Teruki has essentially won the game, and Shou wasn’t really in the mood to see the rest of it through. He wasn’t in the mood to face his coach, or Chiyo, or the rest of his team, or even Ritsu. 

Mission failed.

He got up and went to the locker room.

— 

The game was over by now.

Shou sat invisible in one of the stalls. A few of his teammates had called his name, but determined he simply wasn’t here. His leg tapped anxiously as he waited for them all to filter out. His couch must be pissed, Chiyo’s probably thinking about getting a replacement. Shou’s going to really have to prove his worth in the next game. The thought makes him groan as he sits back on the toilet he's hiding on. The last time he decided to hide away like this was after a particularly choppy mission at Claw. He wasn’t in the mood to hear it from his old man, so he simply didn’t. 

He sat with his hands covering his face, allowing a few moments of wallowing as the locker room finally quieted down. They all arrived on a bus together, but maybe the coach will just leave even though he’s gone? It’ll probably be a phone call to his mom. Shou was quickly becoming annoyed with how complicated wallowing in his own pity was becoming. 

Whatever. At least his dad won’t be learning about this. 

He’s a few seconds away from gathering his belongings and simply ditching the area when the familiar echoing of footsteps approached the stall. Shou felt his anger spike at the immediate recognition of the yellowish aura.

“A bad loss makes me pretty sick too, but hiding away in a bathroom stall? You should think about your dignity.” Hanazawa’s voice is light, as if they’re friends. Shou didn’t consider himself an angry person, but Hanazawa seems to love pushing his buttons right now. Becoming visible again, he stood and threw open the stall door. The anger hit a hurdle as soon as he saw how Hanazawa was still covered in dirt and a few scraps. 

Shou really messed up. 

“What do you want?” Shou muttered, not in the mood to have it rubbed in. 

“I’m here to apologize.” … Ok, weird. Hanazawa’s tone wasn’t sincere, though it wasn’t mocking either. He just sounded… lighthearted, happy, kinda off putting. As if they were pals for years and this was their regularly scheduled fallout. 

“For what? It’s not a crime to win a game. I don’t need pity points.”

“Sure, it isn’t, but it is a crime to upset Otouto-kun.” Now that the rush of the game was gone, Shou took note of what bothered him about Hanazawa. The way he spoke was smooth, confident, and with a strong mask. It was no wonder Claw chased him down, if they were successful he probably would’ve been one of the best recruits they had. Hanazawa continued. “Now Kageyama is upset because neither of them know where you are, so I figured…” 

Ah, he gets it now. 

“You figured you’ll save the day by finding me, apologizing, and looking like both the winner of the game and the good guy to the Kageyamas?” 

“Well, no, that’s-”

“Ritsu’s fine. I’ll text him or something. I don’t want your pity apology, I don’t even know what you’re apologizing for.” Shou walked deeper into the locker room, being sure to bump Hanazawa’s shoulder as he passed him for good measure. 

“I’m apologizing for targeting you the entire game.” That made him stop, turning around.

“Yeah, duh, I was targeting you too. We’re the captains, we-”

“Because of your background with Claw.”

Shou’s mouth shut tight, turning away from Teru. The blonde continued.

“I don’t usually play dirty. In fact, faking an injury was kind of pathetic of me. I was getting really petty for personal reasons that aren’t even your fault. So, for that reason-”

“Oh, I don’t really care about all that. I’d be pissed too.” Shou cut in, walking away from the stalls towards the lockers. Pulling his bag out of a locker, he sat on the bench. Teru followed with obvious disbelief on his face.

“It’s not fair to you. I mean, you had nothing to do with Claw tracking me as a kid.”

“How do you know that? I was doing missions as soon as I turned seven. I definitely could have assisted an attack to recruit you.” Shou was kind of glad they were broaching the topic. At least now Hanazawa made some sense. He took his cleats off, taking out his sneakers. Hanazawa, on the other hand, had finally lost his smile. He was stiff. The silence between them was tense. These were situations that Shou was good at. He didn’t panic when someone else was. Their stress didn’t equal his stress, and the more relaxed he appeared the more they’d-

“That’s a bluff.” 

Shou raised an eyebrow.

“You have a good act, laying it on hard but not thick. You haven't been doing missions since you were seven.” 

“... Since I was eleven. Still time.” 

Hanazawa shook his head, officially unconvinced.

“The math doesn’t add up, then. Maybe you were loosely connected somehow, it still wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t give me a right to hold it against you. Kageyama’s master has taught me a lot about letting go of the need for revenge, it was my weakness today to poke at you for that kind of stuff.” He sat down next to Shou. “I was so dead set on impressing Shige and- I don’t know- teaching you a lesson that I got petty to rile you up. You probably should’ve won tonight.”

Shou was kind of horrified by two things. One, an emotional conversation he was forced into by a near stranger. Two, the words coming out of Teru’s mouth might as well be a funhouse version of his own thought process. 

“Can you stop being so self-righteous?” Shou muttered. It made Hanazawa laugh in a way that was too lighthearted for the situation. Shou might be in his own head, but he can’t help but find it a little condescending.

“I’m trying to be mature here.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” Shou suddenly stood, and Hanazawa slowly followed. “I think your apology is bullshit anyway. You’re pissed at me cause my dad ruined your life. Can we just call a spade a spade?” 

“Claw didn’t ruin my life.” But Hanazawa’s confidence was finally wavering, speaking as if he was convincing himself along with Shou. 

“It still made your childhood suck.” Shou pointed out. He didn’t really know, well, anything about Hanazawa’s life, but he could make a few guesses. Claw was persistent and tended to go after someone over and over. He’s not sure how long they were chasing Hanazawa, but if the crack in his mask signals anything, then probably a while. “Which probably made things hard for your friends and family. You probably had to distance yourself from your friends in case anything happened. Maybe even move around a bit. It clearly pissed you off enough to bring it to a soccer game over a year after my dad’s arrest. It’s kind of the perfect opportunity for revenge.”

Shou continued. It was like he was digging his own grave past the warning flags with no button on the breaks. If Hanazawa was angry enough to fight him, then at least he’d know what to do. 

“If you actually want revenge, then we can just fight over it. Actually fight. Instead of a stupid soccer game.” He stood straight, doing his best to be eye level with the blonde.

