Games make it easier.
Well games made everything easier. Games were how Mob learned how to type and write in hiranga and remember the forty seven prefectures of Japan. It wasn't just school stuff, though, games made other things easier, too. Like exercise. Running and jumping and catching and throwing were a lot easier in gym class than in body improvement club, for example, not that exercise wasn't worth it no matter what form it took. So, yes, games made everything easier.
Even this.
"What flavor is it?" asked Mob
"You tell me." Said Teru
Kissing was nice. Mob liked kissing, she liked it a lot. She had kissed two people, for real, in her life. One was Tome but they were broken up now, still friends though, but not the sorts of friends that kissed each other. Mob wasn't even sure how that one worked, she hadn't even known that it was possible to be friends who kissed each other but weren't in a relationship, but Teru assured her that they were not those sorts of friends. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. That was the second person that Mob had ever kissed. Teru.
"I can just guess by the color or the packaging." Said Mob
"Yes, you could, but this way is much more fun." Said Teru
Their first kiss, well not either of their very first kiss but the first kiss that they had shared, had been really nice. Even if mom had scolded her later on for closing her door while she had someone in there, and also Sho said that Ritsu was severally traumatized by the whole thing. She and Teru had kissed kind of loud….but Ritsu was fine now. He said so. He said so until he told her to stop asking him if he was fine. That was good, she didn't want to traumatize anyone, especially not Ritsu. Not that she knew why Ritsu would have been traumatized in the first place. She and Teru had just been kissing.
"It is…I mean it could be….if you want to…to do this with me." Said Mob
"I'm the one who bought the gum, aren't I? The real question is, Mob, do you want to do this? We can stop whenever you want." said Teru
Kissing in the usual way. Not the way that adults kissed.
And for a while that was how they kissed. Not like how adults kissed but in the usual way. Their mouths mostly closed, everyone staying in their own space, hands staying in one place. Her arms around his shoulders, his hands around her waist or holding her face. Regular kisses. The kind of kisses which were already kind of a lot, just kind of. The kind that made Mob's aura glow bright and her hair stand up. The kind that made her even start to float away a little, but Teru was always there to keep her grounded. She was always embarrassed when she lost control of her powers like that but he said that he didn't mind. He liked it, actually, he said. Which of course made no sense what so ever. She was losing control like she did on the day they met but he didn't mind. He said that it was flattering. He said that he was flattered that he could make her come undone like that just by kissing.
A phrase which sent a deep, red, blush to her entire body.
Because of the way he said it. Deep, sort of, the kind of deep that made her whole body flush and shudder. He had been close when he said it, too, he whispered it right in her ear and she did this weird full body shudder thing. Then the lights had flickered on and off. Thank goodness that only Ritsu was home. They were at her house a lot, mom said that she just felt better that way, not that Mob knew what mom was so worried about. She didn't do things like that, she never even thought about things like that. Well, she never thought of things like that in the sense that she had not been actively planning to do things like that. She thought about things like that, more and more frequently it seemed, but she made no plans to actually go through with those thoughts.
Because she was too nervous.
Because she didn't know how.
Because she didn't know if she could keep her powers under control if she ever tried to.
And she did lose control of her powers. Right after he said that he kissed her. He kissed her like adults kissed. It was just like the time Tome tried to kiss her like that. Her room shook, her stuffed animals went flying, and she went slamming into the wall. She hadn't planned any of that, it just happened. It happened because it was just too much. It was exciting and terrifying at the exact same time. She wanted him to do it again and she wished that it had never happened. She wished for both of those things at the same time. It made no sense. She made no sense.
So she said sorry.
Then Teru said sorry.
He said that he would take it as slow as she wanted to. He said that they could ever go backwards if she wanted to. Back to what Mob did not know. They kissed. What was before kissing? Not kissing? But she didn't mind the kissing. She was used to kissing. The first few times she had kissed Tome her powers went out of control, mostly in the form of messing with the lights, but she had figured out how to control that. It was a good thing she had figured out how to stop messing with the lights when Tome kissed her when she did, too, because mom and dad were getting ready to call an electrician and have the house rewired.
They didn't need to know that the lights had gone off from kissing, though. There was no reason that they needed to know about that. None at all.
