Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It smelled like its mothers milk. The rat didn’t know why it was killed, but it knew enough that it knew it was dead. The man in blue had kicked him onto the tracks as a train passed, and it was definitely dead. It knew what death was. It had seen its mother get killed by cruel humans, and it knew it was the human’s world, but it thought it should matter, too.

It thought it should matter, too.

Maybe in the next existence it would matter.

There was a gentle presence next to him, carefully lifting him up and cradling it to its chest. It said something in a language it didn’t understand, but it found it comforting nonetheless. It still remembered cruel laughter as all of the men in blue laughed as he panicked. It was…

It closed its eyes.

Maybe it would matter in the next life.

It wanted to matter.

There was a press of love from the entity that was cradling his broken body in its hands, and he relaxed into the warmth that came off its body. It was so warm, but it was distant, like it was walking away from him, even as it held him close. It was leaving him somewhere, and he didn’t know where, but he didn’t want it to go.

Don’t leave me, he prayed, but it was already gone, and he was alone. Except, he wasn’t alone. He opened his eyes, and there were bright lights above him. He tried to move, but he was wrapped up tight in something soft, and for a second, he just laid there, staring blankly at the ceiling.

What?

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He couldn’t understand any of the language, and he was confused at the lack of body cues. His life had become a blur of changing colors and shapes, and he had been hustled to a big structure, a house, he remembered. There were children screaming outside, and a woman had been nursing him and another child. She smelled like a mother, so he assumed he was a child again. The other child had soft, downy hair in two colors and mismatched eyes, and he had no idea what he looked like. The woman and the man were talking in low tones as she nursed him in a chair that rocked back and forth. There was music playing, and he was relatively comfortable in this place. He had a mother again, and he couldn’t move because of the way he was bundled up tight, but the woman and the man didn’t seem to be happy about anything.

He didn’t have the same nose as he had, but if he could smell them, he was sure they would smell upset. The man’s voice was loud, and he was looking at the rat as if he was the scum of the earth. If he had teeth, he would bear them at him. But, instead, he had gums. So, instead, he stared back at him, and the man continued arguing with the woman. She burst into tears, and the man stormed out.

Angry people. He was used to angry people, so that was no problem. He was falling back asleep, though. Being alive again was exhausting. He was so tired.

Maybe he would matter this time. He was clearly human, so maybe he would matter this time…

Chapter Text

“Happy birthday, Shouto and Moriatsu!” Mom said, and Moriatsu leaned forward and took a bite out of the cake. “Mori! No!”

“What?” he asked, his mouth full of chocolate and raspberry puree, and Mom picked him up.

“We wait for a slice, ” she said, and he swallowed it down.

“But, it’s food? It’s right there?” he asked as Dad rubbed his eyes.

“Shouto, just blow out the candles,” Mom said, and Shouto leaned forward to blow out the candles. They went out with a huff, and Mom wiped a napkin all over Moriatsu’s face. He pulled a face and leaned back, and Fuyumi stared in dismay at the cake missing a big chunk out of it.

“Why are you like this, Mori?” she asked, and Mom set Moriatsu down.

“Just don’t question it,” Mom said, and Moriatsu plopped down on the dining room floor.

“He’s a rat,” Touya declared, and Moriatsu licked his lips. “Just ignore him.”

Dad just stared down at Moriatsu with those same disappointed eyes, and Moriatsu wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Well, he didn’t mind being a disappointment. He knew Dad had only gotten more and more disappointed in him as the years rolled on. Really, he didn’t know why he had to stay around. He was four years old. He had no idea how old he was when he died, but he had died pretty early on, and he was sure he was older now than he had been when he first died. He looked up how long rats lived, and they only lived for a few years.

He could totally manage on his own, but the last time he tried to run away, Dad dragged him back. They ended up in the media for that. It had been a whole thing. Dad went viral for walking with him over his shoulder, and he had gotten dragged through the media for being a bad dad who couldn’t keep track of a three year old.

Moriatsu wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t sorry in the slightest. He didn’t like Dad. Dad had a terrible track record, and he was just mean and distant and looked at Moriatsu like he was a problem, or like he didn’t know what to make of him. He treated him like a ticking time bomb about to go off, and Moriatsu was fed up with it.

All of his focus was on Shouto, and Moriatsu didn’t remember his mother playing favorites with his littermates.

Then again, she had to deal with them for a much smaller amount of time than Dad had to deal with Moriatsu.

“Come get your slice, Mori,” Mom said and doled out the slice of cake with a chunk taken out of it. “You get to eat your own spit.”

“Okay,” he said, picked up the piece of cake, and shoved it in his mouth. Mom opened her mouth, shut it, and stared in dismay at the icing on the cuff of his sweater.

“Okay,” she said quietly and took in a deep breath. “Mori, that’s not how we eat.”

“Aw, lay off him, Mom, it’s his birthday,” Natsuo said, and Moriatsu polished off the slice.

“Fine,” she said with a sigh, and Moriatsu licked the chocolate icing and raspberry puree from his hand as Dad stared at him with dead eyes.

“Your quirks will be coming in soon,” Mom said, and Moriatsu blinked at her. “Are you two excited?”

She glanced at Dad, who said nothing, and Moriatsu realized no, no he wasn’t excited. He would probably have a fire quirk, and then he wouldn’t be able to play with the other kids anymore. Shouto wasn’t allowed to play, and Moriatsu wanted to play with the other kids. But, he was pretty sure he would end up like Touya: with the cold resistant skin and fire. So, he wasn’t all that upset about it.

He had his mother’s eyes and father’s hair, after all. Shouto was the one that obviously was going to have what Dad was actually looking for.

Humans were funny little things. They dreamed of things like glory. Moriatsu was just happy he was surrounded with so many comforts. He wanted a comfortable life.

He thrusted out his plate for another slice, and Mom sighed and cut it, giving him another slice. He tore off a huge chunk of the chocolate cake, and shoved it in his mouth, and Mom watched him with disappointed eyes.

He kind of disappointed Mom, too, but he wasn’t looking for their approval.

He was vaguely aware of something tickling him, around the ankles, and he looked down. There was a nose poking out of his crossed legs, and he blinked.

The thing crawled out of his legs, and Mom screamed.

“RAT!” she screeched and yanked Moriatsu away, and chaos ensued. Twenty rats tumbled out of his shadow, and Mom screamed, hauling him up higher, as if that was going to help the situation, and Fuyumi started screaming, too. Touya blinked, looking surprised, and then he started laughing. Hard.

“Looks like little Mori is a mutant!” he crowed over the chaos as the rats scrambled all over the place, in a state of confusion and alarm at the screaming, and Moriatsu blinked as Dad swept up Shouto before he could get bit.

Huh.

Okay.

He had rats now.

Cool.

Natsuo screeched as one of them bit down on his hand and stole a big bite of his cake, and then Moriatsu realized maybe he should control this situation. Actually? Nah. He didn’t need to control the situation.

“PUT THEM AWAY, MORI!” Mom screamed as they descended on the cake and started plowing through it, and he blinked.

“Why?” he asked, mystified, and Mom screamed and carried him further away.

“MORI! NOW!” she screeched, and Moriatsu stared down at them.

“But, they want to be out?” he asked as they gorged themselves on chocolate cake.

“MORI!”

Shouto started crying, wailing loudly, and Fuyumi ran out the door as Touya sat there and cackled like a hyena. Natsuo had rats crawling all over him as he screamed, and Moriatsu stared in silence at the chaos. He should probably do something, but he knew what rats wanted, and that was food. They could have their food. The cake was just about demolished, and he sighed. His shadow lengthened across the floor, and, one by one, they followed his silent command to hop in and disappear.

The cake was nothing but crumbs and smears of raspberry puree, with a few spots of icing.

“I told y’all he was a rat!” Touya howled as he wiped his eyes of the tears that had collected in them, and Moriatsu stared at Natsuo, who was white faced and panting harshly, bleeding from his finger.

Well.

There went Dad’s designs of having a backup.

Oh, well.

Shouto let out another wail, and then---

The temperature dropped as half the room was iced out, and his other side, the red side, Moriatsu knew his colors now, lit on fire. Dad startled, still holding Shouto, and Shouto wailed.

“I DON’T LIKE RAAATTTSSS!” he wailed, and Moriatsu stared at him in silence.

Well.

It was clear Dad’s golden child was going to continue to be his golden child.

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“---ut him in preschool,” Dad was saying in the other room, and Moriatsu stared at the ceiling.

“It’s not fair Shouto’s homeschooled and Mori has to go to school!” Mom said, and Moriatsu rolled over and extended his hand to the rat facing him. He thought he would name it Ri.

“Life isn’t fair, Rei,” Dad said, and Moriatsu wondered what school was going to look like for him. “And I think we need to revisit a paternity test. Obviously, you didn’t cheat, but there’s weird quirks out there. This could have been an attack from an enemy.”

There was disbelieving silence from Mom, and then she spoke.

“No,” she said calmly. “He’s the spitting image of you, Enji.”

“And?”

“And it’s obvious he’s your child! ”

“Well, we need to be sure. If someone attacked you and you didn’t realize it, they need to be brought to justice. Remember, we didn’t even realize it was twins for several months. He just appeared. ”

“I will not have you cast doubt on your son! ” Mom’s voice rose to a shout, and Dad huffed.

“And what if someone assaulted you and forced you to carry their child? What if they come back for him?”

“I’m not doing this with you. We’re not getting a paternity test. I can’t believe you even suggested it---”

“This is the real world, Rei, and I have a lot of enemies. I would rather not raise the child of an enemy.”

“That is my son! ” Mom cried. “Not the son of an enemy, that is my baby! Haven’t you taken enough from me?”

“This was a mutual decision, Rei. I took nothing from you that you didn’t offer, ” Dad growled, and Mom let out a strangled sob.

“No. We’re not getting a paternity test. If that’s not your son, I never want to know,” she said, and Dad exhaled shortly.

“Rei, please see reason.”

“Mutations are common, Enji. I will not have you cast doubt on my son. ”

“I’m not casting doubt.”

“Yes, you are!”

“You’re twisting my words.”

“No, I’m not! I can’t believe you’d bring up a paternity test. ”

“There’s no history of mutations in my family or yours,” Dad said, and Moriatsu scraped his fingernail along the floor for the rat, Ri, to follow it. The rat playfully chased after it, and Moriatsu wondered why any of this even mattered.

“That doesn’t mean it can’t happen! ” Mom screamed, and then broke off into a sob.

“You’re going to wake up the kids,” Dad rumbled. “Let’s revisit this tomorrow.”

“No. I am telling you no, ” Mom hissed, and Dad sighed angrily.

“Rei, don’t let your affections for Moriatsu blind you to the reality.”

“The reality is that this is our son! ” Mom’s voice cracked. “This is our son, and I’m going to continue to raise him as such!”

“I’m not saying anything has to change--- ”

“Then, why does it matter?” Mom demanded. “Why does it matter, Enji?”

Dad said nothing, and someone kicked something.

“This is just about your hurt ego. Touya ended up with my skin, Fuyumi and Natsuo took after me, and now the one child you got that could have just been yours is a mutant!”

“It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it about?”

“This is about safety. We need to be prepared for them to show up. ”

“No! No, I’m not entertaining this!”

“Rei---”

“You can sleep on the couch tonight,” Mom snarled, and there was a pause.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Get out, Enji!”

There was a long pause as Ri curled up under Moriatsu’s neck, and then the door slid shut.

Their fight was done.

He could finally go to sleep.

Chapter Text

“Read to me,” Moriatsu said and thrusted the book at Touya. Touya looked up from his own book, his eyebrow lifted, and then he sighed.

“No. Go ask Mom.”

“Mom’s busy cooking,” Moriatsu said stubbornly. “Read to me.”

He thrusted it at him again, and Touya stared at him in silence. Without a word, he took the book and sat up, picking up Moriatsu and dragging him between his legs.

“Why do you want to read, anyway? You never want to read,” he said, and Moriatsu shrugged.

“My teacher said it makes me smarter,” he said. “I want to be smart. Dad says I’m stupid.”

Touya stiffened up behind him, and then he spoke.

“You’re not stupid,” he said quietly. “You’re just… a little different.”

Moriatsu was quiet. He was already seeing the difference in him and the other kids. Language was hard for him. He had managed to learn Japanese, but learning the reading and writing was difficult at best. He could talk just fine, but reading was hard. Reading was really, really hard, and Mom was worried about it.

“I don’t really have time for this,” Touya muttered. “I’ve gotta go meet Dad at Sekoto Peak.”

“Just one chapter, please,” Moriatsu begged, and Touya sighed and flicked open to the first chapter.

“Okay,” he said and set his chin on Moriatsu’s head as he began to read. Moriatsu’s eyes followed the words on the page, stuttering and sticking at random points, and Touya continued to read, his voice soothing to Moriatsu. He could feel the vibration of his voice against his back, and he got comfortable between Touya’s legs. Moriatsu hadn’t taken a nap today, so he was pretty sleepy. They had a villain lockdown drill during naptime, and he had spent the whole time hugging Ri to his chest.

In the past six months, they had discovered he had fifty rats, and he was in the process of naming all of them. They weren’t all that bright, honestly. He liked them a lot, but they could only respond to simple commands.

Ah, well. He found himself sinking into the story, listening to Touya’s droning voice, and he found his eyes were slipping shut as Touya adjusted him in his arms so he was better supported. It was a swashbuckling adventure, telling the story of an otter that loved to sail the seas. He found that he was entirely wrapped up in the story, despite his sleepiness.

“Okay, that’s the first chapter,” Touya said, and dogeared the book before he shut it.

“Will you read the rest to me?” Moriatsu asked as he rubbed his eyes, and Touya pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

“Yeah,” he replied. “We’ll read some more after dinner.”

“Okay,” Moriatsu said, and Touya got up and made his way to the door. “Can I go with you?”