“I’m not reverting to fighting you. I don’t do that anymore.”  It’s the beautiful top layer to a wonderfully decorated cake. Yet another person who seems to be doing better than him in a post Claw environment, and it’s someone who might marginally know what it’s like to deal with Claw their entire life. All Shou needed was the cherry on top. 

“Then maybe you’re actually just a coward after all.” 

Hanazawa’s face was cold, not making eye contact anymore. It was clear he was thinking of something, maybe the best strategy. It was bad, but Shou felt like he had control over the conversation again. Finally, Hanazawa looked at him again, making a decision. He lifted a hand, and Shou braced himself for impact.

The hand rested on his shoulder. 

“It’s not your fault, Suzuki. You never hurt me.” 

It was far worse than just being punched. The anger in him slowly melted, releasing a river of extra emotions.

All Shou wanted was to come to school, be a normal kid, live a normal life, play a normal game, win with his normal team, not worry about his powers or his dad or anything. That was too much to ask for. Suzuki Shou was never going to get to be normal. Shame grew as he stared down at the floor.

If this was a fight, he’d know how to win it. He’d know how to figure Hanazawa out and get him down. But it wasn’t a fight, Shou didn’t know the strategy here. He’s lost and is losing again, and this time he’s not even sure how he’s losing. Maybe he’s just losing at life.

Hanazawa just lied to him. Shou did hurt him, even if it was just  a few dumb scrapes. Suzuki Shou was fourteen years old and wasn’t even gentle enough to stop himself from hurting someone who was frustrating him during a soccer game. 

“Uhm.” 

When he snapped back to reality, he realized tears were threatening his eyes. Hanazawa shuffled awkwardly, somewhere between wanting to provide comfort and having no idea what to do.

“I didn’t ask you to come here.” Shou spoke again, but it lacked the bite it had earlier. In fact, to his horror, it sounded like he was fighting back tears. 

“I just... I figured you just needed it.”

Shou stared at the ground, intensely enough that if he tried harder, it would probably explode. Fine, he was trained to do harder things than this. It was time to man up. He could resolve an issue with an emotional conversation just as well as anyone else.

Hanazawa stared at him back, waiting for Shou to speak. The silence was painful.

“I wasn’t supposed to throw you across the field with my powers.”

“... Yeah, I don’t see that one mentioned in the rules book.” Hanazawa said, an attempt to lighten the mood.

“It was an accident. So. Sorry.” When he looked up, the tension was knocked right out of his body. Hanazawa was making the stupidest face as he was trying to hold back laughter. “Dude. I’m trying here.” 

“I’m sorry- that was good! It was! Thank you. You just suck at this a little bit.” He said, slowly starting to break into light laughter. “It reminds me of when I was young.” Maybe this guy was just delusional.  Hanazawa patted Shou on the shoulder.

“I’m trying to be serious! I have to do this otherwise- I just need to be gentler. You don’t get it.” Shou felt like he was a kid again, yet somehow the anxiety that had been following him all day was at ease in this moment. Hanazawa’s laughter finally died down, and he gave a genuinely kind smile. 

“I get it- I get it. It’s a slow process with a lot of setbacks.” Of all the things Hanazawa had said that evening, that was the only sentence Shou found himself putting much weight on. Hanazawa continued. 

“... Hey, want to come hangout with the Kageyama’s and I?” He didn’t reply for a second. 

“I already told you; I’m not looking for pity.”

There was a long pause.

“It’s not pity. You’ve SHOU-wn me how much I’d like to get to know you.”  God this guy was stupid. Shou found himself breaking into a smile, shaking his head at the silliness of it. He picked his bag up, placing his phone into it. He should probably call his coach and mom after this to do some damage control to his disappearance. 

“What, are we going to go paint our nails and braid our hair together?” Shou asked sarcastically. Hanazawa hummed, patting Shou on the back and leading him towards the exit of the locker room.

“I don’t know… my nice nail polish is saved for pretty important occasions.” Shou’s gaze flashed down to the brightly colored nails Hanazawa adorned.

“Like impressing Ritsu’s brother at a soccer game?” 

“Like impressing Ritsu’s brother at a soccer game.” 

Wow. Hanazawa really had no shame. He smiled at the bluntness.

As they exited the locker room, it wasn’t long before they were spotted by Ritsu, who made a beeline towards them. Ritsu’s brother followed behind slowly.

“There you guys are.” Ritsu said, taking his place next to Shou. “That was an impressive game.” Shou felt his chest swell. 

“Yeah, well, I would’ve done better if you had told me you were coming!” Shou replied, shoving him lightly.

“No, you would’ve done better if Hanazawa-kun didn’t cheat.” Ritsu suddenly accused, attention turning to the blonde with arms crossed. His tone had the perfect level of judgment. Shou felt himself smile in glee as Hanazawa placed his hands up in defense.

“Otouto-kun… You hurt me.” 

“I think both Teru and Suzuki did great! It was cool to see you both play.” Ritsu’s brother chimed in, ever the peacekeeper. Small banter continued as it was decided for Shou that they’d all grab some ramen and then hangout at Hanazawa’s place.

Shou probably wouldn’t have considered a friendship with Hanazawa beforehand. Too much weird trauma on Hanazawa’s end which would result in weird guilt on Shou’s end, but honestly it… could be fine. They could at least play soccer together more often, or bond over Claw in a weird way like he did with Ritsu.

Now, sat at Hanazawa’s apartment, one hand having his nails carefully painted by Hanazawa while the other played against Ritsu and his brother in Scrabble- Shou figured he could see himself coming back here. 

Hanazawa painted his nails dark blue. Shou figured he was kind of a fan of it in a weird way. 

Chapter Text

Mob 

It was early in the morning, earlier than Shou was recently used to. He flung himself out of bed, giving a healthy stretch before looking at himself in the mirror. His hair could use some taming, but whatever. This early, he couldn’t be bothered to do much, but being awake was a necessary evil. Today, he was scheduled to meet up with Hanazawa and play some soccer. It was somewhat of a routine at this point, taking place nearly each weekend. They’d practice for a good hour. Hanazawa would attempt to gossip sometimes, but Shou’s been since told he’s not a good gossip partner. Their conversations are usually kind of awkward, so most times the hangout zeros in on practice. Shou didn’t mind this.

