#because reigen is not mobs dad hes not even equipped to be mobs dad but people see that hes trying to help and they just latch onto that

[serenlyss]

Abuse of Authority

Rating: T for some language and descriptions of violence (though there’s no actual fighting) Pairings: None this time, but I guess you can spot some Ritshou or Terumob if you really squint. Just Reigen being a dad for the most part. Summary: It's been a long day. Shou's father exploded. Mob grew a giant broccoli in the middle of the city. Teru lost his apartment. Ritsu helped burn down his own house. Reigen can't just leave them behind, so he offers them all to stay in his apartment. Is there enough space? Not really. Was he equipped to suddenly take care of four teenagers? Not in the slightest. But he'll be damned if he doesn't try. Crossposted to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18445943

My first fic on tumblr! I’ve been wanting to write for MP100 for a few weeks now and finally got around to it. I guess you can call it a canon divergent post-world domination arc fic about all the kids having a sleepover at Reigen’s. Hope you like it!

“It’s not a lot of space, but it should work for a night,” Reigen sighed, reaching into the pocket of his slacks to fish out a ring of keys. The sound of metal on metal as the keys bounced off each other was loud compared to the quiet of the night; the sun had long gone down, and now that Claw had disbanded and the attempt at world domination had been thwarted, the whole city had gone ghostly silent. Not a helicopter or police car dared get too close to the giant broccoli in the center of the city, too afraid of another potential disaster.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, right guys?” replied Shou, a grin on his face despite the harsh circumstances of the night’s battle. He stuck close to Ritsu’s side, making up for his obvious displeasure at being forced to stay in Reigen’s small apartment with a surprising enthusiasm. “It’s like a sleepover! It’ll be fun!”

Reigen flipped the lights on in the apartment, hanging his coat and keys next to the door like he always did. “Wait out here, I’ll find some food,” he said, though he doubted he had much to eat, especially with - how many kids were there, like three? Four? No, Teru had gone home. Too many to feed when he’d only ever shopped for himself, anyway. Still, anything was better than nothing. He disappeared around the corner into a separate kitchen, the sounds of cabinets opening and closing sounding from behind the wall.

Ritsu sighed, adjusting his grip on Mob’s legs as he carried his older brother into the dim apartment. He’d fallen asleep again after saying goodbye to Teru, his arms limp over Ritsu’s shoulder and his breathing soft and even. He leveled a glare at Shou. “Don’t make me remind you that it was your idea to burn down our house,” he retorted, clearly cross, though there was little real bite behind his accusatory words.

Shou just laughed in reply. “Come on, Ritsu, it worked, right?” He clasped his hands behind his head, stepping into the apartment behind Reigen and looking around curiously.

On Ritsu’s back, Mob stirred, woken by the sound of his friends’ voices. He hummed, arms moving up to grasp Ritsu’s shoulders gently and he looked around with bleary eyes. “Hmm? Did we make it?” he asked, breaking off into a yawn as he did.

Shou flashed him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, did we wake you up?” he asked. “You should sleep more, you really used a lot of power before.”

Mob shook his head, reaching up to rub his eyes with one hand as Ritsu set him back down on the ground. “No, it’s alright. I slept all the way back here,” he replied, though he was obviously still quite groggy. He looked around, as the others had, taking in Reigen’s small apartment. A tidy living area took up the front room, with a couch and coat rack up against the back wall and a coffee table in the center of the room. A modest television sat on a square-shaped table on the opposite wall, though it was powered off for now. “I’ve never been to Master’s apartment before,” he said thoughtfully, the title rolling off his tongue naturally after all these years of being Reigen’s student.

Ritsu fought back the scowl that came to his face at this, never having approved of Mob’s apprenticeship under who he considered a fairly obvious fraud. “It’s cleaner in here than I thought it would be. Reigen always seems so disorganized, I thought there would be stuff all over the place.”

“Hey! I’m very organized, thank you very much! I wouldn’t be able to run such a profitable business if I didn’t even have that going for me.” Reigen appeared from the kitchen again, holding a bag of potato chips in one hand and a tupperware container of brown rice in the other. A stack of mismatched bowls was balanced on top, one for each of them. He set them on the coffee table, then pointed a finger at Ritsu. “You should be more grateful to me for offering up my home to you. I could have just left you in the smoldering remains of your house, you know.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Mob replied with an easy smile, reaching for one of the empty bowls and cupping it in both hands. “You’re too nice for that.”

Reigen opened his mouth, presumably to retort, then closed it again, feeling himself at a loss for words. “When did you get so ballsy?” he said quietly, voice taut, but he had to fight to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.

Shou barked out a laugh, loud and rich, snapping up a bowl himself and eagerly reaching for the rice with a fork. “Aw, c’mon, Ritsu, drop the glum face for a bit. He was kind enough to let us sleep over, after all,” he pointed out.

Ritsu reached for a potato chip, examined it for a moment, then popped it into his mouth. “Whatever,” he mumbled. “Speaking of which, where are we even going to sleep?” He glanced up at Reigen; there wasn’t exactly a lot of extra space in here, and he doubted there was any kind of guest room in an apartment like this.

Reigen shrugged. “The couch folds out into a futon that could probably fit two of you, but whoever’s left over will have to make due with sleeping on the floor. I have some extra sheets and blankets for my bed you can borrow, make it a little softer, and I bet I could find a pillow or two if I look hard enough,” he explained. “I don’t usually have guests over, though. Honestly you’re lucky I even have the futon, I only bought it because it was cheap and small.”

“I’ll take the floor,” Shou offered immediately, glancing toward Mob and Ritsu before they could say anything. “You two share the futon.”

“Are you sure?” Ritsu asked, surprised by how fast he’d offered. “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”

Shou shook his head. “I can sleep anywhere, dude. You don’t have to worry about that,” he assured with a grin.

Mob offered the boy a small, kind smile. “Thank you, Shou, that’s very kind of you,” he said earnestly.