“Nah, stay here and go help Mom in the kitchen,” Touya replied, and Moriatsu nodded and got up, fully intending to follow Touya later, because he loved to watch Touya train. He knew his favorite spot, and he would follow him thirty minutes after he left. Touya wouldn’t mind if he found him. He needed to show Dad his new super move, and Moriatsu wanted to see it.

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Moriatsu crept through the forest, on the hunt for Touya’s trail, rats scurrying along behind him as he pushed through the branches hanging down over him. He could smell smoke, which meant he was getting close, but he thought it was a little weird that Touya was starting so low down. He normally smelled smoke much further down.

His brother had apparently changed spots, but ever since Moriatsu’s quirk came in, he had the same senses as his previous life. He could track him down, but it was weird that he wasn’t catching his scent. He normally could smell him by now. His nose twitched, and he looked up at the sky. A huge waft of smoke drifted down to him, and he looked up at the darkening sky. It was lit up red, and his brows furrowed.

“Go get Dad,” he ordered the rats, because Dad had come home and not followed after Touya, as usual, and the rats turned and scurried down the hill.

Moriatsu continued on, walking through the forest as the scent of smoke got thicker and thicker. A breeze caught it, and he dropped to all fours to sniff around the trail for the scent of Touya. He caught it, straightening up and continuing his walk, and he picked up the pace. The air was growing warmer, for some strange reason, but it was the middle of summer, so he supposed it wasn’t that strange. But, the smoke was getting thicker.

He caught sight of a tree lit up like a Christmas tree, a line of fire following after it, and his eyes widened.

Touya.

Touya wasn’t fireproof.

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Enji was in his office when there was insistent scratching at the door. Squeaks and peeps emanated from it, his son’s damned rats squealing at the tops of their lungs, and he got up in annoyance as he marched to the door and pulled it open.

The rats spilled into the room and circled around him, and he twitched in irritation.

“What?” he asked in annoyance, and they squealed at him insistently. “MORI! GET YOUR RATS!”

There was no response, and he marched down the hall and ripped open the door to Mori’s room. It was bare and quiet, with books scattered all over the floor, his bed left in an unmade mess, and Rei really needed to improve the discipline around here. There were toys everywhere, left in various action poses, and when the fuck did Rei get him an All Might action figure? The fuck?

She was trying to get under his skin, he thought in annoyance, but Mori was nowhere to be seen. Annoyed, he slammed the door shut, and the rats poured down the hallway, squeaking at him insistently.

“What? What do you want?” he snapped, and they circled around him before they skittered down the hall, looking over their shoulder at him. He inhaled slowly, and then he let out a breath.

Right. Okay. The rats wanted him to follow him, but he didn’t have time to play hide and seek with Mori.

“REI!” he thundered, and charged into the kitchen. “Contain your children.”

“What?” Rei asked as she turned to face him, and he irritably gestured to the rats once again circling around him.

“The rats won’t leave me alone. Where’s Mori?” he asked, and she frowned.

“He was in the living room last I checked, but I think he might have left to follow Touya to Sekoto Peak.”

Enji’s eye twitched, and he inhaled slowly.

“You let him go? He could get burned,” he snapped, now more annoyed at her than the rats.

“Touya is very careful when he has Mori with him,” she replied and turned back to the counter to fluff up the rice. “Could you go get them and tell them to come home for dinner?”

“I don’t have time to go---”

“Please,” Rei said quietly, and Enji twitched. Right. She wanted him to spend more time with Touya.

“Fine,” he snapped and headed for the front door, stepping into his shoes and narrowly missing stepping on a rat, who were circling around him and leaping up in anxiety. What were they so worked up about, anyways?

Enji opened the door and stepped outside, and then he looked to Sekoto Peak, just behind the house.

He froze.

There was smoke pouring off of it, and it was lit up orange.

Mori and Touya.

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Moriatsu coughed, wheezing as he fought past the smoke.

“TOUYA!” he cried, wheezing as his eyes and nose ran from the snot. It was all orange fire, eating up the trees, and he could see blue flames starting. He didn’t know what was going on. Touya’s quirk wasn’t blue, so maybe he got in a fight with someone. “TOUYA!”

He fought through the fire, the rats circling around him anxiously, and wheezed again. He couldn’t breathe. There was so much smoke. He couldn’t see properly, and his eyes were streaming and burning in pain, but he needed to find Touya. The heat was so intense. It was beyond intense, and he was sweltering in it.

“TOUYA!” he screamed, his voice rough and ragged, and then---

He was getting lightheaded. He needed to get out of here, he realized. He wasn’t going to find Touya. But, there was nowhere to go.

There was fire on every tree, and all he could see, as far as his eye could follow, was blue flames and orange flames. He collapsed to the ground, wheezing hard, and struggled to pull himself to his feet as his rats squealed in alarm, swarming over him, trying to push him to get up. But, he couldn’t get up. His eyes were running, his nose was running, and his lungs were charred to hell.

Fire licked at his bare arms, and he screamed in pain as it bit into him, rolling to get away from it, but his back hit a tree that was blazing. His shirt caught fire, and he screamed and rolled to put it out, blue fire trailing after him, and the pain was too much.

He inhaled more smoke, and he was too lightheaded. He couldn’t breathe, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He got to his feet, took a few more staggering steps, and then he collapsed.

The fire continued to blaze merrily around him, and the last thing he heard was someone scream his name.

“MORI!”

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Triage was one of the first things they hammered in. Triage was important, and you had to prioritize the first rescue you found. Mori was unconscious on the ground, rats swarming around him, and Enji was frozen, barely breathing as the smoke continued to not affect him.

He didn’t know where Touya was. He did not know where Touya was, but here was Mori, right in front of him. His youngest child, and for a second, Enji was the worst parent in the world.

He had raised Touya for nearly thirteen years, and had trained him for six of those thirteen years. He had loved him, and then rejected him.

Mori was four. Mori was mutated. Mori may not even be his child. He had held him in the delivery room, stared at those gray eyes, and wondered if this was going to be a repeat of Touya.

The rats were screaming at him, clawing up his pant legs, and one of them bit him. They had always been nasty little creatures. They were only sweet with Mori and Touya. Not even Rei was free of their machinations. They were constantly stealing from her while she was cooking, and Enji had no idea why she allowed them to be out so much.

He needed to find Touya.

He stared down at Mori, barely breathing, and his heart twisted in his chest. The boy’s shirt was half burned off, and his arms and back were blistering. He was barely breathing, and he would die soon from the smoke inhalation if Enji didn’t get him out of here. He had no idea why Rei let him go after Touya every day. Touya wasn’t careful. Touya was raging, unhinged, and didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. The boy was dangerous.

Which would Rei be less likely to forgive?

Triage.

Triage was the duty of a pro.

He picked up Mori.

Chapter Text

Enji sat in silence at Mori’s bedside.

They didn’t find Touya. They sent in heroes, and he was nowhere to be found, but he had one piece of him left. A bit of jawbone. It was in evidence now, and he was… He didn’t know what to do. Mori was on a ventilator, and all he could think was that he failed.

He had initially not gone to Sekoto Peak because he didn’t want to encourage Touya. He didn’t want him to think Enji would reward this kind of behavior. The flames had burned so hot, and now Mori was laying on his stomach, his back exposed with burn scarring, his arms burnt to hell. He had learned early on to stop drop and roll due to Shouto’s quirk, but that wasn’t fucking helpful when an entire forest was on fire.

The hospital had been nearby, and Enji had gone back to look for Touya while they took Mori away in an ambulance, hooked up to oxygen and breathing terribly. He was short of breath, and every breath he did take was a wheeze. But, Touya was nowhere. He was absolutely nowhere. All Enji had left of him was a piece of jawbone, and now he needed to be with his youngest.

He wanted to go back and look for him, but Rei was with the kids, and he didn’t think any of the kids should be here right now. There was no way Touya was dead. Touya couldn’t be dead. He didn’t believe it.

“Daddy!” Touya screamed as he ran to him, and Enji went stock still as he wrapped his arms around his legs. “Do you want to see the drawing I made at school?”

Enji hadn’t looked at the drawing.

Had Mori ever even called him ‘Daddy’? As far as Enji could remember, it had always been ‘Dad’. He was not affectionate, not prone to clinging. He wasn’t shy, not in the slightest, but Enji could still remember how he used to nap with Touya on his chest. He didn’t do that with Mori. Didn’t have the time. He had never bonded with him, and the boy always stared at him strangely, like he was peering right into his soul. There was something off about him, something animalistic and opportunistic, and Enji could never put his finger on it, but he didn’t trust him.

Which was insane, because he was barely not a toddler.

But, there was something in his eyes…

Maybe it was his quirk. Mori had always been a biter. Whenever Enji tried to hold him, he bit him. At first, when he just had gums, it was funny, but then it became a problem, so Enji just stopped holding him. He left Rei to raise him on his own, and Shouto had been his focus, ever since he popped out with that downy soft red and white hair. He changed his diapers, fed him, and typically avoided Mori.

Because Mori had his mother’s eyes, for all he was the spitting image of Enji, right down to the facial structure. Shouto had his mother’s facial structure, but Mori was like Enji had cloned himself, sans the eyes. He looked just like him.

It had probably been stupid to ask Rei to do a paternity test. Of course she would say no. But…

Enji stared at Mori. He had sacrificed Touya for him, and had he made the right choice?

What would Rei say? She was keeping the kids calm right now, but…

What would she say?

Why did Mori follow him? Why would he do something so colossally stupid? He had always followed Touya around like a little duckling. Touya had clearly loved him, and Enji had never seen the appeal. He didn’t understand the appeal at all. Of his five children, Mori was his least favorite. He had never liked him, with his beady eyes and sharp smile. He lacked all the innocence of a child, and yet he had it, but in a distant way, like he didn’t understand the point of anything you explained to him.

Enji slumped forward in his chair and put his head in his hands. The ventilator continued to breathe for his son, and the rats on the bed continued to lay there, nosing at Mori’s face, willing him to wake up. He wasn’t going to wake up for a good long while. And he would probably be confused when he woke up. You couldn’t talk on a breathing machine.

With a groan, Enji came to his feet. He needed to go find a vending machine to find something to drink. He didn’t need a drink, except maybe a stiff one, but he just---

Touya wasn’t dead, he thought to himself. Touya was not dead. He just had to find him.

He needed to go back to the peak and search for him. Mori had always been self-sufficient. He would be fine if he woke up alone.

Enji walked out into the hall, headed for the elevators, and they dinged open to reveal---

All Might.

He was carrying a bouquet of sunflowers, and he blinked at Enji.

Enji felt ire rise at him. This wouldn’t have happened if Touya wasn’t so hellbent on surpassing him. If All Might was a little less better, then he wouldn’t have done what he did. All Touya saw on the news was All Might, All Might, All Might. All his classmates talked about was All Might. It was an endless cycle, and Enji didn’t want to see him right now.

“I heard your little one was in the hospital, so I brought him flowers,” All Might said, and Enji nearly blew his lid.

“He doesn’t need flowers,” he snapped. “He needs his brother back.”

All Might paused, and Enji pushed past him into the elevator. He jabbed the button for the ground floor, intent for going to go look for Touya, and All Might caught the doors before they shut.

“Are you…” he trailed off, and then he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I should have offered my condolences first.”

“He’s not dead,” Enji hissed, and All Might stared at him with the eyes of a man that knew a child was dead and was staring at a grieving father, refusing to accept reality.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, and then he offered the flowers to Enji. “I know we haven’t always gotten along, but if you don’t want me around your son…”

Enji paused, because he didn’t realize All Might was aware enough to notice how much Enji… Enji didn’t hate him. He wanted to surpass him, but he worshiped him just as much as the next man. He looked at him and saw a sun, and he had always wanted to reach for the sun. He wanted to believe it was possible. He wanted to believe.

“You can be around him. I don’t care,” Enji said, and All Might took his hand off the door.

“Then, I will deliver these to him,” he said, and the doors started to slide shut.

Enji watched as the massive, hulking form of All Might disappeared behind the doors, and then the elevator began to slide down.

He needed to look for Touya.

He refused to believe he was dead.

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Moriatsu woke in a hospital bed, which was more surprising than it had any right to be. There was something thick in his throat, and he tried to speak, just as a reflex, but all that came out was faint noise.

He could feel something stretching across his face, and his eyes widened as he realized he couldn’t speak. Something beeping in the background accelerated, leaping erratically, and he thrashed in the bed, grabbing the tube down his throat and pulling. The door burst open, and someone rushed forward, wrenching his hand away.

“Wait, wait, you can’t do that, baby,” someone said, and his eyes welled with tears as he stared up at him. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You have a tube in your throat right now to help you breathe.”

He looked around the room wildly, and the nurse held his hand.

“Your dad was just here, I don’t know where he’s gone, but he’ll be back soon, okay?” he said as he clasped Moriatsu’s hand tightly. “You’re okay. I think he just went out to grab a drink.”

Dad was going to be back soon. Okay. Moriatsu would prefer his mom, but Dad was going to be back soon, with Touya. Unless Touya was in his own hospital room. He might be in his own hospital room, actually. That was fine. Touya was going to be okay.

But… He was actually in a lot of pain, and he made a faint noise as tears welled in his eyes, and the nurse nodded.

“Are you hurting, sweetheart? Let’s see about getting you some more painkillers,” he said and got up. “Wait right there. Don’t try to take out the tube. You need that to breathe, okay?”

Moriatsu nodded, and the nurse made his way out, the door sliding shut behind him. Moriatsu laid there as the rats nuzzled at his face, and he tried to concentrate through the pain. He remembered Dad calling his name, and loud noises, maybe a siren, but he didn’t remember anything after that. Was Dad okay? Of course Dad was okay. Dad was fireproof and smoke proof. Not that he really cared if Dad was okay or not. He knew Dad didn’t like him, so why should he like Dad?

Mom liked him, though.

At least Mom liked him, he thought to himself as he closed his eyes. The tube down his throat was uncomfortable and pressing, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. The nurse said it breathed for him, but he wasn’t sure how true that was. He could feel it blowing air into his lungs and sucking it out, and his arms and back hurt.

The nurse came back in with a doctor, and he opened his eyes as he stared at them. The doctor smiled at him.

