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Tome’s not sure she’s ever had a best friend before. Sure, those guys she knew in the telepathy club were cool, and the people she knows now are fun, but… they’re not really her best friends. Even in her childhood, friendships burned out fast, like a match soaked in gasoline– nothing stuck, nothing meaningful, nothing worthy of calling ‘best friend.’ Sometimes, on bad days, she thought that maybe she’d never have one– who’d wanna be besties with someone like her anyways? She’s loud, obnoxious, weird, can’t fit in no matter what she tries… it hurts sometimes, but she does take comfort in the fact that at least she can make friends, whether the relationship is long lasting or not.
Naturally, then, it comes as a surprise when she realizes she does have a best friend: Shigeo Kageyama. It takes her longer than it should to realize this, longer than it should take a normal person, she thinks.
Three things happen that make her come to this revelation.
The first thing that happens is that she comes out to him.
It’d been a sunny day, on top of the school roof, just the two of them. She, a humble second year in high school, and he a first year, just starting– she’d teased him endlessly about being a kid still, much to his disgruntlement. Both of them harbored bad grades and a packed lunch, but life was good, up on the roof, away from it all. Tome talked with her mouth full while Mob listened and laughed and nodded along.
And then things got quiet and the reason she’d asked him to hang out with her in the first place (before she’d chickened out) resurfaced like some giant sea monster. She swallowed her last bite of lunch and worried her lip for a moment. It’d been a scary thing to look at, telling him. Like staring at an endless body of water while she stood on the diving board, her reflection staring back with worry in her eyes. She remembers it clear as day.
She’d taken a breath.
Took the plunge.
“Hey, Mob, uh…” She hugged her knees, shut her eyes tight and opened them, fixing Mob with as earnest a look as she could muster. “I’m gay.”
He stopped eating, stared at her. Blinked.
Okay. She could probably clarify a little better. She waved a hand around, fishing for words. “You know… I’m a lesbian?”
He blinked again. Oh god this was a mistake.
“Um. I… like… girls?”
Mob swallowed his bite. “I know what being a lesbian means, Tome.”
With a huff she’d crossed her arms across her chest, quickly filling with despair and betrayal and all sorts of things that made her want to cry. “Okay, well. There it is! Now you can like. Go hate me or whatever. See what I care.”
“Why would I hate you?”
She buried her head in her crossed arms, curling in on herself. “I don’t know! That’s what people do! They hate people like me, and you’re probably all grossed out now and you should just go leave and hate me somewhere else!”
“Tome, I don’t hate you.” There’d been dismay in his voice, enough to make her pause and look up at him– he’d scooched closer, unsure what to do to comfort her. She looked at him, longer than necessary, letting the bad feelings in her chest dissipate with caution.
“You… don’t?”
Mob’s hands wrung themselves dry as he looked around.
“Of course not. I could never hate you. And… I…” He stared at his hands, still suddenly. “I am too?”
Well, that made her sit up straight. “You are?”
“I think so. I don’t know. I– I don’t know.” There’d been a lot of concern in his eyes at that. This had been something he’d thought about for a long time. “Um. Hanazawa and I talked and he, um, said I might be nonbinary? It’s, um, not the same as being gay but, uh…” He smiled at her, small and encouraging, attempting to shrug the confession off. She smiled back, big and weepy.
“Thanks.” She said, wiping away some budding tears. “For telling me. And not hating me.”
He’d laughed at that. “You too.”
So, days went by– Mob started using ‘they’ and Tome failed miserably at getting a girlfriend, but that was mostly her fault for bailing last second.
The second thing that brought her closer to realization was the summer break and the discovery of the river. It was in a hard-to-reach section of the park– it’s a miracle they even found it in the first place. She and Mob (well, mostly she) had chased a dog they were supposed to be dog-sitting into the woods, off the trail, only to emerge like some Alice In Wonderland characters at the edge of a river. The water was calm and gentle and deep, surrounded by brush and greenery. The little mutt sat at the edge, looking at them as if waiting for them to catch up.
She’d determinedly got the dog back on the leash. “Ugh, finally! No treats for you, Haru!”
“Wow… this place is amazing,” Mob had said, emerging from the bushes behind her, winded but doing fine. All those exercises really seemed to help them in the end. Sometimes the idea occurred to Tome that maybe she should try getting fit sometime, but then she’d remember how much she liked to not move and quickly abandoned the concept. Maybe later, when she’s all grown up.
To her amusement, she watched Mob walk forward in awe and sit at the bank of the river without a word. She joined them, sitting down and keeping a firm hold of Haru’s leash.
It’s an uneventful visit– the first of many.
And then it’d been the hottest day of the year and Tome texted Mob and one thing lead to another: the two of them, sweat-stained t-shirts and all, flung themselves into the sweet relief of freezing river water. Neither of them kept track of the time, drifting and splashing and just laying on the pebbled bank, drying off so that they can get hot again and go back in the water. Tome shivered, arms covered in goosebumps.