Reigen chuckled as the three conversed, but he was interrupted by a call on his cell phone. He pulled it out, frowning when he didn’t recognize the number.

Mob glanced at him, tilting his head in curiosity. “Who’s calling?” he asked. “It’s pretty late at night, isn’t it?”

“Probably a telemarketer calling to ask for a donation or something,” Reigen replied, standing up. “I’ll see who it is, you three keep eating.” The poor kids were probably starving after such a long day of fighting against adults. The thought made him scowl. Why should kids their age have to fight against adults abusing their powers? They may be espers, but they were still children who had other things to worry about. He closed the bedroom door behind him as he lifted the phone to his ear, picking up the call. “Hello?”

“Oh, Reigen! I’m glad you picked up, I was worried you might be asleep.”

Reigen blinked in surprise at the voice that came from his phone’s speaker. “... Teruki, is that you?” he asked, his brain taking a bit to catch up to his ear in his tired state. “Er, do you need something?”

A soft, somewhat nervous laugh came across the line. “Sorry to bother you like this. I got your phone number from Kageyama, so we could keep in touch, and I guess it came in handy. Um…” he trailed off, line going silent, and for a moment Reigen was afraid the connection may have cut out.

“Are you still there?” he asked, though he could pick up static noise on the other side of the line. “Look, kid, just tell me what you need, alright? We’re fine, if you’re wondering that. The other three are eating in the main room, do you want to talk to them?”

“Ah, sorry, that’s not why I called,” Teru replied quickly. “I, uh, got back to my apartment, but… it’s in worse shape than I remember. And by that, I mean most of my wall is gone and my furniture is kinda… destroyed.” He cleared his throat, sounding embarrassed. “I know I said I’d be fine on my own, but-”

“Your wall is gone?!” Reigen interrupted, his thoughts finally catching up with him enough to sputter something out. “What do you mean it’s gone? What happened? You know what, that doesn’t matter right now. Are you safe? Jesus, you shouldn’t sleep in an apartment with a hole in a wall, you might get sick.” He continued to ramble for a moment, listing all the irresponsible things that could happen to a kid living in an apartment with no wall and no furniture, but paused when he heard Teruki’s stifled laughter on the other end of the line.

Teru attempted to disguise the laughter with a cough, clearing his throat. “Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he said in an almost teasing way. “And yeah, I’m safe, it’s just my apartment that was damaged. But, uh, I don’t really have any other place to go right now, so… is the offer to crash at your place still open?”

Reigen blinked, mind running a mile a minute as he tried to determine if there was enough space. Even if there wasn’t, though, could he really say no? “What about your parents?”

The line went quiet again for a moment before Teru answered, in a softer voice, “They’re overseas. I live by myself, so you don’t have to worry about that. They send me money, too, but I’m too young to book a hotel room, so, uh, my options are limited. Do you have space?”

Well, now he definitely couldn’t say no. But still, a kid who couldn’t be older than fourteen, living by himself with no parental guardians to even check in on him in person? Not only was it probably illegal for Teru’s parents to leave him alone like that, but there was no way a kid like him could care for himself completely. There was a reason kids weren’t considered adults until they were eighteen, even if he could cook and clean for himself just fine. “Yeah, yeah, I have space. Do you live far? I can come by in a taxi and pick you up if you need it. Do you have any extra clothes of blankets or anything that didn’t get messed up?” His worry for Teru was rising by the moment as he started to imagine what the life of a fourteen year old boy with no parents and all the responsibilities of an adult must be like. Was he eating right? Was he keeping his place clean? What happened when things broke, and he didn’t have the authority to call a plumber, or a mechanic?

“Uuhh, I’ll look. I think I have some clothes that weren’t burned, but my bed got toasted. And it’s okay, I can walk. Just send me the address,” Teru replied, and in the background Reigen heard the sound of drawers opening and closing. “Aha! My clothes seem like they’re mostly intact, at least the ones not in the closet. I have some sweatpants, pajamas, tee-shirts… want me to bring extras? I’m not sure if Kageyama and his brother were able to salvage anything from their house before… you know.”

That was actually… a really good idea, Reigen realized. They’d stopped by the school to pick up Mob’s gym clothes, but none of the Body Improvement club members had anything else that would fit the smaller, slighter middle schoolers, and he sure as hell didn’t either. “Yeah, if you can spare them, that would actually be really great. You sure you don’t need a taxi, though? It’s late at night, there might be some creeps hanging around.”

Teru laughed again, the sound echoing from Reigen’s speakers. “I think I’ve been in enough fights that a few creeps won’t be any threat,” he assured, though it didn’t do anything to make Reigen feel better, because now he was thinking about how Teru had probably been targeted by Claw just like Mob and Ritsu had, and it was making his stomach feel sour.

Still, he didn’t doubt Teru could hold his own. “Alright, if you say so. I’ll leave the door unlocked, so just let yourself in,” he said. “I’ll text you the address. Just… be safe, alright?” His voice softened some, hoping his warning would get across to the younger boy.

“Will do, boss, don’t worry about me. I’ll be there soon.” He paused for a moment before adding, “Thanks for taking me in.”

Reigen smiled softly, running a hand through his hair. These kids were going to be the death of him someday, he could feel it. “Don’t mention it, kid. See you soon.”

“See you.”

A click signaled the end of the call, and Reigen tucked his phone back into his pocket. He stood up and stretched his back with a soft sigh. He’d have to buy more food, and make sure he had plenty of blankets… well, the shopping could at least wait until tomorrow morning. For now he’d better tell the other boys about his phone call. He pushed open the bedroom door and abruptly halted when he sat that the couch had been completely opened up to reveal the collapsible futon inside.

“Oh, Master! We were just getting the bed set up,” Mob said, looking up at him with a smile. “Who was on the phone?”