“Hey, Moriatsu,” he said gently. “How you doing?”

Moriatsu stared at him, wondering when his dad was coming back. He felt like his dad should be here if they were going to talk to a doctor.

The doctor checked the monitors Moriatsu was hooked up to, and then he nodded to the nurse, who injected something into the tube that was attached to Moriatsu’s hand.

“Your dad will be right back,” the doctor promised. “We’ll see about discharging you in a few days.”

Moriatsu nodded, and the doctor reached forward to pat one of the rats on the head, and Moriatsu closed his eyes.

The doctor and the nurse shuffled out of the room, and Moriatsu resigned himself to waiting. Dad probably wasn’t far away, so he waited.

And he waited.

And he waited.

There was nothing to do except lay there, and he found himself bored out of his mind. Nurses came in and out to check on him, and Dad did not appear. He was left on the breathing machine, and the shadows in the room lengthened and stretched out. He watched the clock on the wall, because he was learning to read clocks, and the time ticked past. Moriatsu waited for three hours, wondering where his dad was. Nurses said nothing to him, but he could hear them talking in the hall.

“How could Endeavor just leave a baby like that? He’s lucky he’s so calm,” one was saying, and Moriatsu blinked.

“Well, he’s probably searching for his other son still,” said the other, and Moriatsu went still.

Touya was… still gone?

… What?

Panic clawed up into his lungs, because Touya had promised to read to him after dinner. They needed to finish the book. They needed to finish the book, so why was Touya still missing? Touya couldn’t be missing.

“Still, that is a four year old, and he didn’t even call his wife to let her know he’s still searching,” the nurse said. “I have half a mind to call her myself.”

“Don’t get involved in the number two pro’s marriage, my gods, Inko!”

“What? We have an unattended four year old, and she probably has the news off while she tries to keep the other kids calm. She probably has no idea he’s here alone,” Inko, apparently, sniffed. “I’m going to call her.”

Mom was coming? Dad was still searching for Touya? What was going on? He was suddenly terrified, and tears welled in his eyes. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t scream. All he could do was fight back the tears.

When was Dad going to find Touya?

Chapter Text

Shouto didn’t play with Mori. He barely saw him, really. He didn’t understand why they all needed to go to the hospital to see him, or why he was even in the hospital. All of Shouto’s days were full of training and working hard with his father, so he didn’t really know his twin, and he was a little upset about it. He thought twins should be together more than they were separated, but Dad didn’t want him to have anything to do with him.

Mori got toys and time to play with his siblings.

Shouto got the training room.

He kind of hated Mori.

His rats were always all over the place, and Shouto didn’t like rats. He didn’t like rats at all. They always stared at him with beady eyes and nosed around like they were sniffing for something he couldn’t see. He had gotten used to them being underfoot, and they weren’t allowed in the training room, but there was always one popping up while Mori was at school. He didn’t keep track of them and let them roam all over the house, and Shouto was tired of it.

He didn’t like Mori. Mom let him get away with everything, and Dad let Shouto get away with nothing. So, he didn’t want to see him in the hospital, but here he was, getting dragged down the hall with Mom’s hand gripped tightly in his as Natsuo and Fuyumi followed along behind him. There was a sense of terror, and Mom seemed mad as she reached the door and flung it open.

Mori was laid out on his stomach, with rats all over the bed, and Shouto stared in horror. There was a tube in his mouth, taped to his cheek, and his eyes were shut. He was breathing slowly and evenly, and the burning…

His back was exposed, red, angry red skin, with burns all down his arms, stretched across his shoulders and down his arms. He looked… at least his face was fine. Mom rushed to his side and brushed his hair out of his eyes, and he opened them and stared at her with those same gray eyes that haunted Shouto, reminded him of a life he would never have.

“Hey, baby,” Mom cooed as Fuyumi made a strangled noise, high in the back of her throat, and pressed her hands to her face. “Mom’s here, it’s going to be okay.”

Big tears welled up in Mori’s eyes, and then he started crying. They slipped down, and Shouto stared at him in silence.

He knew burns were bad, but he didn’t understand why Mori was crying. All he thought when he saw him was the burns on Touya’s arms. Where was Touya?

“How could Dad just leave him like that? ” Natsuo demanded, and Mom shot him a look.

“Don’t make him more upset,” she chided, and Mori started crying in earnest. Snot leaked out of his nose, and alarms started to blare, hurting Shouto’s ears, and he just wished Mori would stop.

A nurse came into the room and stopped, with a conflicted look on her face, and Mom glanced at him.

“Is he okay to cry like this?” she asked, and he hesitated.

“I’ll check with a doctor,” he said and made his way out the door. Mori made a faint noise, and Mom smoothed her hands down his face.

“Don’t sob too hard, baby,” she said, and his burnt hand curled in the blanket. “Why did you…”

She trailed off, and Shouto wondered what she was going to say. His eyes caught the sight of sunflowers on the table, and he wondered if Dad got them for him. Probably not. Dad wouldn’t get flowers for anyone. He wasn’t like that.

Mori hiccuped and buried his face in the pillow, like he was embarrassed to be crying, and Mom took a deep breath before she took Shouto’s hand.

“Touya may not be coming back,” she said, and Shouto froze.

… What?

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Fuyumi stared at Mom, and Mom looked like she was holding back tears. Her hands were trembling, and she looked like the world had crashed down around her.

Touya… may not be coming back?

What?

Fuyumi’s brain was in a haze. Touya wasn’t coming back?

“I’m not saying he’s dead, but he might be,” Mom said, and Fuyumi swayed. “And I need you all to be prepared for that.”

“This is Dad’s fault,” Natsuo snarled, and Mom pursed her lips and looked down as Shouto stood there in shock.

“Let’s not play the blame game,” Mom said quietly, and Natsuo’s voice rose to a shout.

“But it’s his fault! If he didn’t play eugenics, made Touya think he could surpass All Might without even checking, this would have never happened!” he screamed, and Fuyumi took a shaky breath in.

How did you deal with the news that your brother wasn’t coming home?

Fuyumi felt weirdly calm. She felt weirdly calm, but she didn’t know how to approach this. There was buzzing in the back of her head, and she opened her mouth and shut it. Touya had always liked Mori best. Even when he was a baby, before his quirk came in. Everyone had expected him to end up just like Touya, with the fire, but the cold resistant skin, but he had come out a mutant. She thought that had caused a bit of camaraderie with him and Touya. Touya had always paid more attention to him, loved him in a way he didn’t love his other siblings, and he had hated Shouto. He had hated him.

And now Touya was gone. They had been searching for twelve hours now, and no one had slept. Mom had called them all in for school, and Fuyumi was feeling a little delirious from the sleep deprivation.

Touya may not be coming home?

What a weird way to put he was dead.

She sat down on the floor and drew her knees to her chin in silence as Natsuo ranted and raved.

“This isn’t fair! Touya’s not fucking dead! And if he is, Dad killed him! ” he screamed, his voice breaking, and Mori hiccuped again. Shouto started crying, scared at the screaming, and Mori just stared at nothing, unable to speak as the nurse came back in.

“Okay, you can’t get him wound up like this,” he said as he made his way to Mori. “Mrs. Todoroki, please send your other children out. You can stay with him.”

“Natsuo, why don’t you go down to the waiting room with Fuyumi to calm down, and I’ll be here with Shouto?” Mom asked, and Natsuo fell silent, breathing hard as he stared at Mori.

“Fine,” he spat out. “Come on, Fuyumi.”

With that, he whirled on one foot and marched towards the door, and Fuyumi came to her numb feet and drifted along behind him. Her brain was in a haze. Touya was dead? That wasn’t possible. Touya couldn’t be dead. Touya… couldn’t be dead.

He couldn’t be.

Who would she steal shirts from and annoy when he was doing his homework? Who would pull her hair and call her a gutter rat? Who would smile at her, on rare occasions when he did smile, and tell her to punch boys in the nose if they asked her out?

Why was Touya gone?

Touya… Touya couldn’t be dead.

He couldn’t be.

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Rei didn’t feel good about sending out the older kids. She needed to be with all of them right now, but she needed to be with Mori more. He was crying softly, and Shouto was staring at the ground, tears running down his cheeks. They were dripping onto the floor, and she stood up and sat down in a chair, pulling Shouto into her lap and wrapping her arms around him.

Her son was dead.

She said he may not be coming home, but she knew in her heart he was dead.

She would have to keep it together for her other four kids. She would have to be strong. She didn’t want to be strong. She wanted to be weak and go to her husband for comfort, but her husband didn’t comfort. He didn’t do anything but continue on as things were, burning in his desire to be number one.

Rei buried her face in the back of Shouto’s neck, smelling the baby shampoo she still used on his hair, and took a deep breath in. She was shaking, and she wanted to sob so, so badly, but she had Shouto in her lap. She couldn’t cry now.

Her son was dead, and it would be easy to blame Enji. It would be startlingly easy to blame Enji, but if she did that, she would be on a one track to a divorce, and the kids needed a stable home. They needed a stable home, and a court case would tear them apart. Furthermore, he would probably only want Shouto, and he would get them, and then he would grow up with no contact with his siblings. She would have to sacrifice Shouto to get out, and she couldn’t…

She couldn’t sacrifice her son.

For the peace of her family, she would not blame Enji. She would not blame him, but she wanted to, desperately. She wanted to scream at him that this was all his fault, that he was to blame, and she couldn’t do that. She just…

She took a shaky breath in, still pressing her face to Shouto’s neck as he quietly cried, and she didn’t know what to do as a mother. She needed to stick around to protect Shouto. That was her duty as a mother, so she wouldn’t blame Enji.

She felt like the world was crumbling, and tears started to drip. She couldn’t cry. She needed to keep it together for her babies. She couldn’t cry, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Touya was dead, and it was her own fault. He would have listened to her. She should have told him to stop. She should have told him to stop being a dreamer and face reality. She should have been harsher with him, but gods, she didn’t want to crush his dreams like that. She loved him too much, and if she loved him a little less, he might still be alive.

This was her own fault. Mori was her fault, too. He was burned to hell, damage to his lungs from the smoke inhalation, and she shouldn’t have let him go with Touya to Sekoto Peak. She shouldn’t have encouraged that, but Touya was always so careful with his little brother. He was always so, so careful with him.

This was Enji’s fault.

She didn’t want it to be Enji’s fault.

It was hers, too. If she had been a better mother, this would have never happened. She was to blame for this, not Enji. She knew she was in charge of Touya once his training ended, and she knew she was in charge of Mori, and she had done nothing to stop this.

The guilt was going to eat her alive.

She had killed her son, permanently maimed the other. This was her fault. She looked up with teary eyes at Mori, who was still quietly crying, tears streaming down his cheeks, unable to speak. He was partially sedated to make the tube more comfortable for him, the nurses said, and she just…

She had made a mistake.

She had made a mistake, and the result was the life of her son.

Fuck, Mori looked just like Touya.

She could see the red hair and gray eyes, and all she could think was that she failed as a mother.

She had failed as a mother, and now her son was dead, and it was all her fault.

She was in charge of them. She should have told Mori no, no going to Sekoto Peak. She should have told Touya that, too.

She should have done better than this.

And now her son was dead.

Her son was… dead.

Her son was dead.

Chapter Text

Enji carried Mori into the house, his son passed out against his chest. The boy was sleeping soundly, just completely out, and Enji wished he could sleep it all away. The rats pooled around his feet as he stepped out of his shoes and got Mori’s shoes off, and then he carried him to his room.

The burn scars were stark on his skin, and Enji tried to ignore them as he laid Mori down on his belly and pulled the blanket over him. He hadn’t slept in days, and he needed to go pass out. Mori needed to wake up for real food, but in the meantime, he could just sleep.

Enji straightened up and stared at the boy in silence. He was completely passed out, the blanket pulled over him, and all Enji could think was that if he had just… just… just left him, then Touya might still be alive.

Because Touya was dead. Enji had searched for three days while Mori was at the hospital, and they found nothing but the jawbone.

Enji didn’t want to accept it. They were now dragging the lake, looking for his body, and he was…

He didn’t know what to feel.

If he had gone to search for Touya, then Mori would be dead. If he left Mori, then Touya would be alive. It was a no win scenario.

He stared down at Mori for a long, long moment. He still thought he should get a paternity test. But, Rei wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t know why she picked this hill to die on, and the idea that he let his own son burn for a child that wasn’t even his kid…

He didn’t know how to feel about that one.

Mori’s hair was in his eyes, the way it always was, and he irritably thought Rei needed to take him to get a haircut. His hair was always wild and out of control, and she let him just go around looking like that. It was frustrating. He was a Todoroki, and that needed to reflect.

Mori made a muffled noise into the pillow and twitched, his hand curling in the blanket, and the rats nosed at his face before they all laid down in the nooks and crannies he was making with his body. He curled up, and then his eyes blinked open.

“Dad?” he asked, his voice a painful rasp, and Enji stared down at him.

“What?” he asked, and Mori’s eyes welled with tears.

“Touya is gone?”

Right. Rei would have told them.

Enji didn’t say anything for a long, long moment, because if Mori hadn’t been there, he might have been able to find Touya. If only the boy could behave. He never behaved. He wasn’t quiet and calm like his other siblings. He didn’t have Rei’s temperament, didn’t have Enji’s, and he had no idea what to do with him. If Enji had known he was going to Sekoto Peak, he would have told him no. Rei just let him run wild, and Enji was sick of it.

“Touya is gone,” he confirmed, and the confirmation was like a bullet to the chest. He didn’t want to confirm it. He didn’t want to say it. He would have to hold a funeral for his thirteen year old son. He didn’t want to do it. He didn’t even want to think about it.

Mori’s eyes welled with tears, and he started to quietly cry. Tears slipped down his cheeks, and he wiped his eyes, which only made him cry harder, and Enji stared down at him.

He had no right to be upset.

If he hadn’t been there, then Enji would have gotten to Touya in time.

But, he was also four, so Enji supposed he would cry.