She messed with the lights after her and Teru's first kiss, too. But that was on accident. It just felt so…good. Good in the usual way and good in this new way. This new terrifying but exciting way. Mostly terrifying. For the brief moment that they had been…like that…Mob hadn't had any clue what to do. That was normal. Being clueless was her default state, like the plain background that your phone had when you just bought it, but there was a difference between being clueless about things like when to talk in a conversation and what to do when your boyfriend kisses you like adults kiss.
And she couldn't go to anyone for advice about this.
She couldn't asked her mom because, well, moms didn't need to know about this sort of thing. Mom didn't want her doing anything with Teru, she said, but then she went around and said that everything was natural and stuff like that. Then she ambushed Mob with a trip to the doctor, she hadn't even been sick, and medicine that she had to take at the exact same time every single day. So mom didn't want her doing anything, not that Mob had any plans of doing THAT any time soon, but mom also said that everything was natural and one thing led to another….so it was kind of confusing and she was not going to ask mom about this.
She certainly couldn't ask Master Reigen, either. Mostly because this was way too private, so private that she could not breathe a word of it to him. This new feeling was most likely that one they warned her about in health class. Very private, very hers, and she was not telling him about how she had no idea what to do about it or even if she wanted to do anything about it and how she even had it towards him sometimes, sometimes even when they weren't together but she was all alone and thinking about him….
So she couldn't ask him. Those were the two adults she went to when she had life questions. She was not going to ask any of her friends, even she knew that asking about this would have been awkward, so she was stuck trying to figure this new feeling out on her own. Well, not totally on her own. Teru was there, too. He was the other half of their relationship, he said, and he wanted to make sure that she was comfortable. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't being too pushy. He said that he used to be pushy with girls he had been with before, which Mob did not want to hear about, but then he also said that she was different and he was trying to be better for her and that he wanted to help her work through what he called her 'intimacy issues'.
He also made sure that she understood that he was not going to make her do anything that she wanted to do.
And she had his permission to explode at him, rip off all of his clothes, shave off all of his hair, and send him flying into the inner part of outer space again. What was the word…stratosphere. She had his permission to send him flying into the stratosphere naked and bald if he ever got pushy. Not that she would ever do that again. Not that she could even control what happened when she exploded. Not that she wanted to explode. Which was the root of the problem. She got too nervous, her powers went out of control, and she ran the risk of exploding.
So he suggested that they make a game out of it.
Mob wasn't sure what he meant by that. She liked games. School life simulators, Mario Kart, anything having to do with EVA….but he hadn't meant like that. Then he went over a million and one games that Mob had never heard of…and they all had to do with…stuff. Kissing stuff, touching stuff, not wearing clothes stuff….a lot of stuff.
They decided to go with the kissing sort of stuff.
Which was what brought them to the gum game.
The rules were simple, not that there were any rules. The way the game was played was simple. One person bought a pack of gum, chose a stick, and then two people shared said piece of gum. Not by breaking it in half, which had been Mob's initial line of thinking, but instead by passing it back and forth. Which was fun and not germy, Teru had said. He said that it was really fun. Then he did that thing where he looked away from her and rubbed the back of his head. He told her, a lot of times, that he hadn't played it that often and that she didn't have to do this if she didn't want to.
But she wanted to.
So they decided to play the gum game.
"I want to…just…promise that you won't make fun of me? Or be mad if I explode?" asked Mob as she played with the end of her braid. She eyed the pack of gum in Teru's hand. She could tell which flavor it was by the color. It was pink so it was plain gum flavored, most likely. She'd know what it was for certain if she could get a better look at the pack. But she can't. It's in Teru's hand and he's getting a stick of it out.
"Of course I'm not going to make fun of you. That would be counterproductive. I'm…I'm not that sort of person anymore…and if I ever did make fun of you for any reason then I give you permission to explode at me." Said Teru as he peeled back the foil. He tossed the foil on the ground, which was littering, but he didn't seem to care.
"…I don't want to explode. That's the whole point of this, so I don't explode. If I didn't have to worry about exploding then we could just kiss like normal people do." Said Mob
"Normal is overrated. Why be normal when you can be extraordinary?" said Teru taking her hand in his. She felt it building, the nervous sort of feeling. She let go of her braid. It began to float around her, so did the other one, kind of like she was at the pool or in the tub or otherwise submerged in a body of water.
"I don't know. Being normal is easy, I guess." Said Mob. Not that she ever wished…anymore…that she was normal. Her powers were a part of herself and she had to learn to accept them. That was what Master Reigen taught her…not that she wanted to be thinking about Master Reigen now…but now she was…but that was mean to Teru. Why was she thinking about him, kissing him, when she had her boyfriend right there? He was real, this was real, and she had no reason to be thinking about Master Reigen…
She thought about him a lot.