Reigen made his way carefully around the futon, which now took up a good chunk of space. The coffee table had been moved closer to the kitchen and now pressed up against the wall with the couch’s cushions laying atop it, the leftover rice and opened bag of potato chips taking up one side. “Ah, it was Teru,” he replied. “Turns out his apartment got pretty badly, er, damaged.”

Mob’s smile faltered at this, replaced by a fairly obvious worry. “Is he alright?”

“He’s fine, he’s actually on his way here,” Reigen answered. “He’s going to bring some of his extra clothes, too, and more blankets if he can find any. You’re in luck.”

Shou let out a breath from where he’d been sitting on the bed’s edge, flopping back fully onto the futon underneath. “Thank god, these clothes smell like dog shit,” he said, tugging on the collar of his jacket.

“Shou,” Ritsu scolded with a glare, earning a laugh from his red-haired friend.

“Sorry, sorry, my clothes smell like crap,” he corrected, cheshire grin spreading across his face as he tilted his head backward to stare upside-down at Ritsu. “For real, though, these pants are ruined.” He gestured to his torn jeans, which had ripped in several places from his earlier scuffles and the explosion that came from Mob’s collision with his father.

Ritsu sighed, perching himself on the bed’s other side. “Mine too,” he grumbled, poking his finger through a tear in the bottom of his shirt. “Anyway, d’you think Teru will bring us some real people clothes or more of what he usually wears?”

Shou shrugged, stretching his arms up behind his head. “I dunno, I don’t really care as long as they fit and don’t have holes in them,” he answered.

“Teru always looks very colorful,” Mob chimed in, placing one of Reigen’s spare pillows on one side of the bed. “I like the way he dresses.”

Ritsu couldn’t help but laugh softly at this. “Of course you would.”

Reigen had fallen quiet as the kids talked idly amongst themselves, scrolling through his notifications and reading any important messages. He’d received a text from Teru not long after they’d gotten off the phone saying he was on his way, so now it was just a waiting game. He raised a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn, eyelids heavy from the long day. “Don’t you kids think you should get some sleep?” he suggested. “It’s been a long day.”

“Aw, c’mon, dad, it’s a slumber party now, right? Everyone knows you have to stay up all night,” Shou replied with a snarky grin, sitting back up on the bed. “You, on the other hand, are free to go to bed whenever you want to.”

“Twenty-nine is not old!” Reigen snapped. “Besides, I can’t sleep until Teruki gets here and I know everyone has a place to sleep. It would be irresponsible of me not to make sure of at least that.”

“I didn’t call you old, I said you’re a dad. Or at least you act like one,” Shou pointed out, though his own experience with parental figures was… pretty bad, if he was to admit it. Still, the way Reigen shepherded the group and made sure they were taken care of is what he imagined a good father was like. Well, not everything about Reigen screamed good father material, but some things. Certain things. “Never mind that. We can keep an eye out for Teru, no worries.”

---

Despite Shou’s enthusiasm about staying up late, he was the first of the three to pass out, sprawled out on the floor next to the futon on top of a soft blanket Reigen had given to him to use. The house got much quieter after that as Mob and Ritsu moved to put proper sheets and blankets on the futon and eventually followed their friends lead, the two of them squished together comfortably on the small bed.

Reigen didn’t sleep yeet, as much as he really wanted to, afraid that he’d miss Teru’s arrival or somehow mess things up in another, unrelated way. He found himself dozing occasionally as he sat in one of his kitchen chairs, roused only by the door quietly cracking open a little while after Ritsu finally fell asleep. Teru slipped inside, hefting a stuffed-looking bag over his shoulder as he did.

Reigen stood up immediately, holding a finger to his lips as Teru flashed him a confused look. He nodded to the three other kids asleep on the floor and futon. “You took longer than I thought, I was getting close to calling you to make sure you hadn’t been kidnapped or something.”

Teru smiled at the sight of his friends, though he looked slightly disappointed that they were already asleep. “Sorry, it was, uh, a longer walk than I anticipated,” he murmured in reply. “I brought clothes, though, at least what I could salvage, and I managed to snag a blanket that wasn’t buried in debris, so that’s cool too.”

Reigen gave a nod a this, seemingly pleased, and waved for Teru to follow him into his bedroom. He left the door open, moving toward the closet at the side of the room. “C’mon in, I have some extra blankets and pillows you can use, but you’ll have to sleep in the floor with Shou. Mob and his brother claimed the futon couch,” he explained, reaching up to take down another stack of blankets from the top shelf of his closet. “Thanks for bringing the clothes, by the way. I think the others will appreciate having something not torn to shreds to wear in the morning.”

Teru glanced around the room before taking a seat on the edge Reigen’s bed, nestling his backpack between his legs. “No problem. I figured it would help pay you back a little for letting me stay over, at least ‘til I can figure out what to do about my apartment.”

Reigen set the pile of sheets on the bed for now, glancing at Teru with a slight frown. “You don’t have to pay me back. You’re a kid who needs a place to stay, I’m an adult who has some empty floor space and a couch. Besides, you’re all Mob’s friends, and, well, I owe him.” He glanced down at this, focusing on the pile of blankets and hoping Teru wouldn’t pry any further. The last thing he needed was to spill all his secrets regarding his falsified relationship with Mob to a fourteen-year-old with bad fashion taste.

Luckily for him, Teru didn’t ask about the alleged favors. “Still, I feel bad about barging in at the last second. I’ve always just kinda taken care of myself, the last few years,” he admitted, fiddling with his backpack strap. “It feels weird to ask a favor from another adult again, I guess.

Reigen sighed softly, then moved to sit in the bed next to Teru. “I mean, I did offer you to stay here before you mentioned having a place of your own,” he pointed out. “Besides, it can’t be healthy to be by yourself after… everything that happened, with Claw and the kidnappings and the whole world domination stuff. You guys may be psychics, but you’re still just kids.”

Teru chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders. “Those guys had been coming after me long before they got to Ritsu. I was used to it,” he said in such a casual manner that it threw Reigen for a loop all over again. Just because he could defend himself didn’t mean he had to, he was barely a teenager.