Without a word, Enji turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving him to cry his eyes out in his room.

He wasn’t going to comfort him. Leave that to Rei.

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When Moriatsu was a littermate, one of his siblings died. They were small and weak, and he remembered nudging them over and over again, trying to get them to wake up, but they never woke up. He hadn’t thought he would have to go through that a second time.

Touya was dead, and he couldn’t believe it. He could not believe it. There was no way Touya was dead. Touya was…

Touya was supposed to finish reading the book to him.

They were supposed to read the book together.

Moriatsu hiccuped on a sob. His lungs and throat still hurt. He was still in pain. His back and shoulders hurt, and he didn’t know what to do.

Touya was supposed to read the book to him.

Moriatsu curled up in his blanket, sobbing softly, because Touya was supposed to finish the book. How was Moriatsu supposed to read it on his own?

It was a bit like the world was ending. Touya had always played with him, liked him best out of all their siblings. He was his brother, and he loved him. He loved him so, so much, and he was gone. Why? Why was he gone? How was that fair?

When Moriatsu died the first time, he knew it was because life wasn’t fair. He knew human cruelty, and he wanted to be better than that. He wanted to be better than that. He wanted to… he wanted the world to be kind to people that were smaller than them, he wanted the world to be gentle.

This wasn’t kind. This wasn’t gentle. This wasn’t a world that was fair. He knew it was a lot to ask of it, but Touya… Touya was his brother. He was supposed to grow up with him. He was supposed to love him forever. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Moriatsu understood what death was. Oh, gods, he understood what death was. He knew what it meant to go away into the night and never come back. He had died himself, and he just had to believe Touya had just gotten the chance he had. Maybe he was reincarnated. Maybe he was…

Maybe he was alive somewhere.

It was little consolation. Moriatsu wasn’t so selfless as to be happy that Touya was happier elsewhere, given a second chance elsewhere, because he was missing him. He was missing him. He wanted his brother back. He knew another life came after this, because he was living proof, but he wanted his brother.

And his brother was dead.

Moriatsu quietly cried into his pillow, and the rats nosed at his face, squeaking softly as they tried to comfort him, to no avail. He couldn’t be comforted. He felt like he was drowning. He felt like the ocean waves were crashing against him, battering him against the shore, and he was sobbing painfully. He curled up on his side, ignoring the pain that flared in his shoulder, and sobbed his lungs out.

He had tried to reach Touya. He tried to save him. Why was he not enough to save his brother? Why was he not enough to rescue his own brother?

Why couldn’t he save his own brother?

His door slid open, and he looked up. Shouto was standing there, staring at him with those expressionless gray blue eyes, and Moriatsu sniffled and wiped his nose.

“What?” he asked, and Shouto stared at him for a long, long moment.

“I hate you,” he said, and Moriatsu went still. “Mom loves you more than she loves me, and I hate you. I hate your gross rats that always bite me, and I hate your stupid face that looks like Dad’s, and I hate you. I’m not sorry. You got Touya killed.”

The words settled in Moriatsu’s chest.

You got Touya killed.

Did he… get Touya killed? Dad… Dad could have saved him if Moriatsu wasn’t there, couldn’t he?

He… he got Touya killed.

He got his own brother killed because he couldn’t take no for an answer.

Moriatsu said nothing, and Shouto stared at him with angry eyes.

“This is all your fault,” he said, and Moriatsu hiccuped. “This is all your fault, and now Mom won’t stop crying because of you. ”

Moriatsu wiped his eyes, and Shouto closed the door. He listened to his twin walk off down the hall, and he hiccuped.

He had nothing to say to that.

He had absolutely nothing to say to that.

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Shouto walked off down the hall in silence, anger rising and boiling over. Dad said it was Mori’s fault, and Dad was always right, so it was clear that Mori was in the wrong here. If Mori wasn’t there, Dad would have had time to find Touya and save him. He would have been able to save him. But, no. Mori. Stupid Mori, always clinging to Touya’s skirts, always following along behind him, had to be there.

And now Touya was dead.

Touya was dead, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

“Shouto, can you get Mori for dinner?” Mom called, and Shouto glared at her.

“I’m not getting him for anything,” he bit out, and Mom paused as she mixed up the seaweed salad. He hated seaweed salad. He didn’t know why she insisted on feeding him it.

“Did you get in a fight with him?” Mom asked, and Shouto flung himself down to the table and glared at it.

“No,” he bit out, because Mori hadn’t done much of anything, and Mom frowned.

“Okay…” she said, and then she set down the bowl and washed her hands. “I’ll get Mori, then.”

“I don’t want to see him,” Shouto loudly declared, and Mom inhaled slowly.

“He has to eat, Shouto. He’s been on a liquid diet for three days,” she said, and he glared at the table.

This was all Mori’s fault. If Mori hadn’t been there, Dad would have been able to save Touya. Touya wouldn’t be dead if Mori hadn’t been there. Stupid Mori. He hated Mori. Mori and his rats and his mother’s love. Mom spent so much time with him, and Shouto barely saw her, except over dinner. He was fed up with it.

Mori had stolen his mother from him, and it was unfair. It was unfair. He was sick of the rats. He was sick of Mori. Now everyone was in a fuss over Mori, and Shouto was forgotten. Mom was not understanding that Shouto wanted him gone. He didn’t want to have to look at him every day and know he got Touya killed. It was infuriating. It was wrong. Touya was dead, and Mori was alive. Useless Mori, with the rat quirk, who probably wasn’t even Dad’s. He still remembered that fight on his fourth birthday. He didn’t understand what a paternity test was, but he understood the basics of the argument. He knew Mori wasn’t Dad’s. It was wrong. It was perverted, raising another person’s child.

Mori was not his brother.

He wasn’t his brother.

He was just the stupid little kid that got his real brother killed.

Mom went off down the hall and opened Mori’s door, talking to him in quiet tones. There was no response, and then Mori shuffled out, sitting down next to Shouto at the table and staring blankly at the food there. Mom set down the bowl of seaweed salad as Fuyumi and Natsuo came to the table, their faces puffy and red. They all sat down, and Mom pressed her hands together.

“Thank you for this food,” they all said, and then they started to eat.

Mori didn’t touch his food. He just stared blankly at his bowl of rice, and Shouto ignored him as he shoveled rice into his mouth. No one was saying anything. Natsuo wasn’t touching his food, either, shaking in barely-contained rage as he tried hard to fight back tears.

“I made your favorite, baby,” Mom said to Mori. “Seaweed salad.”

Slowly, mechanically, he picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the seaweed salad, and Mom nodded and turned back to her own food. So, this was for Mori. Typical, Shouto thought angrily as he picked at his fish. Just typical.

“Mori, you have to go back to school tomorrow. Are you ready for it?” Mom asked, and Mori said nothing. Shouto ignored that, and Mom pursed her lips. “Mori.”

He said nothing, and Shouto crammed rice into his mouth. Was he going to tattle? Tell Mom Shouto was being mean? Shouto didn’t care. Mori wasn’t even supposed to be here.

He chowed down on the fish, and Mom pursed her lips and looked down at her rice.

“Okay,” she said softly. “Mori---”

“He doesn’t want to talk, Mom,” Natsuo snapped. “None of us do.”

Mom flinched, and Shouto’s head snapped up.

“Don’t be mean to Mom!” he cried, and Natsuo frowned at him.

“I’m not being mean to her---”

“Just stop it! ” Fuyumi said and slammed her hands into the table. “I’m going to my room.”

With that, she got up and left, and Mori plucked at his salad in silence. Shouto let an angry breath out of his nose, and then he got up.

“Then, I’m going to my room, too!” he cried, and off he went, stopping at the door as Mom burst into tears.

Oh.

Oh, no.

“Just stop fighting! ” she cried, and then she started to weep. “Just stop fighting, please.”

Shouto froze, not sure what to do, and Mori got up and left.

“Aw, Mom, don’t cry---” Natsuo said, and Mom came to her feet and fled. Natsuo sat in silence, frustrated, and Shouto stood frozen in the doorway.

He didn’t know what to do.

His family was broken, and he didn’t know what to do.

Chapter Text

“He hasn’t spoken once in class all week,” Miss Bushido said over the phone as Rei wiped down the counters and looked over her shoulder at Mori sitting there with his book. “I think there needs to be an intervention. He clearly needs a therapist.”

“I’ll talk to his father about it,” Rei promised, and her heart sank in her chest, because Mori wasn’t speaking. “We’ll get something worked out.”

“Okay,” Miss Bushido said, and then… “I’m so sorry this has happened to your family.”

Rei was quiet, and then she coughed.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and her voice broke. “I’ll try to get him to talk.”

“Alright. I truly believes he needs professional help,” Miss Bushido did. “Grief counseling is difficult, but…”

“I’ll talk to his father,” Rei promised, and Miss Bushido sighed.

“Okay. He really is a delight to have in class, when he’s…” she trailed off. “Not that I’m not delighted to have him in class like this. He’s really a smart child. He struggles with his kanji and katakana, but he’s incredibly bright.”

“Thank you,” Rei whispered, because she knew Mori was smart. This wasn’t a surprise to her. He had always watched her with such bright eyes, like he was learning everything and taking it all in. He loved to watch her.

He wouldn’t even look at her now.

“I have to go, but don’t hesitate to call. If this continues, I think an IEP might be in order,” the teacher said, and Rei nodded.

An IEP.

None of her children had IEPs.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and then she hung up the phone and turned back to Mori, leaning on the counter as he stared down at his book. He had been clingy lately. He followed her around everywhere, not liking to let her out of his sight, and she was worried about it. He wasn’t talking to his siblings, wasn’t talking to her, wouldn’t even go outside. He just sat and read, like he was trying to hammer the kanji into his brain. It was distressing.

“Mori,” she said gently. “Do you want to go to the park?”

He didn’t respond, and she walked towards him and went on her knees in front of him.

“Let’s go play at the park, with your friends,” she said, and he didn’t look up, still reading his book. “Or we can go for a walk, just you and me.”

A walk might be better. She was going to have to add vitamin D to his vitamins at this rate. Mori wasn’t reacting to her. Her heart clenched, and she gently pulled the book out of his unresisting hands and dog eared the page, closing it.

“Come on, baby,” she said and offered her hand, and he took it in silence. She stood up, and drew him towards the door and down the hall. It was lightly sprinkling outside, not really raining, so they would go for a walk. He always loved to splash in the puddles. She would get him in his little rain boots and raincoat, and, and…

She used to do this with Touya, she realized, and it was like a bullet to the heart.

She used to do this with Touya, when it was raining, and now he was gone.

All she had left of him was a bedroom with a shrine in it and photos. She had nothing left, and she blinked back her tears.

When she read about it in books, it was described as a hole in your heart. This didn’t feel like something as simple as a hole. It felt like a gushing, gushing wound, pouring her blood all over her hands, and she… she…

Rei swallowed down the lump in her throat and turned to Mori, helping him get his coat on, and he let her pull it on him and zip him up. His gray eyes were still on the ground, lifeless, and she needed to talk to Enji about getting him in to see a therapist. This had affected all of them heavily, but Mori seemed to be hit the hardest. She helped him step into his rain boots, and then she got on her own raincoat and boots and opened the door.

The rain was coming down harder than she anticipated, but Mori needed to go outside. So, she flicked up her hood and put his up, and then she walked outside with him. He went forward with that same blank expression on his face, and she held his hand as they walked down the drive towards the gates at the end. She got open the gate and led him onto the sidewalk, and they walked through the rain, Mori making no moves to jump in the puddles or even turn his face up to the sky so the rain could fall on his face.

Her heart was breaking.

She just lost one son, had lost another the second he was born, and now she was feeling like she was losing a third.

Yes. She would put him in therapy. She would have to put him in therapy. Maybe get her other kids in it, too. But, Mori needed it the most.

The rain pattered down on her raincoat, and she turned her head up to the sky to let it fall on her face.

If only rain fell the day the forest burned.

.

.

.

.

.

Enji stared at the headline.

Endeavor’s Oldest Son Burns in Accidental Wildfire

He knew it would hit the news. He knew it would hit the news, but it still twisted his gut. He wanted to grieve in private, not have his grief plastered all over the tabloids. It was a public affair now, and his PR still hadn’t put out a statement. He refused to sign off on any of them, and they were starting to get frustrated with him. He didn’t really care, though. Sharing it on social media would make it real. And he did not want to make it real.

There was a part of him that believed Touya was still alive. He had gone up to Sekoto Peak every day to search for him instead of train Shouto, and they were dragging the lake for his body. Maybe, if Enji saw his body, it would be real. It didn’t feel real yet. He walked through the ash and burnt trees, crying his son’s name, and he knew he was little more than a man refusing to believe his son was dead.

He didn’t want to believe his son was dead.

He was barely breathing as he stared at the headline on his laptop, and the door to his office opened. Rei slipped in and shut the door behind her, and then she took a deep breath in.

“We need to get the kids in grief counseling,” she said, and Enji stared at her.

“No,” he said flatly, and she pursed her lips.

“They need to go,” she insisted, and he bristled. “Their brother is dead. Mori hasn’t spoken since you brought him home. Shouto is refusing to do his schoolwork. Fuyumi is crying every day, and Natsuo is angry.”

“We’re not sending them to therapy,” Enji said flatly. “It’s non negotiable.”

“They need to go, ” Rei insisted, and Enji’s lips flattened into a thin line.

“My dad died, and I managed just fine without grief therapy, ” he said dismissively, and she stared at him in disbelief.

“Just fine?” her voice cracked. “You think all of this is just fine?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice tinged with aggression, and she gestured.

“All of this! This insane desire to raise an heir to be number one---”

“You didn’t have any problems with it when we got married,” Enji shot back, and she glared at him.

“I can change my mind. ”

“It’s a little late to change your mind,” he said derisively. “We’re already five kids deep, including a set of twins. ”

‘Five kids’ settled on them like a blanket made of thorns, and both of them froze as they realized…

It was no longer five kids.