“You know, we’re probably not supposed to be out here,” she said with a laugh. “There’s like, no trails or anything.” She shifted to look at Mob, their eyes closed and content in dappled sunlight. “We could like, get arrested. Go to jail. For trespassing or some shit.”
Mob opened an eye, glanced at her. “It’s okay. I could get us away fast enough, I think.”
She snorted. “Yeah, but you’d throw up if you used your powers too fast.”
Their eye closed. “I think that’d be a better alternative to jail.”
“Hm. I guess. Just don’t barf on me.” She returned to staring at the sky. They’d probably have really bad sunburns after today. Oddly enough, she got the distinct feeling that it’d be worth it.
“Thanks for inviting me, today,” they’d said, apropos of nothing, eyes still closed. “It means a lot to me, that you’d want to hang out with me out here.”
Something vulnerable, something frail, something soft and squishy and spongy echoed from their words in her chest. It’d been then that she realized, not that they were a best friend, but a reliable companion, a kindred spirit– someone who understood. Like Tome, they had a hard time keeping friends. Like her, they had difficulty fitting in… and standing out. They… aren’t special. Sure, Mob’s got telekinesis. Sure, she can’t shut up about UFOs. But, take that away? Just a couple of high schoolers. Two high schoolers who inhabit this limbo together, this not-quite-normal purgatory that seems to consist of only them– a lonely, nameless river where they can find a moment of relief.
“Nah, it’s cool.” She smiled at the sky, wondering if Mob can hear it in her voice. “Who else would I hang out with anyway? It’d be weird if I asked someone else to follow me to a river off the trail, you know.”
The river stays the same– the river changes. A day comes when they can no longer sit at the riverbank, enjoying the world as it is– can no longer skip stones on the gentle waters, can no longer nearly drown on a windy day, can no longer find sticks and splash them at the edge of the water. Perhaps it’s because they grow up a little, perhaps it’s because the forest grows too thick to walk through, perhaps it’s the shiny new ‘No Trespassing’ sign they find on the edge of the path. Tome harrumphed at it all, and said something or another about finding a new spot for them to call their own someday, stomping off angry while Mob had laughed sadly, following her.
The third event is what shines a new dawn on Tome’s life.
A frantic text reached out to her late at night– Mob’s just graduated and Tome’s started college, much to her chagrin– but, it’s not Mob whose name glowed in the dark of her room, but Ritsu’s. Ritsu? What’s that little brother of their’s want with her? Bleary-eyed and groggy at her attempt at an all-nighter, she reads the text.
Ritsu: Tome?
Ritsu: I need your help.
Ritsu: Come on, please answer.
Ritsu: This is a time-sensitive thing, okay??
Okay, this was weird enough. She’ll bite.
Tome: What’s up, lil dude?
Ritsu: Okay, so.
Ritsu: Uh.
Ritsu: Mob’s drunk.
Ah.
Well.
That she hadn’t quite foreseen.
She doesn’t remember what she’d said after that, but Ritsu more or less explains that their parents would freak if they found out, and she’s the only person he knows he can trust Mob with for a night. Which, she guessed that’s an honor few can have from Ritsu, so she’d accepted it at face value. And, she’d accepted the challenge of picking Mob up from whatever dumpy party they’d been strung along into going to this time (she vaguely remembers a name they’d mentioned, an old friend… Mina? Minori?).
Her parent’s truck pulled sloppily into the driveway of a fancy-ass house, where a grim looking Ritsu stood with a less-than-grim-looking Mob. Mob seemed… barely conscious, but more or less content with life, leaning against their brother with a tired smile on their face. How much had they had, exactly? She got the feeling asking them wouldn’t be of much use.
“So, tell me, Ritz. What exactly are you doing here?” She asked, rolling down the window with a yawn. He sneered at the nickname she’d nabbed from Shou.
“Making sure Mob doesn’t die in a ditch somewhere, unlike someone ,” he scoffed, leaving Tome to wonder who on earth he could be alluding to. Not her, right? He opened the door and helped his sibling into the seat, resorting to powers in the last leg of that particular journey. Tome considered helping, but the exhaustion that’d been hitting her over the head rejected that flatly. Ritsu ended up fixing her with a stern look. “You better make sure they’re alright, okay? This… isn’t a normal thing for them.”
She reached over and gave him a soft pat on the hand. “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, lil bro. I know a thing or two about dealing with this kinda thing.” A lie, at the time. A lie that Ritsu could certainly see through, rolling eyes and everything. “Hey. Shige’s in good hands. You want me to drive you home?”
“No, I was actually on my way to Shou’s.”
A raised eyebrow.
“Listen, there’s a lot of things our parents don’t need to know about right now. One of those things may or may not be vandalism.” He huffed. “Just make sure Mob’s hydrated and shit. I’ll come by and pick them up in the morning.”