Today was special though. Today, Ritsu agreed to be there. It’s a good shot at redemption since their last failure of a matchup. Tome was coming as well and volunteered to be referee, which was pretty exciting cause he felt confident that she’d be brutally honest and impartial. Ritsu’s brother would be there too, as an audience member or whatever. 

The stakes couldn’t be higher.

He pulled on the same cargo pants he wore yesterday, rushing into the kitchen to pop two pieces of plain bread into the toaster. 

“Ma, I’m heading out-” Shou cut himself off, blinking once then twice. He must be losing it. His mom was nowhere in sight, but instead Toichiro sat at the dinner table, eating breakfast as if he lived here. He offered a small smile to Shou. 

“Good morning, Shou.” Toichiro greeted. Shou slowly inched closer, and once he was positive he wasn’t seeing things, rushed to give him a quick hug. It’s been years since he’s been able to talk to him one on one, to actually come into contact with him. Shou backed off with a smile on his face.

“Dad? What’re you doing here? How- I thought you were supposed to be locked up for like, twenty thousand lifetimes or something.” His words tripped over themselves, adrenaline pumping as another factor occurred to him. “Where’s mom? Does she know? She has to know-”

Toichiro raised his hand. Shou went silent. 

“Allow me to explain.” He spoke evenly, as always. “Joseph let me out.” Shou raised an eyebrow. One time, Joseph made Shou stay an extra two hours so he could be positive that he and Toichiro hadn’t developed a code for them to talk through. The guy wasn’t exactly trusting. Toichiro appeared amused by the confusion.

“It took time, but anyone can be convinced of anything.” He explained. “I was assisted by the still loyal members of Claw.” Shou was pretty sure he helped get rid of those loyal members last year. “Now that Joseph sees our vision, we can regroup members, sway the opinions of old members questioning their loyalty. But I have a mission for you, Shou.” 

The apartment felt colder, darker, more metallic. He hadn’t been on a Claw mission in years, he was never supposed to be on one again. His breath picked up slowly, unmoving as his eyes stayed on Toichiro. 

“I remember what that boy said, that people need other people. He was right. We can have our family and our dream. Claw does not need to end, you just need to convince your mother to be on board.” He placed a hand on Shou’s shoulder, squeezing tightly. 

“You’ll help me with this, Shou.” 

This wasn’t the dining room of his mom’s apartment anymore. It was an office, the details of it blurry. In the past, Toichiro had a few offices, this one felt like all of those merged into one.

He was fine. This was his father, he could be honest.

“Dad, I don’t think I want that for me. I- I know I don’t. I’ve got a life now, I’m ha-”

“What do you want? Soccer?” The hand on his shoulder tightened. “You were made to be more than an average student who fails at the occasional sports game. Shou, you were made special. Why can’t you see that?”

The wind picked up, and Shou realized they were at the top of the Seasoning City Tower once again. 

His dad, whether locked away, whether cut off, was dangerous. He was in that prison because he allowed himself to be- if he ever changed his mind and wished to try again…

It wasn’t real. It wasn’t. He knew it wasn’t, he never told his dad about him failing any games. Despite knowing this, it didn’t stop Shou from shaking, breathing heavy as he tried to compose himself.

“I won’t help you.” 

“Then you are weak.”

He couldn’t move away in time. His mind fed him training sessions, proper ways to respond to this, but his body didn’t do any of that. The feeling of his father’s aura rendered him useless. Nobody came to save him.

—

Shou startled awake. He sat up straight, panting to himself as his hand clawed at his chest. There was no gaping hole there, so he was still alive. The room looked fuzzy, causing him to close his eyes, but the images in his dreams persisted, forcing him to open them again. Annoyingly enough, these dumb nightmares kept happening. It was inconvenient and unrealistic. That would never happen.

It could. It has. 

It would never happen again. He rolled the scenario over in his head, again and again. It was something he should be prepared for, yet felt bad being prepared for it. Wasn’t his dad a better person now? Wouldn’t he stay in that prison because he said he would? If Shou ever stopped visiting him, would he go back to his old ways? Mom already stopped. He probably would. The thought made his breath pick up, and he forced himself to calm back down. This was stupid to panic over. 

Minutes passed, enough for Shou to slowly drag himself out of his own head. He was kind of gross right now, drenched in sweat. He should get up and change his clothes.

But that brought up the next issue. Shou was acting weird. He knew he was acting weird because the normal Suzuki Shou would never have an issue getting out of bed, but something kept him glued in place. A deep pit in his stomach, his hands shaking ever so slightly, constantly checking the door and window. He was scared.

About a month ago, Shou had turned 15. He didn’t have any right to be acting this way.

A half hour passed of trying to bully himself into either going back to sleep or getting up. When nothing worked, he recognized it was time for a new game plan. Shou had to talk to someone about this, and quick. That would knock some reality into him. The first thought was to go across the hallway and talk to his mom, yet the option was almost immediately taken off of the table. 

When things became difficult with Toichiro, she left. She had a good right to as well. Thankfully, she had chosen to keep in contact with Shou. But if Shou came crying to her about delusions of Toichiro coming back and causing issues again, then how would she react? She’s already done visiting him. Would she leave again? Keep up with Shou a second time? The experiences of Claw hurt her, and it simply wasn’t right to burden her with them. 

So his mind went to the second, more difficult to reach, but far more promising option. 

Ritsu. 

He wasn’t perfect emotional support, but when the going got tough, Ritsu dug his heels in. Shou felt a million times safer sitting at the foot of his bed, playing video games while Ritsu read a book. The very thought of it was enough to finally get him out of bed. He kept repeating the idea to himself over and over as he thew on a jacket, put on some sneakers, and was off.

He felt uncharacteristically small as he sat on the train to the other side of town. Flying wasn’t in the question right now- if any Claw associated psychics happened to be out there and watching him at this very moment, they might notice. Not that that would happen, but it might. Better to be safe. All that mattered was Shou successfully got to Ritsu’s.

It wasn’t extremely abnormal to visit Ritsu at the later hours of the night, so he bet Ritsu wouldn’t even notice anything to be wrong. Maybe he can just break in and go to sleep. That would be nice.