"Well easier isn't always better. I'd rather have you as you are, right now, then any other way." said Teru. That was from a movie. She didn't care. It sounded so good coming from him. He was close, now, so close. He was so close that she could count his eyelashes if she wanted to. One…two…three…
"Tell me if I do something that you don't like…or something that you do." Said Teru and, yes, she just lost count. She loved it when he said that. He said that whenever he was going to kiss her, really kiss her. There were hello kisses that they shared whenever they were together in person, goodnight kisses that they shared at the end of dates, and just because kisses that were quick and stolen while the sat in her living room watching a movie or out in the world where kissing wasn't socially appropriate.
He always said that when they were alone.
The times when they were in her room sitting together on her futon. Both of them keeping an eye on the open door and an ear out for approaching footsteps. The rare times, too, when they were at his apartment alone together. Mom always made her bring Ritsu when she went to visit Teru at his apartment and Ritsu always brought Sho. Sometimes Sho would get tired of the 'cold war' as he called it and he and Ritsu would go somewhere together. Not that Mob wanted to think of what the two of them would do together. Ritsu was way too young to do kissing things. Even if Sho was the love of his life. Not that Mob thought too much about her little brother and his boyfriend when she and Teru did kissing things….that would have been weird. As appealing as the idea of two boys being in love was, Tome was a wealth of great manga suggestions, it was different when it was her little brother. Even if she did, still, maybe like Sho a little…
Don't think about Sho.
Don't think about Sho or his freckles or how funny he is or how warm he is or how he gives really nice hugs...because that's wrong. That's very wrong. That's the most wrong thing in the whole, entire, world. Worse than the last EVA Rebuild movie. Worse than the weird fat free milk they sold at some places. Worse than, even, that weird toothpaste flavored soda that Master Reigen drank sometimes. Gross. Thoughts like that are even grosser than root beer. You have a boyfriend and it's not your brother's boyfriend.
Ick. Weird intrusive thoughts about boys she knew. Those had been getting worse, too, much worse. There were ones that made sense, like the one where Master Reigen rubbed her back…or the one where she and Teru were trapped at the end of instrumentality together because he had rejected instrumentality and she had rejected it too to be with him…that was something that made sense. What didn't make sense is the one about her and Sho and they ran a hamster sanctuary together, it also had cats, and they held hands all the time…that one did not make sense. Then there were the crazy sorts of dreams and thoughts that made her Google signs of insanity….like the one about her and Serizawa sharing an umbrella….
She hadn't been able to go into work for a couple days after that one.
The thoughts about girls were just as bad. She had this one weird dream where she and Tsubomi were the only two people in class, everyone else had gotten sick, and then the angel attack alarm sounded but they didn't have time to get to a shelter, Mob wasn't an EVA pilot in this one, so they were trapped but Mob kept Tsubomi safe and then Tsubomi had been so grateful that she kissed Mob, like adults kissed, and then they were girlfriends…
Mom hadn't let her miss any school because of that. She said that until Mob told her what was wrong she was not staying home. Mob, of course, did not want to share the particulars of this dream with her mother so she just said that she had a weird dream and mom said that dreams were no excuse to miss school. She said 'honestly, Shigeko' which meant that she was cross.
"Hey? Mob, what's up? If you don't want to do this-" said Teru
"No, I do, I was just thinking….weird thoughts. I still want to just…if I explode I'm sorry." Said Mob not wanting to get into what she had been thinking about. That would not go over well…and also he would not reject instrumentality….right? She wouldn't unless he did…and why was she still thinking about EVA?
Probably because that was what they were supposed to be doing right now. Watching EVA.
Instead they were out in the woods.
"Shigeko, you won't explode. If you think that you are then we can stop and if you do, well, I've lived through it twice now and it's not like there's anything out here that you can hurt. You're cholorkinetic, right? I mean, you did grow that big tree…thing…downtown after all. There's nothing alive out here but us and the plants…and some animals, but maybe but they'll run away." Said Teru. Mob nodded.
"OK…but still…I mean I want to but I don't want to…to…I don't know what to do when we…" said Mob playing with the hem of her dress. Teru laced his fingers in hers.