“You shouldn’t have had to get used to it in the first place,” Reigen retorted, a hint of bitterness in his voice. “I know you kids are powerful, I’ve seen all of you fight firsthand, but that doesn’t mean you should get used to a life like that. You all deserve way better.” He clasped his hands together, fingers gripping tightly. “It’s not fair that you kids had to do all the fighting for the rest of us because none of the adults were strong enough or brave enough to do it themselves. I wasn’t… able to do anything, in the end.”

Teru hummed, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t think that’s true,” he said softly. “You did punch Shimazaki in the face, after all.” He flashed Reigen a grin. “Plus, you’re giving all us kids a place to sleep. Without you, we might all be sleeping on park benches tonight.”

He paused, smile fading some and turning bittersweet. “I guess you’re right, it does suck that we had to do all of that, but that’s kind of just how I’ve been living, these last few years. Dodging Claw when they came after me, controlling my classmates with fear and violence, doing everything I could to survive. I was… a pretty shitty person, before Kageyama brought me down a few pegs. I probably still wound be, if he hadn’t.”

“All kids are shitty. Being a good person is something us adults are supposed to teach you. Sounds like you didn’t have a lot of that, growing up.” Reigen ran a hand through his hair, pushing his bangs away from his forehead with a sigh. “Look, I know I only got wrapped up with you kids basically by accident, but… you can call me if you ever need anything, alright?”

He glanced sideways at Teru, caught off-guard when he saw that Teru was staring back at him with wide eyes. Feeling suddenly embarrassed, he raised a hand to his mouth and added, quickly, “As long as it’s not during my work hours, of course! I can’t do anything if I’m with a client, or out on a job, but, y’know, you can leave a message or something.”

Teru laughed aloud, raising a hand to his face, and as Reigen chanced another glance his way he saw him wipe a tear away from the corner of his eye. “Thanks, Reigen. I’ll take you up on that, if it ever comes up,” he replied earnestly, and as he lowered his hand again it revealed a shaky but very pleased smile.

Reigen found himself momentarily speechless as he stared down at Teru. Was it really so pleasing to him just to be offered some help in case of emergency? The suggestion had just felt natural at the time, but it was clear that Teru had really taken it to heart. He glanced away, feeling his face heat up in telltale embarrassment, and stood up again. “Well, in any case, it’s late and you should probably get some rest,” he announced, glancing down at the watch on his wrist. The hour hand taunted him, sitting a little past four in the morning. Good god, it really was late. He picked up the bundle of blankets and an extra pillow he’d taken from his bed to lend to Teru, pushing them into the boy’s hands. “Here, go find a spot to set these up. I’ll take the clothes you brought with you and throw them in the wash for now, that way they’ll be ready for everyone in the morning.”

Teru nodded, taking the blankets and passing Reigen his backpack. “They’re in the big pocket,” he explained, heading for the door. He paused as he reached it, glancing over his shoulder. “Thanks again, Reigen. It really means a lot to me.” With that said, he cracked open the door and slipped outside, closing it quietly behind him.

Reigen set the backpack on the bed, catching some muffled talking on the other side of the door, what sounded like Teru telling a drowsy Mob to go back to bed. He opened the large pocket of the backpack like Teru had told him and began pulling clothes out from inside. Although the clothes themselves seemed to have been untouched by whatever destroyed Teru’s apartment, they were still dusty, and some of them carried a faint, unpleasant smoke smell. Guess I was right about needing to put these in the wash, he thought to himself, setting them aside for now. Hopefully the smell wouldn’t stick, or they’d have to be thrown out entirely.

He moved to his dresser and cracked open a drawer in search of clean pajamas, knowing his suit was thoroughly destroyed and definitely stunk from how much he’d been tossed around today. He quickly changed into a more comfortable, and more importantly clean, tee shirt and pair of sweatpants, tossing his ruined suit aside. He’d have to throw it out and buy a new one, but that wasn’t where his thoughts were leading him. He frowned deeply, going back over his conversation with Teru over the phone. He lived by himself, in an apartment. He had to cook and clean for himself, get himself up for school, do all his own shopping, the list went on and on.

It felt like Teru’s parents had abandoned him.

Reigen shook his head, sighing. It wasn’t his place to cast judgement, at least not yet. Not until he’d heard the whole story. Though, with the way Teru had been so hesitant to admit his situation in the first place, he doubted the boy would be too quick to incriminate his own family.

That didn’t keep him from worrying, though. There was no way it was legal for an adult to leave their son at home while they went overseas, even if Teru was capable of at least keeping himself alive. What did he do when he was sick? He had no adult to call his school and tell them he wouldn’t be coming. Pursing his lips, Reigen scooped up the bundle of clothes Teru had brought with him and headed out of the bedroom, careful to make as little noise as possible.

Mob had gone back to sleep already, the thick blanket on the futon pulled up so far it nearly covered his mouth and nose. He looked cozy, Reigen noted with a soft smile. Teru had set up shop on the floor beside the futon, and though he stirred slightly as Reigen passed by him, he didn’t sit up or open his eyes. Shou was laying starfish style on his back, his own blanket covering his stomach and leaving his arms and shoulders exposed. One of his bare feet peeked up from the bottom of the blanket, and his mouth was partially open, an occasional soft snore sounding from him. Ritsu had curled up on his side, the blanket tucked firmly around him. The kids looked peaceful, and not at all like they’d just gone through a near-death experience. Well, he supposed, it wasn’t the first, and there was potential that it wouldn’t be the last.

Reigen frowned at the thought, feeling uncharacteristically protective all of a sudden. Watching Mob fight had been terrifying, for all kinds of reasons, but it had paled in comparison to the fear he’d felt when Mob had run to him, bruised and bleeding, telling them to run away before they were all killed by Touichiro’s uncontrollable psychic power. Seeing Mob’s true power didn’t make him feel nearly as afraid as he’d been when Touichiro’s power had erupted, the unspeakable terror he’d experienced at the thought that an adult’s childish actions had caused the death of a middle schooler.