It’s not like Ritsu fixed everything. It’s also not like every night visit was spurred on by some dumb nightmare. But on nights like this he would steal Ritsu’s DS while Ritsu went back to sleep. Shou would cuddle up next to him and play video games until he silently passed out as well. 

Shou stepped off the train. They should be shutting down for the night soon- he got here just in time. Quietly he made his way through the neighborhood. Alleyways felt dangerous. Strangers roaming the town were potential threats. Shou would hold his breath as he walked past them, just in case. His aura spiked anytime anything unexpected happened, and he was just grateful no one was around to see him go invisible at a cat jumping off of a fence scaring him. 

The tension in his shoulders finally faded when he was standing outside the Kageyama house. It was the safest place he could be. 

Ritsu’s brother’s aura could be felt from outside. Nobody would try shit around here. Shou activated his powers, flying up to the balcony. It was hard to see inside the dark room. Using his powers to unlock the door, he slid it open, stepping inside.

…

It was empty. 

Ritsu’s bedroom was neatly made. Untouched.

Claw has him- Claw has Ritsu and now Shou has to pretend to be part of Claw and get him back- it’ll be fine if he doesn’t run into his dad- he needs allies- he needs to game plan- he-

He needs to get a hold of himself. Pacing around the room, he racked his memory for any clues of what was going on. The thousand of unnecessary paranoia filled scenarios weren’t helping, neither was the other side of him berating him for having paranoid thoughts either. In the midst of the insanity, the memory he was looking for hit. 

Last week, Ritsu mentioned off hand that he and his dad were going to take a weekend trip together. Relief filled him as he flopped onto the bed. Ritsu was safe. 

Immediately he was filled with the realization of how quiet the room was. It was sobering.

Ritsu wasn’t even here. What was he thinking? Coming to the other side of town? Over a nightmare? It didn’t even pose a real threat. Honestly, he ought to just suck it up now and fly back. Instead he curled up on Ritsu’s bed. Over and over he couldn’t stop the thought that this was dumb. He was stupid for such a dumb miscalculation. Hands covered his ears as he squeezed his eyes shut.

He felt the tears before he even realized he was crying. Now that it was acknowledged, he couldn’t seem to stop. It wasn’t the worst, it’s not like he’s a messy crier. Shou was silent, convenient. It often saved him the embarrassment of a lecture from his father when he was younger. He buried his face in the blanket, holding his breath to give something else to focus on. His mind insisted on continuing, calling him stupid, naive, dull. Being away from Claw made him happy, but it also took away his sharpness. Now his instincts told him to do stupid things in the earliest hours of the morning.

If his father could see him now, there would be nothing but disappointment.

All at once his thoughts came to a halt. He stared forward, eyes wide. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t his paranoia this time.

In a second he was up, aura sharp and ready to fight, fists protecting his face.

There, in the cracked doorway, stood Ritsu’s brother, wide eyes filled with sleep. He was sporting the worst bed head Shou had ever seen. Surprise was written on his face, but it was obvious he didn’t feel threatened. Probably because Shou looked like a pathetic wet hamster.

“… Ah, Ritsu’s gone for the weekend.” 

“I know.” 

Shou tried to sound firm, but it came out flimsy. It was clear how carefully Ritsu’s brother was selecting his words. That wasn’t abnormal for him, but it seemed to be even moreso.

“... But you’re here to see him?”

“I forgot.” 

They were forced into another awkward pause. Shou wasn’t throwing many bones for him to work with, not that he had anything to say. Nothing would salvage his pride at this point.

Ritsu’s brother, appearing to have made up his mind about something, entered the room. Shou watched as he pulled open Ritsu’s drawer, grabbing out a fresh pair of pajamas and turning to Shou.

“It’s too late to head back. The trains aren’t running anymore. Ritsu won’t mind if you stay in his bed tonight. Get changed, I’ll be right back.”

Before Shou could respond, he was gone. There wasn’t a better option, so instead he got out of his jacket and sweat soaked pajamas and into Ritsu’s. They were oversized, probably too big for Ritsu, but Shou didn’t mind. It was weirdly comforting.

Ritsu’s brother returned with a glass of milk in hand, giving it to Shou. Shou looked down at the glass, before looking back up at him.

“… I’m sorry, I should’ve asked if you like milk. I always get Ritsu warm milk whenever he’s having a night like this.” 

A night like this. 

Shou brought his arm up to wipe his face one more time. 

“I’m fine.” 

“It doesn’t seem like you are.”

“I’m fine.” S hou’s voice cracked. God he was tired. Honestly now was right about the time he’d start cracking jokes in an attempt to change the mood of the situation. The seriousness was unbearable. But he wasn’t really up to it, nor did he know if any joke would even land with Ritsu’s brother.

Shou wasn’t sure how to view the older Kageyama. He wasn’t even really sure how to refer to him. ‘Kageyama’ was too formal, ‘Shigeo’ was too informal- some people called him ‘Mob.’ That seemed to work. 

The only other time he and Mob had been somewhat alone together was when he interrupted Shou’s fight with his dad. The memory made him cringe. It wasn’t a fight, it was a merciless loss. Not only did Mob witness it firsthand, but also swept in and finished the job Shou had been preparing months for. Mob saved Shou, saved the world, and changed Toichiro’s mind-

He had more leverage over Shou than anyone else. Shou should be grateful to him. It didn’t stop that Mob was the most dangerous thing on this planet. 

It wasn’t fair that somehow Ritsu found peace with his brother. Shou secretly envied it sometimes. They were close, Mob would come up all the time in casual conversation. Ritsu clearly didn’t have to agonize over their relationship anymore. Yet if Shou spent too much time thinking about the complexities of his relationship with his dad, he would have earth shattering nightmares that sent him down the most pathetic rabbit holes in his mind. 

“If you don’t like milk, I can get you water.” Mob offered. Clearly he was uncomfortable, and as much as logic said Shou should appreciate it, he really just wanted him to leave.

“I just wanna go to sleep.” Shou settled on. Mob nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more, but this entire situation was probably an uphill battle already. Mob walked over to Ritsu’s bed, pulled the covers back, and gestured for Shou to get in. Too tired to overthink it, Shou climbed into bed as the older Kageyama threw the blankets over him.