It was no longer five kids, and Enji swallowed as Rei’s lower lip wobbled. She was going to cry again. She had been crying every night, once the kids were in bed and could not hear her, and she was going to cry again.

Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she turned aside and walked out the door.

“Rei, wait,” he called as he got up, and she inhaled shakily, her voice ragged and broken, and he hurried after her. “Rei. Rei. Stop for a moment.”

“He’s dead, ” she sobbed and started to shake. “He’s dead and I--- I can’t do this. I can’t be there for my kids. I’m not strong enough for this.”

“Yes, you are,” he told her, because she had pushed out five kids. She was the strongest woman he knew. She had a fortitude like he had never seen before, and he knew she could stand up to this.

“I can’t, ” she sobbed as she shook, and he grabbed her and dragged her in for a hug. “I can’t do this, Enji. I can’t be a mom and be grieving Touya, I just--- I can’t. I can’t do it, I’m not strong enough, how do I help them--- ”

“You’re doing just fine,” Enji said, and she shook in his arms. “You’re doing okay.”

“I can’t do it,” she sobbed. “I can’t do it, I’m not a good mom, I got Touya killed--- ”

“No, you didn’t,” he said, even though she did, because she didn’t tell him to stop. “You didn’t get him killed.”

“I did! ” she screamed and shoved him away, and he took two stumbling steps backwards, surprised at the strength from her. “I got him killed because I loved him too much to tell him no! ”

“Rei---”

“I don’t want to hear it!” she screamed and fell to her knees, burying her head in her hands as she rocked back and forth. “I can’t do it. I can’t do this. I can’t do it. I’m going to get my kids killed. I can’t save them--- ”

“Rei, Rei,” he said as he went on his knees in front of her. “You’re not going to get any of them killed. They’re okay. Mori is a little burnt, but he’s going to heal--- ”

“They had a tube down my baby’s throat! ” she screamed and scrambled back from him like his touch burned her. “Because I let him go up there! I let him go up there! ”

A door opened in the hall, and Mori stepped out, rats spilling behind him, and stared at them as Shouto stepped out of his own room. For a moment, the twins stared at both of them with their signature flat eyed gazes, and Enji swallowed.

“Go back to your rooms,” he ordered, but Mori approached Rei and went down on his knees next to her, reaching for her, and Shouto’s face twisted. Enji’s eyes widened, but it was too late.

Shouto’s little foot stamped on the ground, and Mori was suddenly encased in ice.

“Stay away from her! ” Shouto screamed, and Enji rocketed to his feet.

“SHOUTO!” he thundered.

“He got Touya killed, and he’s going to get Mom killed, too!” Shouto screamed, and Rei stared in horror at him.

“Shouto, how could you say that about your brother? ” she demanded, and Shouto started to pant harshly.

“That’s what Dad said!” he screamed, and Enji froze before Rei turned a furious gaze on him.

“You said what? ” she hissed, and Enji pursed his lips.

“If Mori hadn’t been there, I would have been able to find Touya,” he said, and looked at the little boy encased in ice. The rats were trying to chew through it, but it was slow going. So, Shouto had been listening to him. He wasn’t supposed to hear that. The walls in this house were too thin.

“What is wrong with you? ” Rei demanded. “Why do you hate your own son? ”

“He’s not my son!” Enji thundered, and Rei went pale.

“You have raised him,” she said, her voice shaky. “You have changed his diapers. Bottle fed him. Gave him baths. Put him to bed. Stayed awake when he was puking his guts out. Let him climb into your bed when he had a nightmare. How is he not your son? ”

Enji was barely breathing, and then Shouto let out a scream of pain as one of the rats bit down on his calf. He kicked the rat off, and the rats started biting his legs, their sharp teeth digging into the meat of his calves. He scrambled back, letting out a blast of fire, and the rats scattered before they came back, madder than ever. They hissed at him, the black fur on their backs standing straight up, and they descended on him, and Enji swept him up out of the way before he blasted fire at the frozen Mori.

The flames cut out just before Mori fell out of the ice, shivering violently, and the rats immediately swarmed around him, nudging him and wiggling under him, trying to push him up. His lips were blue, eyes unfocused, and he was shaking violently.

Great. Now both of them had to go to the hospital, Enji thought as he examined the bites on Shouto’s calves. Blood was pouring down his legs, and he was shaking and crying.

“HE’S NOT EVEN MY BROTHER!” Shouto wailed, and Enji inhaled slowly and let it out. “WHY DOES MOM LOVE HIM MORE THAN ME??”

Rei stared at him in horror, and the door opened down the hall. Fuyumi stuck her head out, and Enji’s head whipped around.

“Go to your room,” he snarled, and she stared at him with wide eyes, because he had never used that tone with her. Without a word, she shut the door, and Rei was shaking and sobbing, just fully sobbing as Mori staggered to his feet and walked towards her, placing his hands on her face and looking at her in concern.

“LEAVE HER ALOOONNNEEE!” Shouto screamed and blew fire at Mori, but Enji caught his arm and aimed it up at the ceiling. It scorched the ceiling, and he inhaled sharply.

“Shouto, knock it off, ” he snarled as Mori desperately tried to comfort Rei without saying anything, and then he turned for the door. “Mori, get your shoes on. We’re going to the hospital.”

“Wait, wait, I can---” Rei sobbed, and Enji turned a withering glare on her.

“You stay here and calm down,” he said, because she could not have meltdowns like that in front of the kids, and she froze, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Oh…” she said, and then she burst into fresh tears.

His family was in shambles, and now he had to take the twins to the hospital. He wasn’t going to be getting any sleep tonight, apparently.

Chapter Text

The loss of a child was not unlike the loss of a limb. Rei kept expecting him to be there, kept expecting him to show up, but he never showed up. She would set six places around the table, because Enji never ate with them, and then pause before she cleared up the sixth place. She would sometimes just go into his room and sit for hours, waiting for him to show up, but he never showed. It was like she was moving in a fugue, and she didn’t know how to shake herself out of it.

It didn’t help that it had been a month, and Mori still wasn’t talking. He was completely silent in school and at home, and he followed her around like a little duckling. Fuyumi and Natsuo basically completely locked themselves in their rooms. They didn’t come out for anything except food, and the bright sound of their laughter had faded.

The house had lost a limb.

And still, it was a phantom limb. She could feel his presence. She looked for him, but he was always gone.

She cried herself to sleep every night.

She wasn’t coping well, and here was Mori, staring at her with knowing, silent eyes.

Enji still refused to let any of the kids go to grief counseling. She just wanted Mori to speak again. He used to be such an animated little boy.

Mori was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, book in his lap as his rats crawled over the counters, on the hunt for food, and she let them sniff around at the potato mochi she was making before she fed them bites of potatoes. Whoever was out right now was much more polite than the ones he normally had out. They normally just stole from the bowl.

He was reading a chapter book, and she was surprised he was managing it. She had no idea where he got it. He must have stolen it from one of his siblings, and his eyes were scanning over the pages. She looked over at him in silence before Shouto shuffled into the kitchen.

He was in his training gear, and he was shivering lightly, his nose running. He must have been working on his ice today.

“Can I have some hot cocoa?” he asked without looking at Mori, and Rei nodded.

“Of course, sweetheart,” she said and picked up the kettle to fill it up. “With marshmallows?”

“Yes, please,” he said, and she filled up the kettle and put it on the stove to boil. Shouto stared at Mori in silence, and Rei braced, waiting for him to attack him, the same way he had twice now over the past month.

He didn’t attack him. He just stared at him in silence, and then he looked away. Mori seemed entirely uninterested in him, flicking to the next page of his book, and Rei got down the hot chocolate and a mug. She dumped out the packet into it, and then she turned back to her mochi. She had been cooking and baking and making a lot of sweets lately. It was the only way she could keep herself sane. She was drinking a lot of tea, too.

It felt like she and her little shadow spent all their time in the kitchen nowadays.

Rei resumed mashing up the potatoes, and Shouto slowly approached Mori. She eyed them, thinking to separate them, but Shouto just sat down across from him and stared at him. Mori ignored him, and she pursed her lips.

“Shouto,” she said warningly, and he looked back at her.

“Why does he never talk?” he demanded. “He used to talk all the time.”

“He’s upset,” she murmured, and Shouto frowned.

“Is there something wrong with him?” he demanded, and Rei eyed him. She thought to point out that he was accused of the death of his own brother, but she bit her tongue, because Shouto…

Shouto wasn’t around enough for her to have those kinds of conversations with him.

“He’ll get better,” she murmured, and she had no idea if he would get better. He may be nonverbal for the rest of his life. She had no idea. She hoped he got better, but her gregarious little boy had been silent for a month now, and she was getting worried.

She was getting very, very worried.

Shouto continued staring at Mori, and she continued mashing up the potatoes with a fork, getting them as fluffy as she could. She added in the potato starch and mixed it up, and then she got out the mozzarella to mix in. The salt was added, and she mixed up the mixture with her hand before she was satisfied. The glaze was already made, and she started heating up the skillet.

“Hey,” Shouto said to Mori, who didn’t look up from his book. “Just…”

Shouto trailed off, and she glanced over at him and the frustrated furrow of his brow as the water came to a boil. The kettle started to whistle noisily, and her phone started to ring. She answered it and turned off the water, and Mom took a deep breath in.

“Hey, baby,” Mom said as Rei poured the water into the mug and started to stir up the hot cocoa.

“Hey, Mom,” she said, rapping the spoon on the side of the mug.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Shouto said, and Rei paused as she looked over at the two of them. “I’m sorry. I was mean. You can talk now.”

Mori said nothing, and Rei’s lips furrowed as she balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear.

“Are you with the little ones?” Mom asked, and Rei dialed back into the conversation.

“Yeah. Shouto and Mori are here. I’m making potato mochi and steaming some vegetables and rice for dinner,” she said, and Mom let out a shaky sigh.

“I was talking with your dad, and do you want me to move in for a few months to help with the kids?” she asked, and Rei paused.

Did she want that?

“I… No, that’s okay,” she replied. “I don’t think Enji would agree to that.”

“You need help, Rei. You’re basically a single mother with his work schedule,” Mom said, and Rei smiled, though she didn’t feel it.

“Thank you for the offer, Mom, but everything’s okay over here,” she said, and she could practically see Mom purse her lips.

“I’m worried about you,” she said, and Rei swallowed.

“I’m okay, Mom. Really.”

“Is Mori talking yet?”

“No, but he’ll come around. He just needs a little time,” Rei said firmly, and glanced again at the boys. Shouto was staring at Mori, clearly making him uncomfortable, and she had no idea what that was going to accomplish.

“This isn’t… this isn’t healthy, Rei,” Mom said quietly, and Rei stilled. “You can come to me. Always.”

“I’ve got it, Mom,” Rei insisted. “Everything’s fine over here.”

Nothing was fine. Absolutely nothing was fine. Natsuo and Fuyumi wouldn’t come out of their rooms, Mori wouldn’t leave Rei alone for a second out of the day as soon as he was home from school, and Shouto looked like he was going to cry. Like, right now.

“I’m really sorry,” Shouto whimpered, and Mori stared at him with dead eyes. “I didn’t mean it! I was just… I was just mad, just…”

“I gotta go,” Rei said as soon as the tears started to well in Shouto’s eyes and hung up the phone. “Shouto.”

“He won’t talk! ” Shouto burst out with. “I don’t understand why he won’t talk! ”

“He just needs a little time, Shou,” Rei said as she set her phone on the counter. “That’s all. He’ll come around when he comes around.”

“It’s not right! ” Shouto cried, and burst into fresh tears. “I hate this!”

“What do you hate, baby?” she asked as she glanced back at the hot skillet, and Shouto sniffled and wiped his eyes.

“I don’t hate your rats,” he said to Mori, and Rei pursed her lips. Him saying he hated Mori’s rats would not have caused this, but she didn’t say as much. “I’m sorry I said I hated them.”

Mori got up and left the room. Shouto watched him go with teary eyes, and Rei sighed and walked up behind him, sitting down with her chest to his back and wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Just let him come around on his own,” she murmured and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

“But it’s my fault!” he wailed. “I told him I hated him, and he stopped talking after that!”

“I think it took more than that,” Rei murmured, quiet bitterness stirring in her heart, because this would have never started if Enji had just kept his mouth shut. Shouto was at the age where the parent he was always around was always right, and that was unfortunately Enji. He was Enji’s son, not hers, and she could only provide the comfort he so desperately needed, not as often as he nearly needed it.

She pressed her lips into his hair and breathed in the scent of baby shampoo, and he hiccuped on a sob.

“Can I still be a hero?” he whimpered. “Is it okay to want to be a hero?”

Her heart broke, and she pulled back, turning him to face her as she crossed her legs.

“You can want to be a hero, baby,” she said gently. “You can always want to be a hero.”

“I just… Touya’s dead,” he whispered, and she gave him a watery smile.

“You don’t need your dad’s permission to want to do good, ” she said, and he wiped his eyes as he hiccuped. “You’re gonna be the best hero in the world, baby.”

“Am I gonna die like Touya?” he whispered, and her heart shattered.

“No. No, you’re not, because…” Because why? He could very easily die as a hero. But… “Because I believe in you.”

He stared up at her with watery eyes, and she drew him in for a hug.

“I love you, baby,” she murmured, and he hiccuped on a sob.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was so mean,” he said, and his voice cracked as she rubbed his back, and then something occurred to her.

If he was apologizing to Mori of his own volition, that meant Enji was becoming the villain in his eyes.

Oh.

Oh, gods.

She thought back to Natsuo’s burning anger, eating him up inside in its entirety, and her heart shattered. Shouto was getting old enough to question what his dad told him to believe, and he was going to be… angry.

She didn’t have it in her to have so many angry children due to her own choices.

She couldn’t stand it, because it took two people to make a problem, and she had been complicit in all of this. Now she had a nonverbal child, another child that was angry and raging at the world, another child that was silent and watching, waiting, and now Shouto was starting to blame himself for things that were out of his control.

And one child that was dead.

She had one child that was dead.

Shouto wailed in her arms, and Enji stepped into the kitchen and stared at the scene before him.