"Just pass the gum back and forth, that's all." Said Teru. Then he popped the stick of gum into her mouth. It was good that he went first, and not just because the first couple of chews were the hardest. It was better because then she could follow his lead. She didn't know what to do, not really, well she knew what to do in the theoretical sense, like how she knew what to do for a snakebite or if she got stuck in quicksand, but she had never tried this in life…successfully…like how she had never actually sucked out the poison from a snakebite or climbed out of quicksand. But she could just use her powers if she ever got stuck in quicksand. But where was there even quicksand in Japan? She'd have to go to the jungle to ever…not that she had any plans of-
Oh.
It was actually strawberry flavored.
Not plain bubblegum flavored like she had thought.
And also Teru's tongue was in her mouth.
That was a thing that was happening right now.
Well then.
One hand was in hers, the other was at the back of her head. She knew that her hair was doing the floaty thing still. She knew that he was the only thing keeping her from floating away. His aura was around hers. Gold colored. Cold colored on top of pink and blue. She leaned into him. He passed her the gum but he was still…it was like he was taking stock, making sure that she had all of her teeth or something. It was like going to the dentist but…more fun. Not that she enjoyed going to the dentist. This was nice, though.
And a lot.
Because as nice as it was it was still a lot.
The feel of him…and he had pulled her closer now. She was still trying to float away but he had her stuck to him. He was sort of half laying down and she was half laying down on top of him. His hand had left hers and was now pressed against her back. It was warm. And nice. And a lot. The grass beneath them began to grow higher. The grass around them, too. Mob's eyes were closed but she could still see the light from behind her eyelids. Well she did, something was blocking a lot of the sun. She could feel the plants around her with her powers. She had made new branches grow from the trees around them.
Going outside had been a very good idea.
Because she wasn't breaking anything or anyone. This was better than being inside of her house or his apartment. There were so many breakables around…and people. They were all alone out here. They had flown here, not walked, so there wasn't even a path for people to take. They were well and truly alone…
The thought is exciting and terrifying.
They could do whatever they wanted. Nobody was around. No doors or walls or siblings or parents. Just them. Just the two of them all alone out there…him and her…her toes curled in her shoes. Then the ground shook. He either didn't notice or didn't care.
She passed the gum back.
She lingered there, like he did. Now it was her turn to be the dentist. That should be the name of this game, dentist. Kind of like doctor…not that Mob wanted to play that any time soon…even if they were alone…but that would have been way too much. Too much too soon. Even this was kind of a lot…
He tasted like strawberries.
And it wasn't gross.
That was something else that Mob had been worried about. Spit was gross and germy. Kissing was nice, though, even though it involved a lot of spit. Maybe this was why they called it swapping spit. Well this was nice, not the least bit gross. Nice, actually…way nicer than she had thought it would be…he pulled her closer. She hadn't even known that such a thing was possible. She was more on top pf him, now. Her skin was warm where it touched his. Her dress was kind of up, now. She could feel his pants against her thighs. She didn't dare risk using her powers to fix it. That could have been…she was in a very tentative place with them right now. She was just barely holding on. The ground was shaking and the plants around her were growing but she had no lost total control. Not yet.
Then he shifted under her.
Both of his hands were in her hair, now. He was playing with it. He as laying down even though she knew that the ground was lumpy and uneven. One of his legs was in between hers…she wondered if he did that on purpose….and that was already becoming a little too much…and the shifted under her again….and they broke apart for air…not that they hadn't been before but not for his long…and one of them had swallowed the gum at some point…and he was kissing her again even though the gum had been long swallowed….then they broke apart…
"You're extraordinary, you know that?" said Teru. He was red, very red. A deep sort of red that reminded Mob of her early days in the Body Improvement Club when she would push herself too far and then pass out. He didn't look like he was going to pass out, though. He looked very happy. His eyes were wide and the black part was really big, so big that she could barely see the colored back. His hair was floating too, well the spiking part was moving in the invisible breeze of his powers, and he was smiling a lot, too. He didn't even care that a layer of their spit was on him.
She didn't care about that, either.
But she did care that they had stopped. She wanted that to last forever. That was…good. Scary. Exhilarating. Wet. Strawberry flavored. He was just looking at her, now. He was staring and she was staring right back. It had been good…right? She thought that it had been good….but she had no idea what counted as good. Was it like art where good was in the eye of the beholder…or the mouth of the kisser? Or was it like anime where you either had good taste or bad taste, according to Tome. Not that Mob wanted to think about Tome. Or taste. Or how Tome wanted to do this with her back when they were dating and what if they had done this when they were dating? Would they have still broken up? Would she have even gotten to become Teru's girlfriend? Would that kiss have been better, then, for him?