“Don’t tell Ritsu about this.” Shou insisted. 

“Ok, I won’t.” Mob agreed, and Shou believed him. Mob lingered a few moments longer. “Do you want me to stay for a little bit?” Honestly, after actually interacting with another person, the anxiety had faded. Shou shook his head, and Mob finally got the hint. But by the time he was at the door, something tugged at Shou.

“Wait.” 

Mob stopped at the command, glancing back. The words came out before Shou could consider if it was a good idea or not.

“If my dad came back and tried to take over again, what would you do?”

The question hung heavy in the air. Shou sat up, pinning Mob with his gaze. He wasn’t good enough at reading the older Kageyama to know what his blank face meant.

“Get some sleep. We have to be up really early tomorrow.” 

Mob closed the door, ending the conversation before Shou could ask what he meant by that. Drowsiness overcame him. Between the comfort of Ritsu’s soft sheets, the warm Kageyama house, a fresh pair of clothes, and the reassurances that if anything happened then he’d be safe- Shou passed out.

—

Around five thirty in the morning, Mob placed a pair of Ritsu’s workout clothes next to Shou, waking him up in the process.

At five forty, Shou stumbled down the steps, sleep heavy in his eyes. Mob offered him a glass of orange juice and an energy bar. Not a fan of citrus, Shou didn’t drink anything, but he did accept the bar.

By six, they were both jogging down the street.

It wasn’t a surprise that Mob did this. From what Shou knew from Ritsu, Mob was addicted to working out or something. He also seemed like a pretty peculiar guy, which made sense since Ritsu was odd in quite a few ways, but Mob was odd in different ways. This felt like build in alone time for Mob to start his day off. Time that was now being shared with Shou. He didn’t think too deeply about it.

Soccer had prepared him for this, as did his past training. It wasn’t a struggle to keep a consistent jog next to Mob. Physical fitness wasn’t the issue here, but the amount of time he had to think was.

For the first stretch, he overthought how to forget last night, and make Mob also forget or at least swear to never talk about it. The more he thought about it, the more stressed he’d get, and the harder it was to stay focused on keeping up. Shifting his thoughts towards his next game or test didn’t calm him down either. The only way he could actually keep up with Mob was by thinking about nothing but keeping it. 

It was kind of nice if not for the way the cold air kind of made his lungs burn.

By the time Mob had finally slowed to a stop, Shou was ready to be done. The jog felt like it was never going to end. Mob wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his hoodie.

Shou took in the sight of where they ended up. They were right by a bridge, grass sloping downward towards water that flowed under the bridge. From what he recognized, they were pretty close to Black Vinegar Middle. Mob probably learned this route from that workout club. Despite there being benches nearby, Mob walked down on the sloped grass, taking a seat. Shou flopped next to him, not looking to waste precious rest time.

There was a view. It wasn’t much, but it was pretty. The water glistened by the early sunrise. Again his mind wandered to his own artistic ability, if he could even replicate this if he tried. Maybe simplifying the currents and also adding a giant river snake would complete the picture.

They sat in silence, which was nice at first, but slowly Shou felt an odd tension between them. 

There was clearly something on Mob’s mind.

Shou and Mob were acquaintances at best. They hung with the same people, had a few things in common, and shared a traumatic event. Other than that, they didn’t exactly chat much. Shou sometimes wondered if Mob held any grudges against him.

Maybe Mob would have reason to for the dummies in the house fire, or beating Ritsu up as bait in the seventh division, or for just existing as Suzuki Shou and being part of the terror that Claw brought to his life. But it wasn’t like any of that was personal! Shou needed to throw Claw off of the Kageyama’s trail- that’s why he set the dummies. If Mob got riled up a little bit, was it really so bad given the circumstances? Shou needed to see if there was someone strong enough to face his dad- that’s why he used Ritsu as bait. Besides, Ritsu’s fine, his extra strong bones protected him or something. Shou never had any bad intentions, just terrible impacts.

They never talked about any of it. Shou never got the feeling to bring it up, so he didn’t. Even if he tried, Mob would probably just tell him everything was fine. It felt like he had that brand of politeness. Instead they sat in thick tension, Mob clearly debating on if he should speak and Shou refusing to help him break the silence. Deep inside, he worried that maybe Mob’s thoughts were along the same lines as his right now.

Eventually Shou had sat up. He bounced a leg, starting to feel like this was becoming a waste of time. Just as he was about to open his argument for heading back, Mob spoke.

“How serious were you being?”

Shou glanced at him, not really following.

“About what?”

“Your dad.”

Ahhh, right. In his panicked state last night he asked a pretty stupid question to the wrong person.

“Not at all. You can forget about that.” Shou waved a hand as if to physically shoo the worries away. To his surprise, Mob let go of a breath he was holding in relief. Did he take Shou seriously last night? That only heightened his embarrassment. Despite Mob’s relief, it seemed the conversation didn’t end there.

“You weren’t being serious? Not at all.” Mob looked at him, and Shou nodded in response, “But you weren’t joking last night either.” This was the hard thing Shou was learning about Mob. He wasn’t stupid, but he refused to read between the lines. It was the perfect recipe for forcing people in a position to just be honest, whether he meant to put people in that position or not. Maybe if Shou speaks in half truths, it’ll be enough.

“I don’t know, I guess sometimes I get concerned about it. My skills haven’t been as sharp lately! I can’t let someone get the jump on me if something does happen.” Shou spoke lightly, as if complaining about his latest homework assignment. “I really haven’t done much training in the past two years- y’know with no Claw there isn’t really training sessions anymore.” That should be enough, but now that Shou was talking about it, it was like he couldn’t stop.

“I think training made things easier. That way, I was always ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“Ready for.. I don’t know, anything.” Shou shrugged, falling short of good examples to come up with. “It won’t happen, but if my dad gets out then yeah, I’d have to be ready. Or- or another psychic group. It’s definitely possible, you came out of nowhere despite my dad searching the world for strong psychics. Or whatever other world-ending type disaster there might be. What about that time a giant tree suddenly appeared in the middle of the city and then disappeared? Bad things can always happen” The need to justify himself overruled sounding ridiculous.