“What’s wrong with him?” he demanded, and Rei pursed her lips.

“He’s upset Mori won’t talk,” she said, and Enji stared at him in silence. “Can you go check on Mori, please? He just ran off.”

Enji’s eye twitched as he was reminded of the existence of his least favorite child, and then he turned on his heel and left.

He wasn’t going to check on him, and Rei couldn’t leave the stove unattended with a four year old screaming his lungs out.

She would just have to do it later.

Chapter Text

There was the sting of Isao’s tentacles on his flesh, and Moriatsu dropped like a log, seizing up as he was paralyzed. He looked up with wide whale eyes, terror striking in his chest as Isao loomed over him, his long tendrils of jellyfish hair swaying.

“Why do you never talk?” Isao asked mockingly.

“I heard he’s autistic, ” Kaoru said, like it was a dirty word, and Moriatsu choked on his tongue as the paralysis fully set in, making a weird noise in the back of his throat.

“I think he’s a freak, ” Isao said, and Moriatsu stared with wide eyes up at them. A kick landed right in his middle, and Kaoru laughed meanly.

“I heard his dad doesn’t even want him,” she said mockingly, like that was somehow a bad thing, and pain flared in Moriatsu’s belly as Daisuke kicked him again.

A kick hit Moriatsu right in the face, and there was a crack. He let out a cry of pain as his nose broke, and he thought this was a terrible fifth birthday. He sobbed, and then…

He got mad.

Rats poured out of his shadow, because he was a New York City subway rat, by his best guesswork, and he didn’t need to take this. Kaoru screamed as glitter dumped down in her panic, and Moriatsu grinned viciously as the rats began to attack them, climbing up their clothes and biting, biting, biting. He didn’t need to move to show people what was what.

“TEAAACCCHHHEEERRRR, MORIATSU IS ATTACKING US!” Kaoru screamed, and the teacher came running out before she gasped in horror at the blood running down Moriatsu’s face.

“Moriatsu!” she said, and Hideki came running forward.

“That’s not true!” he cried. “I watched! Isao paralyzed Moriatsu and kicked him in the belly!”

There was glitter pouring out of the sky as Moriatsu’s rats bit and bit and bit, swarming all over Kaoru, Daisuke, and Isao, and he and his rats were coated in it as Kaoru lost total control over her quirk.

“TEAAACCCHHHEERRR!” she screamed, and the teacher tried to pry the rats off of them, but there were too many of them.

“Moriatsu, that is enough, ” she said, and Moriatsu grinned ferally. No. His rats were mad now, and he was going to let them do what they wanted. “Now, Moriatsu.”

He completely ignored her, letting the rats swarm over the kids, biting, scratching, hissing, and the teacher looked like she was near tears.

“Moriatsu!” she snapped, and he turned his grin on her as the three kids panicked and screamed in pure terror as the rats swarmed over them. “I will call your mother.”

Oh.

Oh, he should probably stop now.

The rats stopped and all trooped back in a single file line to his shadow, and Isao screamed and kicked one, sending it flying with a squeak.

Moriatsu could move again, and he leapt up, albeit a bit wobbly, and tackled Isao, punching him hard in the face and starting to whale on him, his jeans protecting him from his tendrils of hair. Isao screamed, thrashing under him as Moriatsu whaled on him, blackening his eyes and breaking his nose, and the teacher screamed as she hauled him off.

“Moriatsu, that is enough! ” she said, and Moriatsu kicked her in the knee. “OW!”

Moriatsu was bodily hauled away from the boy, hissing and spitting mad, and the teacher set him down.

“I’m calling your dad,” she declared, like Moriatsu was somehow the problem here, and Moriatsu glared at her, covered from head to toe in glitter. “All four of you, to the principal’s office. Now. ”

She seized Moriatsu’s hand, because clearly he was the problem child here, not them, of course not, and marched him off the playground as the other students stared with wide, startled eyes. Hideki ran after them, and she glared down at him.

“We don’t need you tattle taling, Hideki,” she said, and he braced in the dirt.

“It’s not tattling!” he protested. “Moriatsu can’t speak, so someone has to stand up for him!”

“We don’t need your input, Hideki,” the teacher hissed, still limping from Moriatsu’s vicious kick, and continued on to the office, yanking hard on Moriatsu’s arm. She wasn’t his teacher. If she was his teacher, maybe this would have gone better.

He resigned himself to getting reamed out by Dad and suspended, because he doubted she was going to tell the truth about what happened, and huffed quietly to himself. He probably wouldn’t even get cake for his birthday now. What a terrible birthday.

The teacher yanked him into the office, and he went willingly, nearly tripping over his shoe that had come untied in the scuffle, and she forced him down into a seat. The other three students took a seat, and Moriatsu glared at the counter that separated the seating area from the waiting chairs.

She disappeared into the principal’s office, and he sank down in his chair, crossing his arms as Kaoru wept quietly, covered in glitter and lightly bleeding bite marks. Were they all going to the nurse’s office anytime soon?

He was mad. He was so mad. If they didn’t want to get bit, they shouldn’t hit him. He had done nothing wrong.

.

.

.

.

.

Last week, Fuyumi came home from school with the flu. It had spread across the whole house, infected Shouto, and now Rei was too busy to deal with it. Mori was the only one that hadn’t caught it, and now he was causing problems at school. Which meant it had fallen on Enji to show up and glower at the other parents as they all gathered in the office while the older teacher ranted and raved about what a bad kid Mori was.

“So, just to be clear,” Enji said when she finally lost wind in her sails. “There were three of them, one of him, and he was the aggressor?”

The teacher glared at him.

“Don’t come in here in your hero uniform and try to intimidate me, Endeavor,” she said, and Enji’s lips twitched down. He was in his uniform because he had rudely been called from patrol for a petty children’s schoolyard squabble.

“I want to press charges. Look at my daughter, ” one of the mothers said. “She’s going to scar. ”

“I’m sorry, but I should be pressing charges,” Enji said in disbelief. “It’s hilariously obvious what happened here. These three little cretins teamed up on my son, and my son fought back, and you’re blaming him for fighting back.”

“Let’s not jump to pressing charges,” the principal soothed. “These are five year olds, and it was a schoolyard scuffle.”

“It wasn’t a schoolyard scuffle,” Enji said shortly. “They were obviously bullying my son and failed to anticipate that he would fight back.”

“Let’s not be hasty, Endeavor,” the principal said as he began to sweat. “Kids bully other kids. That’s nothing new.”

“So, you admit my son is being bullied,” Enji said in disbelief. “How long has this been going on?”

The principal paled, and Enji’s lips pressed into a thin line.

“Clearly, this school can’t keep its children in order,” he said and hauled Mori up by his arm. “I’m taking him out.”

“Wait, Endeavor, sir!”

“No,” Enji said thinly and pushed Mori to the door. “I’m a busy man. I don’t have time to play stupid mind games with a bunch of grown adults who think a five year old is Satan incarnate.”

With that, he shot a scathing look at the pale teacher, and then he walked to the door, pushing Mori along as his temper rose. This was fucking ridiculous. He could just find another school for Mori. Or Rei could; he wasn’t picky. It was clear the education Mori was receiving here was subpar.

“Mr. Endeavor, sir, you’re jumping to conclusions---”

“I’m a hero, and I know a villain when I see one,” Enji said with a scathing glare at the teacher that had painted Mori as a spawn of hell. “Excuse us. My wife will handle the transfer to another school.”

He pushed Mori out the door.

“Just leave your backpack; your mom can pick it up later,” he said, his irritation rising and falling. He would have to take him to the hospital for the broken nose. Annoying. He wasn’t going to get back to patrol today.

They walked to the car, Mori’s eyes trained on the ground, and they both slid in. The driver waited until Mori was buckled in before he pulled off, and Enji got his phone out and dialed the agency.

“Endeavor, sir,” came Yuki’s voice, and Enji pursed his lips.

“I have to take my son to the hospital to fix his broken nose, so I won’t be in for the rest of the afternoon,” he said, and there was a pause.

“Which one has a broken nose? ” she asked, and Enji huffed.

“Mori.”

“Oh. Was he getting bullied?”

“Well, I have no way of knowing that, ” he said thinly as he looked down at his mute child, and then he huffed out. “I have to go.”

He hung up the phone and turned to the driver.

“Take us to the nearest urgent care,” he said, because that would be faster, and the driver nodded.

“Yes, Endeavor, sir,” he said and came to a stop at the stop sign, plugging in the coordinates to the GPS. Enji turned to Mori and grabbed him by the chin, turning him to face him.

His nose was still bleeding sluggishly, and it was crooked and swollen. He breathed out, and then he let go of Mori’s face.

At least he was a brawler. He got that jellyfish boy good. Enji wouldn’t say he was proud, but if Mori couldn’t speak up for himself, he might as well be able to stand up for himself.

Rei was going to baby him again until they got him into school again. She was entirely too soft on Mori, and had only gotten softer after the… incident.

Enji looked down at the burn scar wrapped around his hand, folded in his lap, and frowned and picked up his hand. Was that healing right? He hadn’t looked at it in months, but it seemed to be okay. He twisted his hand this way and that, and then he stilled as he realized gray eyes were on him, staring at him with consideration.

It always felt like he was looking at him with piercing eyes that stripped Enji to his core. He dropped his hand and looked back out the window, and Mori turned that weird gaze away from him.

Right. It was Mori and Shouto’s birthday today.

“Do you…” He had already called in for the rest of the day. “You missed lunch.”

Mori stared up at him in silence, and Enji stared back down at him. Even a nod would be better than this. They had tried to teach him sign language, but he had refused to do it. It felt like he had absolutely no interest whatsoever in communicating with anyone, and it was starting to grate on Enji.

Would he be like this forever?

Enji didn’t know. He didn’t know.

Fine. They would go get some food. It briefly occurred to him that it was Shouto’s birthday, which meant it was Mori’s birthday. He had gotten Shouto a present already, but hadn’t gotten anything for Mori, but it was fine. Whatever Rei got him would be addressed from Mom and Dad, anyway. He hadn’t bought presents for his other children in years.

His thoughts drifted back to a nursery decorated in a garden theme, picked out by Rei before they even knew the genders, and two cribs. That became Shouto’s room, and they only stopped sleeping in the same room at three. He often caught Shouto sneaking into Mori’s room to sleep with him, but that stopped after six months.

Shouto and Mori didn’t speak to each other nowadays. Then again, Mori didn’t speak to anyone, only clung to his mother, and he really needed to kick that habit. It was a problem. He was such a mama’s boy. It was nauseating. He would grow up clinging to her skirts, and Rei needed to do something about it.

Irritated, he rubbed at his freshly shaven face and looked out the window. He had no idea what Mori liked to eat. Then again, no one knew what Mori liked to eat. So, he supposed he wasn’t special in that department. He just… ate what was put in front of him.

Fuck it. They’d get ramen. That seemed to fit a broken nose.

Chapter Text

Rei’s phone rang, and she picked it up and answered it. It was Mom calling, and she swallowed as the tea kettle came to a boil.

“Mom?” she asked in a hushed whisper, and Mom sighed.

“Hey, baby. You okay?” she asked, and Rei swallowed.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she replied, and Mom was quiet for a moment.

“I just wanted to check on you,” Mom said, and Rei wiped at her eyes.

“Ye… yeah, I’m okay,” she said, and she took a deep breath in. “I just… I’m just… I am…”

Breaking. Rei was breaking.

Suddenly, she broke down in tears, and Mom inhaled sharply on the other line.

“I can’t do this, Mom,” she whimpered. “I know it’s not right, and I’m failing my children, but I can’t do this. Mori is getting in fights at school, came home with a broken nose today, and Shouto is becoming a recluse. Fuyumi is so quiet, and Natsuo is just angry with nowhere to put it. The children, they’re---” she cut herself off, scarcely daring to say it. “They’re looking like him more and more every day, and I---”

They look like Touya. They were all starting to look like Touya, and she was terrified.

“Shouto… When I look at his left side… I can’t… I can’t do this, I can’t do it, I can’t raise him, I can’t be trusted--- ”

“Baby, you’re doing a fine job, ” Mom cooed. “You’ve lost so much. You’re doing just fine, okay---”

There was a creak behind her just as the kettle started to whistle, and she turned. Her eyes widened in horror. Touya was standing before her, and he was on fire.

She just reacted, grabbing the kettle and pouring it over his face. There was a scream as Shouto fell to his knees, and her eyes widened in horror. Oh, gods, that was Shouto---

She screamed and dropped the kettle as a boil rose up on his face, and she dropped to her knees in front of him as she dropped the phone. Boiling hot water spilled over the floor, and she iced her hand, pressing it to Shouto’s eye.

“Shouto, baby, I’m so sorry, ” she gasped, and Shouto started to scream in pain. She pressed her iced over hand to his eye, panic climbing in her lungs, and he started to sob.

What had she done?

A door slammed in the background, but Shouto was sobbing, big, heaving sobs, and she gathered him up in her arms as she desperately tried to ice his face. He was scream-sobbing, and Enji slid into the kitchen and stared in horror at the display before him.

“What have you done? ” he asked, and she broke down sobbing.

“I… I thought he was Touya, ” she sobbed. “I thought he was Touya and on fire, and I--- I just--- I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t--- I’m so sorry.”

She burned her baby. Oh, gods, she burned her baby. What had she done? What had she done?

Mori came out in the hall with his broken nose, and stared at her with silent, silent eyes that said nothing, and Fuyumi banged out of her room.

“What happened?” she asked as Rei sobbed on the floor. She burned her baby. She burned her baby.

“Fuyumi, watch Mori,” Enji ordered and walked to the door to get his coat. “Your mother and I are taking Shouto to the hospital.”

Right. Right, they needed to go to the hospital. They needed… they needed to go to the hospital.

Immediately.

.

.

.

.

.

“Well, her quick decision to ice his eye saved it, but…” the doctor trailed off as he stared at Rei and Enji. “There will be a scar.”

Enji was silent, and Rei looked down at the ground.