He said that she was extraordinary.
That could have been a good thing or a bad thing.
And he hadn't said anything else.
Oh. It was her turn to talk.
"That was good. I thought that it was good…but I've never done anything like this before. Well my girlfriend wanted to but she's not my girlfriend anymore but we didn't do this so I don't know if that was any good for you and-" said Mob
Then Teru leaned up and kissed her again.
It was different without gum. Gum was an excuse, that was the point of the game, but without gum it was just kissing. It was just kissing and…and it was nice…but…a lot…but nice…and she wasn't floating this time. She was firmly on the ground. He was holding her around the waist, now, and she was on the ground and he was kissing her and-
He sounded like he was hurt.
She tried to pull away but he just rose up to meet her. They broke apart a little for air, just a little, and then he kissed her again. Not as sloppy this time, just…slower. Less frantic. He was sitting up, more, now. He had one hand on the back of her head and the other on her arm. He sounded like he was hurt but…but if he was hurt then he would have stopped. But he didn't seem like he was planning on stopping at any point. No. He was still kissing her.
Both of his hands were in her hair, now. Hers had just been sort of there on either side of him. She had been trying to keep herself stable, she didn't trust her powers for that, but she wondered if she was supposed to touch him. Not like that just…like he was doing. Was that what she was supposed to do? She didn't know. She had seen people kiss on TV and in manga but it was never this…long. Or wet. Or loud. She had seen people kissing in real life, too, not that she had been trying to. People just sort of forgot that she was there.
Not that she made it a habit to watch people kissing.
Because that would have been an invasion of privacy. She was not a nosy person.
But maybe she should have because then she would have had some vague idea of what she was supposed to do with her hands. Usually she just put then around his shoulders, it felt natural like that. But then she couldn't brace herself…maybe if she put more weight on her legs.
She shifted downwards.
He stopped kissing her.
He scooted back quickly and she toppled over.
"Oh shit! Sorry!" he said. He used his powers to pull her up.
"I'm ok, Teru." Said Mob as she brushed the leaves out of her hair with her hand. Where had all of these leaves come from? There weren't that many on the ground before….she looked up.
Wow. Those were some tall trees.
"I'm sorry that was just….I'm sorry." Said Teru. Mob looked at him. He was sitting weird, he had his knees drawn up to his chest. She sat like that sometimes too, when something was wrong, though. Wait…oh no…had she…had she messed up?
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I messed up or I-" said Mob
"No! I mean, no, you were good. Really good. Too good. That's the um…yeah. Hey, let's get going. It's getting late and…um….you wouldn't want your brother to come looking for you. Besides, we…we never finished the movie. The blue haired girl is still the villain, right?" said Teru as he still sat like that. Mob didn't know why, it didn't look comfortable at all. At least she hadn't messed up. That was the good thing. At least he had known what he was doing…which was a good thing…even though he had kissed another girl like that….
Jealousy was a bad feeling.
So Mob instead chose to focus on what else he said. Rei was not the villain in the least bit and he needed to know or the entire movie, no, the series would make no sense.
So that was what they talked about on the flight back to his apartment. Ritsu and Sho were waiting there for them. They had left to get snacks, they did that sometimes, but they didn't always come back. That was why they left. Well that was why Sho made them leave. Now they were back and Teru's couch had been turned into a fort and Ritsu's aura was super visible.
At least he didn't say anything mean to Teru. Or ask Mob where they had been. Or what they had been up to. Or why she was so red. Or why she couldn't meet anyone's eyes. Or why her hair was so messy.
Nobody said anything about anything. Ritsu just made his Ritsu face at Teru and Teru looked kind of nervous. Sho was laughing about something, Mob didn't know what, but that was normal for Sho. Who knew what was happening in his head at any given moment. Sometimes it was like he was laughing at a joke only he understood. He didn't say what was so funny, though, so Mob figured that was the case.
Mob didn't laugh, though, even though she felt like laughing. She didn't know why. It was like a combination of happy laugher and nervous laughter. She didn't laugh, though, because she wasn't Sho and she didn't just laugh at nothing. Laughing would earn her some questions that she did not want to answer, especially not if they were asked by her little brother. No. This was hers and hers alone. And Teru's.
And it had been really nice.
It was a fun game.