Chapter Text
Denial: 67%
Shigeo took a bite of nothing. After a moment he could feel milk begin to drip off the edge of the table onto his right leg, a sticky stain beginning to seep through his black slacks. He sighed and set the bent spoon down next to his cereal bowl.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, two, three, four, hold it, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Breathe in and count to 4, hold it for 7, and breathe out for 8. Breathe, two, three, four, hold it, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, breathe… He repeated the mantra in his head as he leaned his elbows on the kitchen table and rested his forehead against a fisted hand. I can’t believe I still have to go to work today.
Ritsu always knew how to put him at ease. Ritsu knows just what to say, he thought. After a moment, a tangle of anxiety settled in his stomach. Ritsu knew what to say. Not like me. Ritsu, his younger brother who was so smart and talented, and even after coming into his psychic powers, still nothing like Mob.
I wish it had been me.
Mob flinched at something that sounded like glass breaking in the next room, immediately followed by a low thud. He stood and walked into the living room of the apartment to see one of Hanazawa’s books splayed open on the floor. A book that, just moments ago, had been resting on Hanazawa’s perfectly curated and organized bookshelf on the other side of the room.
Next to the book was a framed photo of Chomp-chomp, Hanazawa’s little shih-tzu dog, the glass cover shattered. Not again… Shigeo breathed in, two, three, four, one… He stared at the wall and counted his breaths, trying to focus on his attention towards something he could control.
His eyes lingered back to the book lying open on the carpet. Shigeo was sick of counting.
He checked his watch: 7:23 AM. He walked across the room to where the book lay open and picked it up, closed it and looked at the front cover. Flora and Fauna of the Pink Rock Salt Desert, it was one of the field guides that Teru collected.
He opened the book and mindlessly thumbed through the pages, not reading any of the words. The book was full of pictures of exotic-looking cacti and strange animals, the kind that he had only ever seen in the zoo or on the internet. He stopped on a page with a picture of a large bug. Is that a scorpion?
Mob closed the book and placed it back on the bookshelf. He picked up the broken picture frame and placed it back onto the coffee table and did his best to carefully pick up the broken glass from the carpet, then walked back to the kitchen. He knew he’d have to vacuum the living room later so no one’s feet would be cut by any stray glass shards, but he didn’t have it in him to do it before his first day back at work, and besides he’d miss his train if he didn’t leave soon. He walked to the kitchen table, picked up his bent spoon, taking the handle and head in each of his hands, and bent it back into something resembling its original shape.
You don’t need psychic powers to get by. The words blew through Mob’s mind. That was something he had said to Ritsu once when they were kids, not long after Ritsu had discovered his own telekinetic abilities. He walked to the sink and set the spoon down it in the wash basin.
Ritsu used to fix spoons for me when I did this. Shigeo had been remembering many things about his brother and the things they did for each other in the week since the Kageyama family held Ritsu’s funeral.