“We will need to call child services,” he said gently, and Rei swallowed. “I understand you thought you were helping, but…”

He trailed off again, and Enji turned to Rei.

“Let’s talk,” he said, and the two of them walked off down the hall.

The two of them sat down, and Enji was quiet for a long, long moment.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I knew you were struggling, but…”

“I hid it,” Rei said softly, tears slipping down her cheeks. She knew what was coming. “I hid it very well, because I needed to keep it together for my kids.”

Enji said nothing, and she swallowed.

“Let me sign over power of attorney to you,” she said, and Enji startled. He wasn’t expecting her to be the one to say it. “I’ll… I’ll need someone to handle my affairs while I’m… I’m gone.”

Enji stared at this woman he had never loved in the romantic sense, but had respected and loved as his partner. The only thing they had ever fought about was the paternity test. They had never fought over anything else.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked quietly. “We can do… an intensive outpatient program. Or something.”

“I can’t… I can’t trust myself around the kids,” she said softly. “Every day, I think I’m seeing Touya on fire. It’s not… I can’t… If it had been Mori, it might have been a lot worse. I’m… I’m barely lucid, Enji.”

Enji was quiet for a long, long moment. Shouto would hate him, blame him. Mori would be completely lost. But, with Rei gone, he could finally get that paternity test. He could…

He shouldn’t be thinking about a paternity test right now.

“Alright,” he said quietly. “Let’s get you checked into the psychiatric wing, then. Maybe you’ll be out in six months.”

She gave him a small smile through her tears, and his heart ached. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He would have to hire a maid, a chef. They would have to sign NDAs. It would be a whole mess. He couldn’t train Shouto as hard as the way he did when he had Rei to hold down the fort. It would be difficult. He wasn’t ready to be a single parent, but what other choice did he have? Rei couldn’t be trusted around the children, and it was clear she was seeing him everywhere. This wasn’t good for her. It wasn’t good for her, and he needed to…

He was about to be a single parent, he realized. He was about to be a single parent, and he didn’t know what to do about that. He loved Rei. He did love Rei, but he had no idea how to parent children. He knew how to handle Shouto, and once upon knew how to handle Touya, but…

One of them possibly wasn’t even his. He had no idea if Mori was his or not. Or if Rei had been assaulted with a quirk.

He couldn’t raise that child without Rei. It was one thing when Rei was parenting her own son. It was another thing entirely when the child was possibly not even his.

A blood test paternity test was in order. He couldn’t wait four to six weeks for a mouth swab. The very thought of it twisted his gut. He would do a lot for Rei, but he would not raise another man’s child. He couldn’t. Not on his own. He hadn’t pushed for the paternity test after that first fight, but…

No.

He couldn’t do it. Tomorrow, when he swung by with the lawyers, he would bring Mori and have the paternity test performed. He wouldn’t breathe a word of it to Rei, simply say he had no childcare for Mori while Shouto was with the tutors, but…

He was getting the paternity test.

He needed to know.

“Alright,” he said quietly. “Let’s get you to the psych ward.”

He stood up, and Rei stood, weeping quietly. They walked down the hall towards the elevator, and she pressed closer to him. He hadn’t held her hand since they were dating, or since she was in labor with Mori and Shouto, he couldn’t remember, but he didn’t fight it when she grasped his hand.

He was a hero, after all.

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Fuyumi looked up from where she was reading to Mori as Dad stepped back into the house, without Mom. Shouto was at his side, a bandage over his eye, and Mom was… nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Mom?” Fuyumi asked immediately, and Dad pursed his lips.

“Mori. Shouto. Go take your baths,” he ordered, and Mori looked back at Fuyumi, as if asking for permission. She pursed her lips and gestured for him to go, and he slid down and padded down the hallway. The bathroom light clicked on, and then the door slid shut.

“Mom’s not coming home,” Dad said, and Fuyumi stared at him. “She’s in the psych ward.”

Fuyumi stared. And she stared. And she stared some more.

“What?” she asked faintly, and Dad grimaced.

“She chose to go into inpatient care,” he said quietly, and Fuyumi felt like her world was collapsing around her.

“So, that’s it?” she asked, her voice breaking slightly. “She’s just throwing us to the wolves?”

Dad frowned at her, but she didn’t care.

“I am not ‘the wolves’,” he said, and she felt rage rise against him.

“I bet you’re immediately going to get a paternity test for Mori,” she said, and Dad was silent. Damning silence. “You are!”

“Mori is…” Dad trailed off. “I won’t raise another man’s child.”

“Oh, like you’ve treated the rest of us like we’re your children? ” she demanded, because now she was mad. Once upon a time, she might have tried to keep the peace, but…

She saw the way Dad treated Mori. He barely spoke to him, barely acknowledged him. When he was in a room with him, he just ignored him. At least with the other kids, he spoke to them. He acknowledged Fuyumi and Natsuo, but with Mori, it was like he didn’t even exist.

Fuyumi was suddenly hit with the crushing realization that she was about to be a mother.

She was twelve, and she was about to be a mother.

It was terrifying. She was suddenly so, so scared. Mori was barely five. She had no doubt that he was Dad’s child, and how did you raise a five year old with a sentient quirk? Because it was a sentient quirk. A little stupid, but sentient. She didn’t know what to do, and she suddenly felt panic claw up into her lungs.

“How am I supposed to---” she broke off with a sob, and Dad looked vaguely unnerved. “I need my mom. Why didn’t you get her help before we got here? ”

She had cleaned up the water in the kitchen. She had mopped it all up, soaking it up, while Mori sat and watched, clutching a book to his chest, and she had known that was a sign he wanted her to read to him. She had done it as quickly as possible so she could read to him, and she had just…

She was scared, she realized.

She was so scared.

“Screw you,” she hissed, suddenly pissed. “You don’t get to get rid of Mom and immediately take her son for a paternity test. ”

Dad stared at her, and a thought occurred to her.

“I’m going to be a better hero than you ever were,” she said, and she felt numb. “I’m going to be better than you.”

Dad snorted at that.

“You can’t be a hero with snow flurries, ” he said, and she drew herself up to her full height.

“Yes. I can,” she said, and then she turned and stalked down the hall. “I’m going to bed.”

She slammed the door behind her and sank down against it, shaking.

She was going to be a better hero than her dad. She was going to prove it was possible. She was… She was going to be better.

She had to be.

Chapter Text

Mori watched in silence as Dad let the woman stick a thick, scary looking needle in his arm. He didn’t like the look of that. He did not like the look of that, and the woman attached a little bottle to the end of it. He watched in horror as it started to fill with blood, that was blood, and he paled as it all came out. She pulled it free, put a gauze patch on Dad’s arm, and wrapped it in this weird sticky tape that stuck to itself.

“Okay, Moriatsu, your turn,” she said, and he took a half step back, paling considerably.

Dad got out of the seat, and she started to wipe it down with a wipe that smelled like lemon and chemicals. Why did he have to go? What was this for? He didn’t want to go. That needle looked terrifying. He took another step back, and Dad eyed him as she finished wiping everything down and got a new needle out.

“Mori, get in the seat,” he said, and Moriatsu stared at him with wide, wide eyes that were nearly bugging out of his skull. Without another word, he turned and ran for the door, but Dad caught him and swept him up in his arms. He sat him down in his lap and pinned him in place, and Moriatsu struggled with little grunts and grumbles under his breath.

“Mori, it’ll just pinch a little,” Dad said, and Moriatsu didn’t want to be pinched, what the--- “It won’t even hurt, but it’ll hurt more if you keep struggling.”

That got Moriatsu to calm down as he realized he was doing this whether he wanted to or not.

“We can still do the cheek swab…” the woman said, and Dad shook his head no.

“No, we’re doing the blood draw,” he said, as if that was final, and Moriatsu stared with wide eyes at the massive needle. He didn’t want that in his arm. The woman took a long strip of rubber and wrapped it tightly around his arm, and then she smiled at him.

“Big breaths, Moriatsu,” she said, and then she inserted it in his arm.

It did hurt, and Moriatsu made a muffled noise of pain, his nails digging into Dad’s thigh. She popped the bottle in and the blood poured into it, and Moriatsu twitched, but Dad’s arms tightened around him, not letting him move in the slightest. He started to pant as he watched his blood go into the bottle, pouring out of his body, he hated that, he hated that so much---

“All done!” she said and pressed the gauze to his inner arm as she slipped out the needle. “What color do you want, hun?”

“Just do any color, he doesn’t talk,” Dad said, and she frowned.

“He doesn’t?” she asked, and Moriatsu twitched. “Okay, then.”

She wrapped a pink length of tape around his arm, sealing it in place, and Dad set him down on the floor. He came to his feet, and then he picked up Moriatsu’s jacket.

“Put that on,” he ordered and thrusted it at him, and Moriatsu slowly pulled it on. Dad got his own jacket on, and then he swept for the door. “Keep up.”

“You should get the results in about three days!” the nurse called cheerfully, and Dad nodded as he made his way out. Moriatsu hurried to catch up with him, barely managing to pick up his teddy in time as he followed Dad out into the hall, and Dad strode for the elevators. The man in a suit that came with them here stood up from where he was waiting, and Dad glanced at him.

“Not a word to Rei,” he said, and Moriatsu stared up at him, wondering what it was they just did that Mom couldn’t know about it.

“Understood, Endeavor, sir,” the man said, and Dad headed for the doors of the elevator and pressed the button. Moriatsu caught up with him, realizing they were going now to see Mom, and looked up at him in silence before he cautiously reached for his hand.

Dad snatched it away the second Moriatsu’s fingers brushed his, and Moriatsu deflated as Dad glared down at him.

“You’re too old to need to hold hands,” Dad said, and Moriatsu looked down at the ground, something uncomfortable twisting in his gut. Mom needed to come home soon. She had to come home soon, right? He hugged the bear closer to his chest, barely breathing, and the elevator doors dinged open.

The three of them stepped into the elevator, and Moriatsu continued to stare at the floor. Maybe he should just try to run away again. He didn’t really want to be here. He had Mom to convince him to stick around, but now Mom was gone. Maybe she would come back if he ran away. He didn’t know. He could try it. But, in his experience, a hospital stay was a couple of days. Not months. So, maybe she would be out in a few days.

He hoped she was out in a few days.

The elevator rose, dinging up the levels until it reached its destination, and then it dinged open. He walked out, still holding his teddy, and Dad strode ahead of him, intent on his destination. The man in the suit followed behind him, and Moriatsu had to hustle to keep up, but his eye was caught by a flock of birds outside. They were in a hallway lined with windows, and he stopped and stared at them, flying free in the breeze.

Suddenly, he remembered being a rat.

The memories didn’t come back all that often. He was alone, and often at the mercy of humans, but there was always food to eat and smells to follow. All he had to do was exist. He didn’t have to do anything special, be anything special. He could just… be a rat. There were no higher callings, and it was a simple existence.

He remembered he wanted to matter, and he wondered why he didn’t matter before. Surely, he mattered.

He had to matter.

“Mori,” Dad snapped as Moriatsu stared at the flock of birds, and Moriatsu snapped his head around. “Keep up.”

Dad was far ahead, and Moriatsu hurried to catch up with him, with another glance back at the birds flocking outside of the window. He remembered he once got in a fight over a French fry with a pigeon. He had never resented that pigeon.

He had never resented it.

They reached a set of doors, where a nurse was waiting for them.

“Ah, Endeavor, sir,” he said, and Moriatsu stared up at him. “Bringing the little one?”

“I don’t have childcare for him,” Dad said, and Moriatsu sniffled. “My wife?”

“She’s settling in well. We already have her room set up,” the nurse said, and scanned a plastic badge. The door opened slowly, and Moriatsu wrapped his teddy up tighter against his chest. “She has group therapy in an hour, but visiting hours are open, so you should be able to see her.”

“Good,” Dad rumbled, and the doors finished hissing open. Moriatsu followed them into the long hallway, and the man scanned the plastic badge again. The double doors at the end opened, and then Moriatsu was in a big room with a huge counter set up in a circle with nurses behind it, sitting at computers and talking. Dad strode forward, and the nurse smiled at him.

“Wait here, please,” he said and darted down the hall. He knocked on a door and spoke to the occupant in hushed tones, and then the door opened.

Mom looked terrible. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her nose was swollen from crying. She stepped out into the hall, and then she stopped, staring at Moriatsu in silence.

“Hey, baby,” she said and went on her knees, and Moriatsu approached her, letting her drag him in for a hug. She hugged him tightly, and he relaxed into her grip. “What are you doing here, huh?”

“I couldn’t arrange childcare for him in time,” Dad said behind him, and Mom straightened up and gave him a wavering smile. Moriatsu looked between the two of them. There was some kind of tension in the air, and he didn’t know how to feel about it. Dad and the man in the suit approached Mom, and she opened the door to her room.

It was clean and open, with a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a vase of flowers in the window. He wondered when Mom found the time to get flowers. There were a lot of doors---

“Thank you for the flowers,” Mom said, and Dad nodded as he sat down on the bed. Moriatsu hovered in the doorway, and Mom smiled at him and opened her arms.

“Come here, baby,” she said, and he obligingly went to her. She picked him up and set him in her lap as she sat at the desk, and Dad eyed her with caution.

“Right,” the man in the suit said. “I’ve prepared the power of attorney, so you just need to sign.”

He set down a stack of papers, and Moriatsu wondered what a power of attorney was as he set the pen down next to them. Mom nodded and started going through the process of signing what looked like nearly every page, and Dad stared at her with hard eyes. Moriatsu was shifted in her lap so she could shift the papers, and he stared at Dad with a question in his eyes.

“So, they’re saying at minimum, I’ll be here a year,” Mom said, and Moriatsu’s stomach dropped like a stone.

“A year?” Dad asked, and she nodded, looking like she was going to cry.

“A year,” she confirmed. “I… I was worse than I thought.”

Dad blew out a breath.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay.”

“It’ll be over before we know it,” Mom said, and Dad stared at her with those same hard eyes. “You’ll see.”