He’d slammed the truck door shut, stomping off, and she’d only laughed– Mob laughed along too, though they hadn’t really been listening.
The car ride was nothing to write home about, unless you call Mob drunk off their ass noteworthy. Okay, maybe it was noteworthy. Besides that one time where she and Mob and Teruki had gotten plastered when she’d graduated, neither of them really drank much (but that event wasn’t really much of anything. Nothing crazy happened, and, whether they liked it or not, her parents were keeping an eye on them. She vaguely remembers bawling about how cute her old classmate was and how she’d never see her again). But, drunk Mob is a tired, giggly Mob, with telekinetic powers playing with the old window lever and the fuzzy dice. The radio kept them company while she yawned and kept an eye on the road.
She parked in her driveway and helped them out, an arm over her shoulder and feet tripping over each other on the walk up the porch and through the house and into the basement where she’d claimed her domain since she started paying her parents for staying there. Getting down the narrow stairway was a bit tricky, but they managed with the least amount of bruising and bumping. Mob quickly settled into the old couch while she grabbed a glass of water and ibuprofen.
“Have fun at your party, eh?” She asked, plopping down next to him and grabbing a blanket to throw over their shoulders.
They mumble, an incoherent mess, nursing the glass of water in their lap. Their eyes are closed and they lean on her shoulder. She grabs the glass of water before it can cause any damage, encouraging them to drink.
“Sure hope your hangover isn’t too bad. How much did you have anyway?”
They only groaned in response.
She chuckled. “Jeez, Mob! You can’t be going to crazy parties and be drinking like this all the time you know! At least, not without me, of course.”
“Mm… sorry…”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.” She smiled sympathetically. “I don’t really like those kinds of parties anyway. Didn’t think you did either.”
“I don’t… wasn’ very fun… loud.” They yawned. “Said hi to ‘Nori though…” A giggle escaped them and Tome found herself being poked on the hand. “Youuu… should meet her and ask her ouuuut and get marrieeeed…”
“Mob, I don’t even know her, I’m not gonna ask her out.”
They pouted at her but relent pretty easily, their hand playing with her hand as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. She sighed with a roll of her own eyes. They’ll drift to sleep soon enough, and she figured she can hit the hay too when that happened.
“Tome?” Their hand stilled, their fingers intertwined.
“Yeah?”
They don’t say anything for a long time, long enough for Tome to assume they’d fallen asleep. Just as she’d been about to get up and readjust Mob to a better sleeping position, they mumble something.
“Hm? Didn’t hear that, Mob.”
“Mm… thank you. For… bein’ my friend…”
And there it was. That word, the incriminating utterance– ‘friend’. It struck her through the chest, an arrow from some unseen archer. She’d suddenly realized just how long she’d known Mob, how significant they are in her life, how much they’ve stuck together over the years… how much she wanted to stick together, with them.
Shigeo Kageyama was, and is, her best friend.
It constantly occurs to her, going through this thing called life. It creeps up on her when she finally gets a cute girl to go on a date with her, and she tells Mob about it and Mob practically cries, they’re so happy for her. It sneaks up behind her when Mob texts her about a cute cat they’d seen on the way home from work. It’s there when they comfort her through a break-up, it’s there when they go on a double date, it’s there when she finds Mob worried and guilty about falling into bad emotional habits.
It’s there the day she gets married to the love of her life, and Mob is doing their best not to sob too hard behind her, acting as her ‘best friend’ in both the marriage ceremony sense and the literal sense. The intensity of their hug when the ceremony is winding down and people are congratulating the couple catches her off-guard– she hugs Mob back, memories rushing into the moment and she’s so happy she could cry.
“I’m so happy for you, Tome,” they say through watery eyes. “I almost didn’t think this day would come.”
“Hey,” she laughs with a play punch. “Look who’s talkin’, Shigeo ‘I’m too scared to propose’ Kageyama. But… thanks. Really. I’m happy too.”
They smile at her and their eyes are bright and shining.
Momentarily, they’ll drift apart. Life goes on, plans change, things happen.
But Tome knows they’ll see each other again soon, and that in the end, Mob will always be her best friend… and she’ll be theirs. Through all the hardships and troubles and smiles and laughs and marriages and parties and jobs and everything, she’ll have a kindred spirit in Mob, a wildness and calmness they share– they’ll always share.
Tome believes in a lot of stuff– UFO’s, spirits, ghosts, the like. All that to say, she’s not sure she’d ever believe in a soulmate. The concept bugs her. But… she thinks that if soulmates are real, she’s got one in Mob, in only the deepest and most platonic sense. She knows she’ll never lose that connection. She knows they’ll always be by her side in some way or another.
She holds Mob’s hand for a moment longer.
“Thank you, Mob. For being my friend.”
Their hand squeezes hers.
“Thank you, Tome, for being my best friend.”