“Oh, I see.” Mob replied. Shou wondered if he actually did or was just saying that. After all, he’s probably the only one who doesn’t have to worry about those issues. “Does it help?”

“Does what help?”

“Being ready all the time.” 

“Of course.”

“With what?”

“With the world domination event! Being ready for that and- with missions and the such.”

“What does it help with now?”

Shou paused, brows furrowing. 

“What is this, a pop quiz?” 

“No, I’m just asking.” Mob spoke casually, but there was an odd intenseness in his eyes that Shou didn’t really get. 

“It helps with…” With soccer maybe, he’s in better shape than the rest of his teammates. Yet on the same hand, his reflexes didn’t help during the last game. It only majorly embarrassed him in front of everyone, and embarrassed him a second time when he went to promise Chiyo he wouldn’t mess up like that again and she laughed and said, ‘C’mon Suzuki, no need to grovel.’ It didn’t help when he went into an exorcism and completely froze up from a lack of strategy. It sure as hell didn’t help every time he was trying to blend into being a normal school kid and maybe even make some friends outside of his trauma bonded esper circle. 

A horrible realization settled deep in his stomach, feeling poisonous. The years of training; the fights against adults more than twice his age; the lectures from his father; the separation from his mother;

It was all useless to him.

It didn’t help. None of it helped. Being raised in Claw didn’t make him into this suave always-certain strategist, it turned him into a stupid anxious mess of a fifteen year old. Too nervous to talk to his mom, responsible for making sure his dad didn’t break out- he couldn’t even calm himself down through a bad dream.

The hand on his shoulder nearly made him jump out of his skin. Mob pulled away, the hand he used to try to comfort him hovering as if he had been hurt. 

“Sorry,” He said quickly, “Just- try to breathe, Suzuki. Master tells me to try and imagine a feather. When you breathe in-” Shou stopped listening. He lifted a hand, running it through his hair. It wasn’t fair, and who’s to say it’s even true? Shou’s probably just feeling off right now. 

Maybe he wouldn’t be having these feelings if he had been successful on his mission. If he had taken down his dad himself, then he could’ve had the comfort in knowing that he had that ability, that he didn’t have to be on edge all the time. That he could at least protect himself.

“You can’t understand.” Shou said, cutting off Mob. He turned towards him, glare in his eyes. “You of all people have no right to have any opinion about this. You can’t understand because you’re strong enough to defeat my dad. You can do whatever you want, so nothing real concerns you.”

Mob stared at him, mouth open at the accusation. 

“A lot of things concern-”

“They don’t. You didn’t have to live in fear, not like how Ritsu and I did.” That must’ve struck a nerve from the way Mob’s aura spiked. It didn’t stop Shou. “You have the privilege of going around and living this perfectly normal and average life cause you know there aren’t forces out there that could hurt you! How is that fair? You hurt Ritsu and still get a normal relationship with him. Somehow, I’m worse at being a normal kid than you are, and you destroyed the entire city over a crush.”

The silence was heavy.

Ritsu’s going to kill me.

Shou sat on his knees, staring at the ground as his own words sunk in. It was a miracle that a blast of psychic power hadn’t already thrown Shou halfway across the city. Unlike Teru, there wasn’t a question of who was stronger between the two of them. Slowly, Shou looked up at Mob, and it was a mistake to do so. He looked ashamed, guilty, face red as he stared at the floor. 

Shou suddenly felt like a real asshole. If he doesn’t do some level of damage control, he’ll be dead by sundown.

“I didn’t-”

“Wait.” Mob cut him off, something Shou hadn’t seen before. “You talked a lot, now let me. I just need a second to think.” 

Shou’s never sat in silence with someone this much. He sat back down, allowing them to be side by side again. Patiences wasn’t his strong suit, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized how badly he fucked up. Bringing Ritsu into this was the dumbest part, so was mentioning the fact that Shou knew about the crush. He swore to Ritsu that he could be trusted with information, and now he’s fucked up with both Kageyamas. It wasn’t like he meant it. Well, he meant some of it, but he didn’t mean to say it all.

“Mob, I-”

“Suzuki.” Mob took a deep breath, seeming to have regained himself a bit. “I don’t think there’s been a moment in my entire life where I felt like I got to just be a normal kid.” Shou ducked his head in embarrassment.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“But I’m okay with that because now I can recognize how lucky I am to have people around me- people who will accept me for who I am and take care of me when I need help.” Shou’s blood almost began to boil again. Here he was, trying to apologize, and Mob was going to brag about how he had a forgiving brother, parents he could trust, a master to guide him, friends on every corner-

Shou sat back up. He wanted to be angry, to do more damage, but he wasn’t dumb. If he didn’t start backpedaling now, he’d be screwed. 

“Mob- Kageyama. Look, I take it back, can we just-”

“No, thank you.”

“Huh?” Shou’s eyebrows both raised, shocked by the response. Maybe Mob was the type to hold a grudge? 

“I dont… I don’t want you to apologize just because you feel like you have to. I want you to understand what I mean. You said all that stuff for a reason, so-” The older boy seemed just as lost and confused as himself as to where this was going. “So you have to wait until the end of the day.”

“What.”

“C’mon, we should head back, we’ll be late for breakfast.” Suddenly, Mob was climbing back onto his feet. 

Shou was dumbfounded. Without leaving more room for argument, Mob was jogging again, leaving Shou in the dust. He could probably go home from here, but if he doesn’t play along, he and Ritsu may quite literally never talk again. 

He got up and ran after Mob.

–

The day was a lot like one of Ritsu’s to-do lists.

They got back to the house, to which Mob shoved a frying pan in his hands and had him help cook breakfast, both for themselves and for Mrs. Kageyama. Which he supposed was a fair trade off. A few insults for a free breakfast.

“I want to apologize now.” And go home.

“Ah, no,” Is all Mob replied, almost nervously, as he handed him a grocery list and dragged him out to the local store. Midway through choosing the most quality onion, Shou pulled out his phone and let his mom know that he’d be missing lunch. They bagged the groceries.

“Is that a fair trade?” 

“The… money for the food? I guess so. It’s not a process I’d come up with, I guess-”

“No, like, have I done enough to be forgiven.” 