Reigen swallowed thickly, turning away from the now-crowded living room of his apartment and passing through the kitchen to the adjacent laundry room. It wasn’t just Mob who had suffered as the result of adults turning their backs on the younger generation. Every one of the children now asleep in his living room bore the trauma of the realization that adults weren’t always going to be on their sides. Shou and Teru in particular seemed as though they didn’t have a lot of trustworthy adults to turn to in times of need, their trust shattered by the abuse of authority and power disparities they’d lived through.

He dropped the bundle of clothes into the washer, not even bothering to separate them into color groups as he closed the lid and began to wash cycle. He’d throw them in the dryer in the morning, before the others woke up. For now, though, the fatigue of the day bore down on his shoulders and eyelids, silently begging him to get some rest. The clock now read four-thirty in the morning, and he didn’t doubt that he’d likely sleep in past noon, but it wasn’t like he had anywhere to go tomorrow, anyway. His office was a pile of ashes, and with Seasoning City in a state of panic, he doubted any schools or offices would be operating for a few days, until the situation was resolved.

He dragged himself back to his bedroom, practically collapsing into bed. There was still lots to do before he could consider his work done, but for now, he just needed to sleep.

[spoonie-ritsu]

mp100 / atla AU

ok im pretty sure i’ve already made a post about this but im too lazy to look through the archives so

avatar au!! kind of long under the cut but

mob is the avatar, living with the air nomads with his little brother ritsu. mob is an airbender already, and powerful, but he doesn’t really care about bending so much. he does tricks and things still for ritsu, who isn’t a bender and finds the whole thing magical. the monks keep trying to get mob to focus more on his “avatar duties” like meditation and such, but he’s really not interested - and as a kid, just doesn’t see the importance of it.

eventually it gets to the point where the nomads are ready to make the pilgrimage to the next temple, but the monks want mob to stay behind to continue his training without distractions, meaning he and ritsu would be separated. mob was never able to make friends, and only had ritsu, so being separated from him would leave him alone. he decides to run away, maybe follow the nomads in secret, but ritsu finds out and asks to go with him. they set out together on foot (since lil ritsu cant fly rip), during a raging storm. as they’re walking through the woods they get lost, and the heavy rains create a mudslide that wipes them away and into a river. mob is able to grab onto ritsu but the rapid currents keep them under the water. mob’s avatar state awakens, and seals them both in a small block of ice, which floats downstream and eventually deposits into a lake, where they sit for 100 years.

and in comes reigen and his nephew teru. reigen isn’t a bender, teru is a powerful waterbender. teru’s parents were killed in the war with the fire nation, but he managed to remain hidden and survived (by dying his hair blond. his blue eyes were on his father’s side, an earth nation native, so despite being a waterbender he didn’t look like one). so reigen took him in at a young age. they live in a small earthbending village, where they make money doing odd jobs and selling what little fish they can catch (with teru’s waterbending help) in the lake near town. one day, a storm hits while they’re out fishing. as they’re scrambling to grab they’re equipment and head back, the ground begins to shake.

a ball of ice, which had been half-buried in the lake bottom for a century, is shaken loose and floats up to the surface. teru is excited - nothing cool ever happens in their sleepy town - and slides on top of the water and over to the ice, even though reigen is shouting at him that their equipment will be ruined. teru looks closer and sees people in the ice, and immediately cracks the ice apart and is blown back.

aaaaaand the story begins! mob and ritsu are displaced by a century in time, but teru and reigen are very accepting, and excited by the possibility that the avatar is alive!

other assorted notes:

* teru’s personality is somewhere in-between pre-mob and post-mob. he flaunts his waterbending and is proud of it, as something that his parents were killed over. it’s like his connection to his parents, something he feels no one should make him feel ashamed of - not even the fire lord himself. hes smug and has an attitude, but isn’t really cruel, just inconsiderate at times. he gets along well with reigen.

* after finding mob and ritsu, and discovering that mob was supposedly “the last airbender”, mob became pretty depressed. as a way to try and help him feel better, reigen made up the lie that he was the “world’s most powerful airbender”, and that he hid his powers not only to protect himself and teru, but because “his bending was so strong he could whip up tornadoes with the flick of a wrist”. teru goes along with it mostly because its hilarious.

* ritsu ends up being the more “popular” one, despite only being “the avatar’s brother”. and... he really hates it. he’s thinking “my brother is the incredible one, he’s the avatar! why do people care about me? im not even a bender!”. he gets pretty upset about it actually - he believes his brother should receive far more respect for being avatar, because mob works so hard to protect everyone, he deserves it. however, it’s also a sort of “mask” for the growing jealousy towards his brother for his abilities. why is he a bender and not ritsu? they’re related, how does that work? well turns out - during a skirmish with fire nation troops - that ritsu is actually a waterbender! ha, he’d been focusing on bending air the whole time he never considered any other element. he specializes in ice, and also discovers he has a talent for healing (teru totally isn’t jealous that ritsu can do something he cant despite them both being waterbenders)

* shou is the son of the fire lord, everyone’s favorite asshole father. hes not really like zuko at all here - he has no scar, hes not been banished, but he still doesn’t agree with the war and wants to bring his dad down. but he plays along with whatever his dad tells him to, waiting for the time when he has enough information - and ability - to make a move. hes sent after the avatar, of course, and only really does it for the chance to see the avatar, and admittedly have some fun throwing fiery punches around. he doesn’t really care about capturing him; if someone did capture the avatar, it’d be bad news, so shou would bust him out anyways.

