“So, I Googled your family.”
Hailey shifted, her body warm against Hifumi’s as Natsuo turned his back to the couple, nursing his cup of coffee, staring out at nothing in particular. “I wasn’t asking you to.”
“No, I know you weren’t. It looks… complicated.”
“It is.”
“It’s just that I was wondering. You said once that your younger brother was going to inherit, but it looks like you have three older brothers. How does that work?”

Hailey counted them off on her fingers. “Tony’s spacey, Dave’s an addict, and Mark’s a knucklehead.” She looked up at Hifumi through half-lidded eyes. “Ergo: it’s either me, Josh or Jess. And me and Jess are girls, so. That’s not happening. It’s going to be Josh.” She sighed. “Then again, Josh’s an asswipe, so it could be someone completely different. He could sell it. Or bring on someone who’s not a member of the family. There’s always that chance. I don’t even think it’d be that bad, honestly, but…” She shrugged. “Not my problem. I got my trust fund. The rest of them can fight over it.”

==========

When Hailey was born, Dad had barged his way east across the Pacific to San Francisco. After much dithering, Astute Group had finally made landfall in Silicon Valley, elbowing aside a dozen smaller firms to stake its claim on a monstrous, sprawling campus designed by a Pritzker-winning architect. Later, with the ink still dry on his marriage certificate, he’d added his wife, his American-born wife, to the trust which held all of their shares in the Astute empire, and tacked a few controversial clauses on for good measure. That had sparked a major revolt from the kids, and they were, all of them, still dealing with the repercussions fifteen years on.

“There she is,” Mark muttered, staring down from the window as the helicopter landed on the lawn. “Oh. And she brought friends.”
“Isn’t she in Japan?” Jess asked. Anthony lurked in the background, always overlooked. (But that was just how he liked it.) Behind him, the machines surrounding his father beeped, slowly and rhythmically. Anthony watched with interest as Jess’s eyes narrowed, slow and sly. That was how she looked whenever she thought she knew something the others didn’t. “I’ve heard some stories.”

“Fucking heroes,” Mark scoffed, still looking down at the five girls as they trooped towards the hospital, two on either side of their sister, flanking her like an honour guard. “They’ve got to have some powerful quirks, though.” That was a sore point for all of them, Anthony included. As much as he hated to admit it, Hailey had ended up with the strongest quirk of them all. Telekinesis, true telekinesis, was something else. For that, if nothing else, she was in the running.

If Dad lived long enough to get over his misogyny, at least.
Anthony smiled to himself. Who was he kidding?

“What’re you smiling at?” Josh snarled. He’d just stalked in through the door, Claire’s hand on his shoulder, an attempt at soothing him as he stomped around. Puberty had taken – was taking – its toll. Anthony thought back to when the kids had really been kids – when Dave, Mark and Jess had been gangly and half-formed, biting at one another, souls bared in the worst sense of the word. More than once, he’d toyed with the idea of just grabbing them and making a run for it, away from the rotten, soul-draining void that was the Astute empire and Dad, but he didn’t have the gumption. He didn’t have the courage. And they’d fight him every step of the way, anyhow.

“– kicked out of Dad’s room,” Mark snapped. Dave had returned from doing whatever new thing he’d been doing in the bathroom, and Anthony realized that while he’d been spacing out, Claire had herded them into the corridor. He turned, looking over his shoulder, and saw Hailey approaching with her friends. For a few brief moments, the world tilted on his axis, and he found himself staring at Jess, fifteen again but alone. Hailey wasn’t alone, and that, at least, was something he could take heart in. His own mother hadn’t been a very good parent (see, he could acknowledge that to himself, so clearly he was making progress), and Elizabeth hadn’t been much better (not that he’d stepped into that role grudgingly), but Claire… now, Claire made an effort. He hadn’t had much time with his own mother before she’d cracked, and Elizabeth’s fights with Dad had always been more about her own position than anyone else’s, but Claire cared. She was genuinely trying, and she didn’t make her kids starve themselves, so that was… well… that was one more point in her favour.

“Less than useless,” he heard, and Anthony came back to himself. Hailey had barged her way in, leaving her four friends in the hallway. The teenagers shuffled their feet, trying not to look at them. He turned to the kids, seeing Dave’s retreating back. “Come on. Let’s reconvene.”