 “Oh it’s not like that. Let’s go get these to mom.” Whatever lesson Mob was trying to teach, Shou didn’t get it. He didn’t get it as they brought in the groceries. He didn’t get it as he took out the trash. He didn’t get it as they cleaned the living room and picked up plant seeds for Mrs. Kageyama’s garden. 

Shou chewed on the lunch Mrs. Kageyama made for them, stuck in his thoughts about how to get out of this situation. 

“Well, what do you think?” Mrs. Kageyama asked him.

“Oh man,” Shou knew to be polite here, but honestly he didn’t have to lie to her about this one. “It’s the best curry I’ve ever had.” She laughed as he held out his bowl, pouring him a second serving. At least the day of errands was getting him this much.

–

They stood on the front doorway, Mob zipped up his jacket to be nice and cozy. He held a package in hand. Shou internally deflated at the idea that this was not the end of their hangout. Externally, he also gave a long dragged out sigh. 

“Does it have to be the end of the day?” 

“You’re allowed to leave, too.” Mob replied. 

“We both know I’m dead if Ritsu hears about this.” Shou crossed his arms.

“Then I won’t tell Ritsu.” 

“... But-”

“You only have to stay if you want to apologize to me. I’m not holding you hostage, Suzuki. Ritsu won’t hear about any of it, I told you last night I wouldn’t tell him. I swear it.” Mob stepped off of the porch, adjusting the package safely underneath his arm.

Shou hung back on the porch. He was off the hook, then. He could finally go home.

–

The crowded train jostled him back and forth, and he had to grab onto Mob’s arm to keep stable since no more hand-holds were available. Shou never found himself to be the biggest fan of public transportation, but especially not during rush hour.

“It’s the next stop.” Mob said quietly to not disturb the other passengers. The stationed dinged, and finally he tasted freedom as they stepped off. Mob walked them through a much nicer side of town into a cute little shopping center. 

Here he was assuming they were just dropping off a package at the post office. This was definitely disproved when Mob walked them right into a sweet little cafe and pastry shop.

“Mob-kun! Over here!” 

They walked over and sat at a table with a girl far too pretty to be seen in public with either of them.

“Tsubomi-chan, sorry for being a bit late. I hope you also don’t mind.” 

“It’s fine, if I had an issue with it I would’ve told you when you texted me.” Tsubomi reassured. She then turned to Shou, a warm smile on her face.

“I don’t think we officially met.” She said.

“Yo, you can call me Shou.” 

“Ohhh, Ritsu’s friend. It’s nice to have a face to the name. Call me Takane.”

Shou felt himself do a double take. Whoever this girl was, she seemed to know Ritsu on a first name basis. Then how’d Shou not know about her sooner? Was she a childhood friend? 

It hit him at once. 

You destroyed the entire city over a crush.

Shou sat there frozen as Mob took the package he was holding and handed it to Tsubomi. She unwrapped it, revealing a yellow sweater with a few flowers embroidered into it. 

“Oh! Mob-kun! Thank you so much, these came out so well!” She replied in excitement. Mob sat there bashfully, shrugging and muttering about how it was no big deal. “When you said you picked up embroidery, I honestly didn’t think you’d be so good at it. Hey hey, you should do this for one of Hanazawa-kun’s sweaters.” 

“ Tsubomi.” Mob sunk into his jacket as Tsubomi laughed at him. 

“But seriously, let me get your coffees as a thank you. Are you guys coming over?” She pulled out her wallet. Mob tried to shove her money away once, she instead bypassed his hand and shoved the bills into his breast pocket. 

“Thank you, but I think we’re a bit busy today. I’m spending the day with Suzuki.”

“Ah, boys day out. Where’s Ritsu?” 

“No Ritsu, it’s just Suzuki and I hanging out today. It’s been a really nice change of pace, honestly.” The two of them continued to chat lightly, switching the topic between a few different things that Shou didn’t really know or care that much about. 

They left the cafe after about forty minutes, already heading back to the train. Coming all the way across town just to give someone back a sweater definitely was a hefty amount of effort. Shou figured he probably wasn’t in position to critique Mob anymore. 

Wasn’t going to stop him.

“You probably shouldn’t lie to people just for a cover up.” He commented. 

“I don’t think I lied to Tsubomi-chan.” Mob sounded a little defensive for once. 

“Yeah you did. You said it’s a nice change of pace. We both know this is like- a weird purgatory to repent for insulting you.” 

For a second he didn’t reply, getting in line to wait for the train to pull up. Mob picked at his sleeve, a frown on his face. 

“I’m having fun hanging out with you, Suzuki, despite this morning.” 

Shou looked at him, unable to hide his doubt.

“You are?”

“Of course. Normally I shove these chores off onto Ritsu, thank goodness you’re here. Mom’s going to ask us to fold the laundry next.” Mob laughed as Shou gave him a light punch on the arm. 

He laughed again once Mrs. Kageyama handed the clean laundry basket to Shou. 

Shou laughed when Mrs. Kageyama let Mob know he’d be in charge of dinner.

—

The video game screen flashed “DEFEAT” across it for the fifteenth time. 

“You were supposed to dodge the missile.” Mob commented helpfully. 

“Okay that’s rich. You’re literally the reason we lost the last ten rounds.”

“A few of those are up for debate.” 

Shou flopped backwards onto the couch. They’ve been stuck on this level since before dinner, and at least a few hours must’ve passed since then. Mob stretched before standing. 

“I should get ready for bed.” He said. “I’m getting up early again.”

“But we haven’t finished this level.” Shou argued, sitting up and throwing his hands towards the screen. 

“Suzuki, we can play again another time if you want.” 

Shou sighed. He couldn’t let Mob escape just yet, he still hadn’t fixed this. 

“Fine. I’m going to apologize then.” Shou said, ready to argue once again with Mob claiming now wasn’t the best time. Except he didn’t do that. Instead he sunk down to the floor again, across from Shou, watching expectantly. It made Shou tense up, looking away. The air was once again incredibly awkward.

“I’m sorry.” 

There was silence. He should probably say more, but honestly what was he supposed to say? 

“We’re even now,” Shou started, “I helped you out today, so I made up for it all.” Mob gave a sigh, apparently disappointed. Shou didn’t expect it to cause his chest to ache. Immediately, he wished he did better.