* ok wait i just thought of this but takenaka is totally an earthbender, and a very powerful one. so powerful, in fact, that he can feel the slightest vibrations in the ground. all the time. every little rumble and movement he feels it, hears it, and its so annoying that he dresses in the most covering, fluffy clothes no matter the season, surrounds himself in pillows and soft things trying to avoid feeling anything. but his parents are wealthy nobles who want him to take on the flashy family business, putting him in the center of attention a lot, and he hates it so much. so much that he runs away with team avatar and into the countryside, travelling where there’s less people and less noise.

[coramatus]

Ohhhh I see those tags. Firefly AU? Bro I'm all ears.

Oh boy~! I hope you like Mob angst, because man did I create a lot of Mob angst! >8D

Mob Psycho 100/Firefly Crossover AU

(This is just a brainstorming thing, not meant to be taken as a finished piece. Even if it is 3.6K words...)

Everyone is five years older than in canon. So Mob’s 19, Ritsu is 18, and Reigen is 33.

Arataka Reigen is the captain of the transport spaceship S&S, or the Spirits and Such. He prefers keeping a low profile after a shady past that he’s since tried to clean up. Has an entire crew under his command, none of whom take him that seriously. He still dads them relentlessly. Teruki is first mate, came on board after Reigen helped him out of a tight spot, is surprisingly good at ordering people to do stuff, isn’t a dick about his powers after the new pilot kicked his ass. Shou is pilot, Serizawa is the medic/cook; both are powerful espers that came on board after Shou convinced Seri to run away with him and hijacked the ship to escape, Reigen subsequently hiring them after finding out Shou was a damn good pilot and that Seri needed like so much therapy. Tome is on communications, who took the job on the condition that she be allowed to attempt making contact with aliens (Reigen doesn’t ask). Mezato is a traveling journalist that pays Reigen to let her stay on board and hunt for news stories, but he suspects she’s just a nosy busybody. Onigawara is a mercenary Reigen hired after one too many scuffles, but now has even more to deal with thanks to the guy’s temper. Musashi is a mechanic with experience in fixing up farm equipment, but can pretty easily extrapolate it to an entire spaceship (Reigen isn’t sure that’s how that works, but hey the ship hasn’t exploded yet). Dimple’s a questionable preacher they picked up after he got run out of town, claims to be a priest but acts like he’s got a god-complex or something (might be an alien brain slug). They’re kind of a disaster, but with Reigen’s people skills, he’s able to avert the worst of it.

They’re given a relatively easy job when they take a young man on board, named Ritsu Kageyama. Also with him is an unusually large suitcase, which he says contains “his entire life”. He just asks to be taken as far from the planet as possible but doesn’t elaborate. Reigen can tell something’s up, but doesn’t have the heart to bother the guy, who is clearly going through some bad shit.

Not a day or two into their voyage, the crew finds out that the government has put out a bounty on Ritsu for stealing their property. Ritsu denies doing anything wrong and they decide to search his luggage for whatever he stole. He flips out at this and tries to stop them, but it’s too late. The large suitcase opens to reveal it holds a stasis chamber containing a sleeping young man. They’re horrified and free the guy, thinking that Ritsu is some kind of human trafficker until he yells at them that he’s trying to save his brother. The sleeping man wakes up then, but something’s clearly wrong with him in how he holds himself like a terrified animal. He seems to realize he’s somewhere unfamiliar and curls up, screaming and crying. Ritsu comes in, covering his brother with his coat and trying to soothe the crying man, now clinging to him desperately. The crew is polite enough to back off and give the two some space.

Soon after, Ritsu and his brother are given a chance to explain what’s going on. Ritsu’s brother is silent this entire time, curled up clutching at Ritsu’s side, staring off into space with glassy eyes, like he’s not there at all. Ritsu starts by telling them that everything he’s done was to save his older brother, Shigeo. All of this has to do with the fact that he is an esper and a particularly powerful one at that. Despite the powers, the two grew up pretty normally until his brother was invited to study at a special Academy for espers. Shigeo took them up on it and left home. At first things seemed normal, the brothers messaging each other regularly. But after a while, Shigeo’s messages started to taper off. The few he did manage to get out were short and often about his exhaustion and the trials he was being put through. Then for a long stretch, Ritsu didn’t hear anything from him. Until he receives a bizarre message from Shigeo’s email, claiming that his brother is dead. For some reason, it’s signed by a “Mob”. It takes Ritsu a while to do some digging, turning up results that made him more and more fearful for Shigeo’s life. So Ritsu left to rescue him, dropping everything to break into the facility and get Shigeo out. By the time he got there, he found his brother already in the stasis chamber. He only had enough time to grab the entire thing before hiding it in the suitcase and fleeing to the spaceport.

Which leads to now. Ritsu knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the S&S crew if they decide to turn them in and has resigned himself to that fate. To everyone’s surprise, Reigen declares that they’ll do no such thing. In fact, everyone’s under orders that they’re to do everything they can to protect the brothers. They’re both victims and Reigen can’t possibly give the abused back to their abusers. They can stay.

The crew is less than pleased at this and start yelling at Reigen until he makes them settle down. Ritsu is distrustful of course, but a quiet whimper from Shigeo gets him to back down. Reigen orders Seri to take the two to larger quarters, while he discusses things with the others. Teru is pretty against the whole thing, knowing they can’t hide the brothers forever. It’s only a matter of time before one of them slips and all of them land in hot water for harboring fugitives. Reigen points out that Ritsu is a fugitive for rescuing his brother from said law, which referred to Shigeo as their “property”. Reigen may be greedy at times, but he’s not heartless. He also doesn’t want to admit that the sight of poor Shigeo struck a nerve in him.

As the Kageyama brothers get settled, there comes the question of what they plan on doing. Ritsu’s plan was to flee to the outer reaches and maybe start a new life there. But with the bounty on him, he’s not sure that’s a workable plan anymore. So Reigen offers them a place on the ship. Any skill set they have would definitely be put to use. Ritsu hesitantly says he’d been studying medicine before upending his life. “Medic,” Reigen declares, “Which would be great, because oh my god Seri just can’t deal with blood.” With a lot of reservation, Ritsu accepts and the job is sealed. As for Shigeo… Reigen decides that he’s infirm and can’t be expected to work yet, much to Ritsu’s relief and zero response from Shigeo.