He followed the kids to a more secluded ward, leaving Hailey’s minions where they were. That was all Anthony was: an observer. Not neutral, but an observer nonetheless, never an actor in and of himself. He’d been a disappointment since at least college, and Dad had never made an effort to pull him into the business. Which was fine. He was okay with that. He’d always been more interested in exploring how they, his family, were all broken in subtly different ways. (He’d lost count of how many NDAs he’d had his therapists sign.)

“We can’t let Claire in, of course,” Jess began, arranging herself on the bed. “Until Hailey and Josh are of age, she has their votes.”
“I don’t see why you’d care,” Mark sniped. “You left. You didn’t even try to barge in like this idiot,” he gestured at Anthony, “so, far as I’m concerned, you don’t get a say. You don’t deserve a say.”
“Oh, and he does?”

“I’ll see myself out,” Anthony mumbled, and did so. He didn’t like watching the kids fight. There was a kind of viciousness to it all that was absent from Hailey and Josh’s bickering. And yet… and yet… he could see some of the poison starting to seep in from Hailey’s side, a different flavour from Jess’s, yet still, somehow, similar in its own minor ways. Jess was the youngest; Hailey was the older sister. Dad liked to keep his marriages separate, one-two-three. None of the kids had ever made any effort to connect with Hailey and Josh. Only Anthony. And it wasn’t like Claire didn’t appreciate the effort.

And there she was, emerging from the ward, one hand on each of her children’s backs. Not for the first time, Anthony wondered what his father had done to deserve her. Sure, Hailey was a brat, and Josh was even worse, but they were normal about it. They hadn’t overdosed like David had. Dad didn’t beat them like he’d beaten Mark. And as for Jess… well… Anthony wasn’t sure about that. The damage there was less physical, less loud.

But he could fix it, in time. He could fix it. He just needed to get them alone. Convince them to trust each other. Or something.
Fuck, this was hard.

“Anthony,” Claire called, face brightening as he dithered, and waved him over. Obediently, he trotted forwards. Things had never been awkward between them the way things had once been awkward between him and Elizabeth. There was real warmth there. She was a good mother. Anthony wondered if he should bring these feelings up tomorrow with his Saturday therapist. He was probably looking for a surrogate mother or something. Oedipus and all. He may have had a degree in psychology, but most of the time, he felt like he was just floundering. It’d all make sense once he finished his dissertation. It’d been cooking for twenty-one years, but he was confident. This year would be his year.

“We can take care of ourselves,” Hailey sneered, pulling him out of his fugue, and turned to one of her friends, the half-white one. In a stage-whisper, she hissed: “See? He can’t stop spacing out.” Josh guffawed meanly, backing his sister up, his short snort of mirth a pitch-perfect imitation of Dad, and Anthony felt his guts clench for a split-second before his brain caught up and Josh remembered that he was supposed to be angry with his older sister, at which point the twelve-year-old folded his arms and straightened his back, jaw jutting out.

Anthony made an effort. “How’s Japan?”
Hailey shrugged airily. “Oh, same old, same old. How’s, uh, Gstaad? And your cult?”
“He brought on another guy,” Josh cut in. “Some old, crusty dude. Oldest one yet.”
“Dr Reich is a celebrated practitioner of psychoanalysis,” Anthony said primly. He could feel his ‘dotty uncle’ persona settling over his shoulders, like a blanket or a warm, fluffy jacket. “You should come to Gstaad some time. I’ll take you skiing.”
“Ew. No. I have school.”
“Since when were you a nerd?”

Hailey regarded him coolly as she brushed at her bangs. She was different, Anthony realized, when she was being flanked by her friends. An object lesson for Josh, perhaps. None of the kids had ever had any proper friends in their adolescence. “Since you decided to be a jock,” she drawled, “despite standing at all of five feet on a good day.”

Josh opened his mouth, but was cut off by Claire’s reappearance. She’d left them with him, Anthony remembered. “Okay, that’s enough.” she said, calmly, poised as always. “Hailey, it’s good to see you.”
Hailey nodded curtly. Anthony watched a hint of hurt flash behind Claire’s eyes. “Can I go back to Kyoto now?”
“You don’t want to stay?”
Hailey shrugged. “Nah. I’ve got stuff to do at Shiketsu. Hero stuff, you know?”

“Our first hero,” Anthony cheered, reaching over to ruffle her hair and ignoring the way his hand was pushed away by an unseen force before it could reach her scalp. “I’m rooting for you, Hailey.”