“Okay, cut the wise shit and just tell me what you want. I want to apologize.” Shou said desperately. 

“I wasn’t trying to drag you around to make you pay me back or anything.” Mob said, suddenly seeming a bit sheepish. “I just figured… Because you kept sticking around, that you didn’t really want to be alone. I didn’t want you to go home upset, or feel awkward about coming back here.” 

Ah. It wasn’t a lesson. Which meant now Shou was in double debt. He stared at the ground, disappointment in himself growing.

“I think it’s okay to feel like you’re not normal.” Mob continued, speaking softly. “There’s no right or wrong way to be. Everyone’s life is so different, it’s hard to really understand, but that’s what makes it special when you find someone who does understand you. That’s why it’s important to want to know other people, so you can find those who you’re able to connect with.” There was a second where Mob seemed to be choosing his words once again. “I’m really not normal, but I think I like that. Knowing myself makes it easier to know other people. You’re really important to Ritsu, but I feel like I don’t know you well. I don’t want you to feel like you have to be guarded here.” 

Shou didn’t know what to say. Everything seemed to fall short of how he was feeling. He shrugged, starting to speak then stopping. 

“So you made me do your chores?” 

“Maybe you deserved it a little bit.” 

Shou’s head shot up, looking at Mob as the older boy cracked a smile. 

“You jerk.” Shou laughed, leaning forward to shove him lightly, “So you admit to it!” 

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Mob laughed lightly, standing back up. “I really do have to get to bed soon. Mob turned to leave, but by the time he was at the door, something tugged at Shou.

“Wait.” 

Mob stopped at the command, glancing back. 

“I-” Shou felt odd, less like himself, but in this moment he wanted to end the night right. “About what I said this morning. I think when I said all that, I don’t know, I have a lot of feelings inside of me that want to get out, but it was the wrong time.”

Mob laughed lightly. Shou looked up, but Mob shook his head and apologized, gesturing to him to continue.

“I don’t think I know the situation well enough to say all those things.And I’m sorry. I… I'd like to get to know you too.” 

“I forgive you.” Mob’s response was immediate, but Shou didn’t find himself doubting it. 

Not once had he spent time with Mob before. Now they’ve done nearly twenty four hours. 

In that moment, he felt like a different form of Suzuki Shou, a bit of a softer one. He wouldn’t do this in front of Tome or Teru, in fact he probably wouldn’t end up in a situation like this with either of them. Ritsu’s already seen his softer side a few select times. If there was anywhere where it was safe to show it, it was probably here.

Maybe a different Suzuki Shou was wrong. Maybe different people just brought out different things. Tome made him more rowdy and mischievous, Teru brought out the competitiveness he had, Ritsu brought out maybe the favorite version of Shou that Shou had, and Mob-

Mob didn’t judge at all, and that felt pretty special too.

–

Ritsu appreciated a short weekend trip away, but couldn’t stop the relief that flooded him upon being home and able to continue his regular routine. He stepped into the house, announcing to his mom and hopefully Shige that they were back. His dad followed behind with the rest of their luggage.

“Do you need anything from me?” He asked, turning to his dad.

“Nope! You’re all set.” With that confirmation, he went back upstairs to his room.

It certainly wasn’t the way he left it. The bed wasn’t made, his clothing dresser had the pajama drawers open, and there were clothes on the floor. Shige wouldn’t do this, which left one other culprit he could think of. 

Shou visited often, but Ritsu didn’t find it very like him to stay over when Ritsu’s not even home. The audacity is kind of ridiculous. He pulls out his phone, not seeing any new notifications from his friend. 

As much as he’d like to be annoyed but this all, Ritsu can’t help but feel a little bit… concerned. 

Shou’s been off his game lately. It’s not something Ritsu would ever say out loud, especially not to Shou himself, but he’s been seeing it more and more. He visits at night more often, often looking disheveled and anxious. It’s not like it’s obvious to everyone, but Ritsu’s noticed the way he complains more often about schoolwork and activities, as if they have the utmost importance. Ritsu, of all people, can understand that. 

Sometimes Shou will mention his dad.

Only late at night, only small updates about how the visits will go, sometimes about growing up in Claw. 

“I mean it’s whatever. I think it’s weird to see him locked up. I mean, how long will that actually last?” He had laughed nervously a few nights ago while talking about him, entirely unprompted, in the middle of playing video games. It was stressing him out more lately- everything was stressing him out more lately. Ritsu wasn’t really sure how to help it. 

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant ‘Yes! Yes! Finally!’

Ritsu recognized that cheer of victory easily. Leaving his room, he went down the hall, knocking once on his brother’s door before opening it rudely. There, in the middle of the floor, sat Shige and Shou, apparently having dragged the gaming set up to Shige’s room for late night gaming. On the screen read ‘Victory!’, and Ritsu recognized from the background that it was a level that he and Shige had never been able to reach together. 

“Yo! Ritsu! You’re back!” Shou sat up in excitement, controller abandoned. 

“Shou? What’re you doing here? You shouldn’t keep Nii-san up, he sleeps way earlier than this.” Ritsu lectured.

“Oh, it’s okay Ritsu, I asked him to.” Shige replied, eyes slightly bloodshot from staring at the screen for multiple hours. “Plus we made it to level twenty, see?” Ritsu looked at Shige, then the screen, then back to Shou, then to Shige again.

“I… see. But you should probably go to bed if you’re going to keep getting up so early.” Ritsu was more familiar with how much his brother secretly loved sleeping in than anyone. One late night could throw his entire schedule off. Shou sprung to his feet, walking over and throwing an arm around Ritsu. 

“You don’t have to be jealous, Rits.” He teased, and Ritsu stiffened before shrugging him off. 

“I don’t care. I just don’t like you in my room when I’m not there.” 

“Okay! Let’s go hangout in your room then. Night, Mob!” Shou was practically dragging Ritsu out of Shige’s room now. Ritsu lingered just long enough to watch his brother give a smile and wave them both goodnight. 

He followed Shou down the hallway, catching up to walk right next to him. 

“Seriously, I was gone for two days.” 

“So? Don’t worry Ritsu, you’re still my favorite Kageyama-” He was cut off by Ritsu elbowing him hard in the stomach.