Things settle down in their own weird way. There’s shenanigans on various planets, Reigen scraping through bad situations through his sweaty charisma, things get shot at, lots of running, like how most of Firefly went.

As time goes on, the crew observes a lot about the two. Ritsu is normal enough, maybe a bit naive in some regards and a bit too aggressive in others. By contrast, Shigeo doesn’t speak at all, doesn’t make eye contact, and is quiet and submissive. He’s a bit perplexing. He always looks haggard, bags under his eyes, hair set in an overgrown bowl-cut pattern. He generally goes around barefoot, preferring oversized knitted turtlenecks and sweaters to hide himself in. He wanders the halls aimlessly, often reaching out to touch the walls. Sometimes he’ll stare at a spot for hours without moving. Other times, he seems to be listening for something only he can hear, sometimes even humming along to some strange tune. They tend to find him curled up in odd places, sometimes observing the others as they go about their duties, sometimes blankly staring into space. The more… interesting times are when Shigeo gets flashbacks of some kind, triggering his powers spiraling out of control. These episodes leave him screaming in the eye of a hurricane of objects until Ritsu can get to him and calm him down. Because of this, Ritsu spends most of his time at his brother’s side, trying to coax him into talking, eating, or calmness. He often glares at anyone who dares approach them. The few times the two are separate, Reigen finds himself gravitating to Shigeo. He talks to the guy, just sharing stories or offering words of encouragement. Shigeo never responds, but Reigen can sense something in him paying attention and keeps it up. Then Shigeo has an episode without Ritsu, leaving Reigen to dive in and calm him down. Something about it works and he’s able to comfort Shigeo until his brother arrives.

Not long after, Reigen finds a lone Shigeo huddled in his bunk of all places. A baffled Reigen asks what he’s doing there, not thinking he’ll actually get a response. “It smells safe,” Shigeo quietly answers. Reigen realizes it’s because of the incense and candles he kept from his old job and goes on to explain when the fact that Shigeo just spoke to him finally hits him. He has no idea what to make of this, but if his bunk smells safe then, sure, Shigeo can stay if he likes. Before dozing off, Shigeo corrects him. “My name is Mob. Shigeo is dead.”

With that bizarre proclamation, Reigen confronts Ritsu about it. However, Ritsu gets mad that Shigeo actually spoke to Reigen of all people. Reigen doesn’t see what the big deal is, but Ritsu tells him that his brother hadn’t said a thing since he was let out. Reigen is left even more confused, as he thought they had been talking. With some more prodding, Ritsu admits that he has no idea how to really take care of his brother, able to tend to physical needs but not mental or emotional ones. Nor does he know just what the Academy did to make Shigeo this way. He knew his brother was autistic, always having trouble socializing and interacting, but it was never like this. Neither did he claim he was dead nor refer to himself as Mob (which is what Reigen refers to him as from then on). (how do i conclude this section i have no idea 0_0;;;)

To Reigen’s surprise, Mob keeps turning up in Reigen’s quarters no matter how well it’s locked. Mob is often found sleeping or blankly staring at the walls. Reigen doesn’t have the heart to kick him out. Though Mob doesn’t say anything, Reigen gets the sense that the young man keeps coming to Reigen’s room to get away from his brother, whose overbearing side has been coming up more often.

Afterwards, the others begin finding Mob in their personal spaces. He seems to particularly resonate with the other espers: Teru finds something grating about his presence, Shou is more fascinated with him and tends to poke and prod at Mob more, while Seri appreciates his quiet, non-judgmental presence.

However the thing that breaks Mob out of his silence is when Claw rears its ugly head. During one of his more lucid moments, Ritsu manages to coax Mob out to explore the spaceport the ship has docked at. Things seem to be going fine until Mob freaks out at the sight of a weird triangle symbol painted on a door. He runs like his life depends on it, quickly losing Ritsu and getting lost in the crowd. Ritsu freaks out of course and enlists the help of the crew to find his brother. It’s Teru who comes across Mob huddled in an alleyway. Mob is shaking, muttering something about Claw searching and finding him. Teru doesn’t have time for this and hauls Mob up to leave, but are stopped by a hooded figure. The figure tells them to come quietly or else things will get ugly fast. Teru has no intention of listening to some thug, but realizes something might be wrong when Mob desperately begs him not go with the figure. It’s because Teru’s guard is up that he’s able to fend off the figure’s sudden very psychically charged attack. The figure turns out to be Koyama, who intends to bring the two psychics in. A fight breaks out with Teru on the offense and Mob on the defense. The fight eventually gets out of hand enough that Shou and Serizawa come in to help. Their arrival is enough to freak Koyama out into fleeing, recognizing the two as powerful espers. (chase down and capture Koyama? give them time to dump him in a jail and leave Claw wondering what’s going on. otherwise he gives their location to base, meaning they get chased) No one’s entirely sure what’s going on until Reigen drags everyone out into a group meeting, deciding it’s finally time for Shou and Serizawa to spill their backstory (he didn’t ask before to be polite).

Like in canon, Shou is fighting back against his father, still Claw’s leader. Only this time, his father knows about it because Shou ran off with his second-in-command, Serizawa, who reluctantly went with Shou because he thought the kid needed protection. Since joining the S&S crew, they’ve been laying low, waiting for a good chance to start making battle preparations. In that time, Serizawa’s realized the error of his ways and is trying to do right by Reigen and Shou. Both of them go on to explain Claw.

In this universe, Claw is sneakier, running in smaller proxy operations but has roots in places like the government already. Their other major asset is the Psychic Academy that Shigeo attended. In the front, the Academy trains and hones a psychic’s abilities. Most people have super weak powers but do genuinely get a lot out of it. Mitsuura enthusiastically runs that part of the operation but honestly has no idea what the darker side of the Academy is up to. The stronger psychics get a completely different story. These are the ones who are made into pawns for Claw to use in their plot to come into power. Otherwise they’re experimented on in a bid to strengthen their abilities to a dangerous degree.

Teru perks up at this, stating he was invited to the Academy once as well, but opted not to. (why? wanted to stay somewhere familiar? wanted to keep hold on his little gang?) Mob just comments that he was smart not to go.

“They do bad things to you.”

With a little prodding, Mob finds the words to explain himself.

Mob insists that he isn’t Shigeo and that the real Shigeo died. That Mob is just a thing inhabiting Shigeo’s body, nothing more. Why he calls himself Mob is because he’s “just a face in a mob, [he’s] no one, a nothing.” He knows a lot about Shigeo, who he was and what he was like. He knew that he was an esper prodigy and the Academy took advantage of that. But they went too far. They put something in him, something that was never meant to be. It killed Shigeo and Mob was born from his shattered remains. Now it’s just the two of them in there, Mob and the Thing. Mob’s been doing his best to keep his distance from the Thing, but it’s hard to do when he’s barely functional. Mob can’t quite explain the Thing either, describing it as a black hole with its own mind trapped in his head.

This is all a bit much to swallow at once, so Reigen breaks them up for now and promises to come back to think of a plan.

Ritsu hasn’t been taking this well, hurt and confused by what his brother is saying. While his brother is obviously not dead, Ritsu’s not sure he can handle losing the person he was. He insists on calling his brother by his real name. Mob can only sigh.

Though their relationship is strained, Ritsu resolves to do everything he can for his brother. Mob tends to shrink away from this. He insists that he’s not Shigeo, therefore: not Ritsu’s brother. But Ritsu is able to get through to him by reasoning that if Mob was formed out of pieces of Shigeo, it means that Shigeo can’t entirely be gone. But this isn’t about that, Ritsu admits. This is about who Mob is. If Mob formed in Shigeo’s body, then that makes it Mob’s body too. And Mob’s body is blood brothers with Ritsu. As far as Ritsu is concerned, Mob IS his brother, whether he likes it or not. Mob isn’t sure how to feel about this until Ritsu hugs him, telling Mob that he isn’t “a nobody, a nothing”, Mob has family and that means he IS something, someONE. Though he tries not to, Mob breaks down crying.

(Presumably, they go in to take care of the Claw problem, possibly first with 7th Div. cell before thwarting the World Domination arc. Blow open giant government secret like in Firefly/Serenity canon? Would probably have to break into Academy again to figure out what they did to Mob, learns about the Thing in detail here. No idea where other elements would go, like Mogami arc. How would space ghosts work? Maybe Mogami arc could be a haunted spaceship story, replace Reavers with evil spirits. Broccoli arc???? HOW DO EITHER STORY END? HOW WOULD THIS END??)

Stuff that would probably only be hinted at in-story, but can be fully explained here:

Mob is either Shigeo gone insane or a new personality entirely. Both are plausible.

The Thing is ???%. While it’s still a mystery in canon apparently just Mob’s powers set to survival mode (something to do with a Japanese idiom?), here ???% is a tiny scrap of what can only be described as a cosmic entity. It’s a small, inky black, strange free-flowing blob, lit up with intermittent glowing white spots. When its discoverers noticed it reacted strongly to espers, it was taken to the Academy to see what it would do. They thought it could be used to give a massive boost to psychic powers. It was implanted in Shigeo to test it out, but his powers went haywire and leveled the building.  When they found him at the epicenter, Shigeo was a shivering, crying wreck. It would be the only thing he could do for a while.

The implantation of the Thing shattered Shigeo’s mind as it forcibly made room for itself in him. The Thing did not originally have a mind of its own. But when Shigeo broke, it absorbed enough pieces of him that it gained self-awareness, changing it from a blob into a shadowy copy of Shigeo. With pieces of humanity in it, the Thing understood human thoughts and emotions. While the Thing could simply have taken over Shigeo’s body completely, it didn’t out of regret for the consciousness that originally was there. Instead, it nudged the bits of Shigeo that were left into a new entity entirely. Sadly not enough was there to create a functioning person, instead the new consciousness was marred with fear and pain. It would come to name itself Mob.

To the Academy scientists, the procedure damaged Shigeo’s cognitive abilities, leaving him unable to recognize his own name or even understand human speech. Instead, he acted almost like a terrified animal half the time. The worst came in the form of screaming episodes, where he seemed to see something terrifying no one else could (it was the Thing manifesting in its vessel’s mind, curious about the entity it shared a body with; it didn’t know what to make of the screaming and crying, so it kept its distance). Only twice did lucidity briefly return: once to ask for pants; the other was to beg them to stop hurting him. The Academy tried many different unsuccessful treatments on him, steadily getting less and less humane until it became more of an exercise in torture than anything else. Ultimately, the Academy deemed Shigeo too unstable to continue making use of, opting to put him in stasis until they could figure out what happened. However, both minds overhear this and in a rare moment of joint lucidity, they secretly send out a message to their brother for help. Afterward, the doctors have to physically fight Shigeo to get him sedated. Shigeo is put into a small stasis chamber and set aside, where he was supposed to sleep indefinitely. It takes a while, but Ritsu is able to break in and is horrified that his brother is in a freaking box. And things go from there.

Mob hates being alive. He doesn’t want to be here. He’s convinced his existence is a mistake, one that he constantly regrets. Most of this pain comes from simple self-hatred, that he’s alive in a body that doesn’t belong to him and never did, that he unfairly stole Shigeo’s life. It’s made worse when Ritsu expects Mob to act like Shigeo but he never can, feeling like he’s incapable of being a real person. There’s a lot of crying on his part, driven by intense despair. It takes time, but Mob slowly stabilizes as he comes to terms with his existence, characterized by increasing moments of speech and lucidity.