“Are you sure about that?” Dad asked, and Mom smiled.

“Well, I gotta keep my chin up, don’t I?” she asked, and Moriatsu imperceptibly hugged his teddy tighter.

A whole year with just Dad?

He couldn’t… he couldn’t do that…

He couldn’t…

A shiver ran down his spine.

Maybe they would let him out earlier if he was gone. He got Touya killed, and she was upset because Touya was dead, so maybe… maybe…

Maybe she would get out sooner if he was gone.

.

.

.

.

.

Moriatsu shoved his clothes into his backpack, stuffed to the brim with food, his toothbrush and toothpaste, and a blanket. Nothing was fitting, and he felt like he needed to cry.

It was the dead of the night, and he was a bit too tired to be doing this, but if he was gone, maybe Mom would come back. He didn’t think she would be happy there. He was in a hospital before, and he was upset the whole time. He didn’t want his mom to be unhappy. So, he would leave.

This was his fault, after all. This was entirely his own fault, and he had to own up to that. If he hadn’t been there, Dad would have been able to find Touya. Dad would have found Touya, and they wouldn’t be in this mess.

He finished shoving his clothes into his backpack and barely managed to get it zipped up, and then he shrugged it onto his shoulders. He was bundled up in a sweater and his winter coat, and his good boots were waiting in the genkan. Homeless people had always been kinder to him when he was a rat, and he knew they wore good boots. He would have to wear good boots, too. It was winter, after all.

He walked to the door and snuck down the hall, because he knew Dad would drag him back if he caught him, but it was twelve at night, and everyone was in bed. Someone forgot to turn on the nightlights, so he was fumbling in the darkness, but he managed to make it to the genkan and get his boots on.

The clumsy note was pulled out of his pocket and left on the bench by the door, and then he pushed open the front door. A rush of cold wind assaulted him, and he stumbled out into the cold and pushed the door shut behind him. It stung his broken nose, but he had survived many a cold winter, at least one, as a New York City subway rat, so he wasn’t all that bothered by the chill. He didn’t have his fur anymore, but…

But it was fine. It was fine.

He trooped valiantly down the rock path, and pushed open the gate. The sidewalk greeted him, and he continued down it, out into the January cold biting at him. His breath was already frosting in the air before him, and he wished he had his teddy, but he was smart enough to only pack the necessities. He would have to find shelter for the night, but that wasn’t a problem.

That wasn’t a problem at all.

He knew of several abandoned buildings explored by his rats, so he would go to one of those.

He hoped the ghosts of those places would forgive him for not taking off his boots.

Chapter Text

Fuyumi stepped into the house and took off her shoes.

“Mori!” she called, because he had been left home all day with the tutor in the other room and was probably bored. There was no response, not that she was expecting one, and she sighed and made her way towards Mori’s room, pulling open the door.

He was nowhere to be seen, and she paused in concern. Did he go out for a walk? Alone? She made her way down the hall, checking in Shouto’s room, where her little brother was sitting at his desk, coloring on his coloring book.

“Shouto? Do you know where Mori is?” she asked, and Shouto looked up.

“I haven’t seen him all day,” he said, and she frowned. All day?

“He didn’t come out for food or anything?” she asked, and he shrugged.

“You know he hoards food in his room,” he replied, and she pursed her lips as she closed the door. He did hoard food in his room. Mom had tried to curb the habit, to no avail. It was probably because he was a rat. Quirks were weird.

She made her way down the hall and checked in the kitchen. He was nowhere to be seen, and she wondered if he went out for a walk. She made her way to the door and got her boots on, intent on going to hunt him down, when a crumpled piece of folded paper caught her eye on the bench. She picked it up, unfolded it, and stared at Mori’s messy handwriting.

I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I got Touya killed. I’m gonna go now.

Fuyumi read it. And then she read it again. And then she read it a third time. What?

Her stomach dropped like a stone to her feet, and she fumbled for her phone. She flipped it open and dialed her dad’s number, but it rang out once, twice, three times, with no response. Cursing, she hung up and dialed the emergency line. It rang out, and someone picked up.

“119, what is your emergency?” asked a pleasant voice, and Fuyumi took a deep breath in.

“My little brother is missing, and my dad isn’t answering the phone,” she said, and there was a pause.

“Missing how? Did you lose him in a supermarket or something?”

“No--- No, he left a note, he’s been gone all day---”

“Oh,” the operator said quietly. “Okay, what is his name?”

“Moriatsu Todoroki, answers to Mori. He’s five, he has really messy red hair and gray eyes, I don’t know what he was wearing, he’s just gone--- ”

“Alright, hun. What’s your name?”

“Fuyumi.”

“Okay, Fuyumi, the most important thing to do in this situation is stay calm, okay. Do you have any other siblings who could have seen him leave?”

“I’ll ask Shouto,” Fuyumi said and tore for Shouto’s room. “Mori was home from school, because Dad took him out of school because there was a bullying thing, but Shouto is home with the tutors---”

“Alright, hun. Where’s your dad? Mom?”

“Mom’s in the hospital, Dad is a hero and is on patrol right now and not answering the phone---”

“Alright. Mom’s in the hospital, okay. What did the note say?”

“Just that he got Touya killed---”

“Okay, who’s Touya?”

“My… my oldest brother. He died six months ago, and Mori was there. Dad found Mori, but he never found Touya, but---” she cut herself off as she reached Shouto’s room and pulled up the door. “Shouto, did you see Mori leave?”

“No,” Shouto replied, and Fuyumi felt like she was going to cry.

“It wasn’t Mori’s fault,” she whimpered, and the dispatcher inhaled slowly on the other end of the phone.

“Okay, Fuyumi, I’ll get a squad car sent over. What is your address?”

Fuyumi gave the address, and there was the click of keys as the dispatcher got the address programmed into the computer.

“Okay, everything is going to be okay. We’ll find Moriatsu,” she promised, and Fuyumi let out a strangled sob as Shouto stared at her with one wide eye, the other hidden under a bandage.

“Is everything okay? Did Mori run away?” he asked, and she felt her ire at him rise.

“Yes, and it’s all your fault for blaming him about Touya! ” she snapped, and Shouto shrunk back. Tears began to slip down his cheek, but she couldn’t stand to look at him or apologize. She slammed the door shut and tore down the hallway just as the door opened to admit Natsuo.

“Fuyumi?” he asked hesitantly as he got his shoes off, and she burst into tears.

“Okay, honey, what’s your dad’s name so I can have the dispatch at his agency inform him of the situation?” the dispatcher asked, and Fuyumi took a deep breath in.

“Endeavor,” she replied, and there was dead silence on the other end of the phone. The dispatcher was barely breathing, and Fuyumi knew what everyone was thinking.

The number two’s five year old is missing.

“Okay,” she said smoothly. “I’ll have Endeavor come right over.”

She was the picture of professionalism, tapping away at her keys, and Fuyumi slumped down to the floor to cry quietly into her knees.

Was she going to have to bury another brother?

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“Endeavor,” said dispatch, and Enji grunted. “Uh… You need to go home.”

“What?” he asked, irritated, because it was barely 4pm.

“Mori is missing,” dispatch said, and Enji slowed to a halt in the middle of the street.

“Excuse me?” he asked dangerously.

“Dispatch just contacted us. Your daughter placed a 119 call about ten minutes ago. A squad car is on its way to your house right now,” the dispatcher said, and he blinked slowly. “Mori ran away.”

Enji should have anticipated this. Mori was criminally attached to Rei, and he probably shouldn’t have taken him with to get the prognosis. Of course he would do something colossally stupid. He was five. His world was ending, and his mother was basically in jail for a year, as far as he was concerned. He probably didn’t want to be in the house if Rei wasn’t there. But, running away? At five?

Goddammit.

“I’m cutting my patrol short,” he said, since he was close to the agency anyway. He needed to go get his phone and call for the driver. “Have the driver pick me up at the agency.”

Goddammit. Why would Mori run away? He was five. They would find him relatively quickly, but this was too much drama for Enji. This was entirely too much drama. His whole family was dramatic. First Fuyumi declaring that she was going to be a better hero than him with those weak little snow flurries, what a joke, and now Mori taking off. What, was Natsuo going to do something, too?

Annoyed, he started the march back to his agency, his temper brewing in his chest. He was mad. He was so mad. This was not working. He had barely been a single parent for a day, and now his youngest was missing. Rei couldn’t come back soon enough. He needed her here. How was he supposed to manage for a full year on his own?

This was frustrating. They would probably find Mori within the day, but he was annoyed. He was deeply, deeply annoyed.

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Shouto sat in his room in silence, the bandage over his eye pressing down. He didn’t understand what was going on. Mori was missing? Why was Mori missing? He ran away? How did that even happen? He was five. Five year olds didn’t run away. What was he going to eat? Where was he going to sleep? What was he going to do?

Fuyumi said this was his fault. Was this his fault? He…

It was his fault, he realized. He told Mori he killed Touya. Why did he do that? He heard Dad on the phone say it, but… But…

He told Mori he was sorry. He was sorry, he was wrong, so why did Mori…

Sorry was supposed to fix things. Sorry was supposed to make it clear everything was okay again. Why wasn’t that enough for Mori? What had Shouto done?

He hiccuped on a sob, because this was his fault. Mori was gone because of him. This was all his fault, and he got up from his desk and made his way into the living room, where Fuyumi was sobbing on the couch and Natsuo was hugging her tightly. He stared at them for a moment, and for the first time…

It was like a snapshot into a family he was not a part of. He could see them hugging, but he felt apart from them, and for the first time, he realized he wasn’t a part of this family. He was Dad’s only child. The other children didn’t matter.

Dad probably wouldn’t search for Mori. He didn’t care about him, because he believed Mori wasn’t his son. Shouto used to think Mori wasn’t his son, but now he wasn’t all that sure, because Mori looked an awful lot like him. Dad would rely on the police to look for Mori, and Mori would be brought home, and then everything would continue as usual. That was just how it went.

That was how it always went.

Dad didn’t care about Mori. Didn’t care about Fuyumi. Didn’t care about Natsuo. All he cared about was Shouto, and Shouto…

Shouto hated that. He truly hated that. He thought about a shrine in Touya’s bedroom, where Dad went at night to light some incense, and he swallowed down his pain. Dad probably loved Touya. He didn’t think Dad loved Shouto. He just saw him as a means to get to number one.

For the first time, Shouto felt like a prize winning pig. He felt dirty, wrong, and he stared at Fuyumi and Natsuo on the couch, weeping over a brother in a way they would never weep over him, because they barely knew him. Shouto ate dinner with them, but that was probably going to change, because Mom wasn’t home yet. When was Mom going to be home?

He turned and walked back to his bedroom, tears streaming down his cheek, and sat down at his desk in silence.

Dad would be home soon. The police would be here soon. And they would find Mori, but Mori…

Mori had always marched to the beat of his own drum. That was just a fact of life. He had always done things his way, and Shouto had envied him for it. Mori was allowed to be a person in a way that Shouto just wasn’t. Sometimes, his rats snuck into Shouto’s room to sleep with him, and he wondered if that was a holdover from when they used to sleep with each other. He didn’t know.

Mori wasn’t Dad’s son, right?

He wasn’t Dad’s son, so none of this should matter.

Wait.

What would happen if they found out Mori wasn’t Dad’s son? Would he go away? Would he be gone? Would he…

Shouto stopped at the thought as panic clawed in his lungs.

He didn’t want Mori to go. He did not want him to go, so what if he was gone forever? What if they never found him? What if they brought him home and then he was just… gone?

Fear gripped Shouto’s heart. Honest, real fear, because he had been cruel to Mori, and he didn’t want his last memories of him to be cruelty. He sat down at his desk and stared blankly at the wall, tears still slipping down his cheeks, and he just…

Mori was…

Mori was going to be gone forever, wasn’t he?

Chapter Text

Fuyumi watched in dismay as Dad went into his office after the police left. She got up from the couch and followed after him, and he looked up as he sat down at his desk.

“What are you doing? Calling other heroes for help?” she asked, and he opened up his laptop.

“No,” he replied, and unlocked his laptop. “I’m filling out paperwork.”

“Paperwork?” she asked in a whisper. “Paperwork?”

“Yes, it needs to get done,” he replied, and she stared at him in horror.

“It is below freezing and an ice storm is coming in!” she said, and Dad put on his glasses so he could peer at his laptop screen. “What do you mean, you’re doing paperwork? ”

“Let the cops do their jobs,” he said, and she exploded.

“Your five year old son is missing in an ice storm because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut!” she screamed, and Dad looked over his glasses at her.

“He’ll be child services’ problem soon, anyway,” he said, and looked back at his laptop screen, and she stared at him, horrified. He…

“You got the paternity test?” she screeched, and Dad pursed his lips.

“I’m not raising another man’s child,” he said, and Fuyumi lost control of her quirk.

Wind caught all of his papers and sent them spiraling all over the office, and he looked up at her.

“Fuyumi, knock it off, ” he growled, and she turned on her heel.

“If you won’t go look for him, I will, ” she hissed, and stormed for the door, slamming it behind her. “NATSUO!”

Dad did the one thing Mom told him not to do, the second she was gone. It was hilarious. It was nothing but a fucking, a fucking, a fucking thing. Fuyumi was so mad. She was furious. He did the one thing Mom refused to budge on, and she had barely been in the hospital a full 72 hours. What the fuck was wrong with him? Mori was his son. It was so fucking obvious. He had Dad’s bone structure and looked like Dad had cloned himself. All of this over a quirk? A fucking quirk? People mutated all the time. It wasn’t some novel thing.

She stormed towards the door, and Natsuo climbed to his feet.

“Where are you going?” he asked as fat flakes of snow fell down outside, and she viciously yanked on her snow boots and jacket.

“Dad won’t look for Mori, so I will, ” she hissed and got her boots on. Natsuo stumbled to follow behind her, getting his own boots on and pulling on his jacket.

“He won’t look for him?” he asked, and she glared at the door as she marched towards it.

“He said he’ll be social services problem soon,” she said and yanked the door open, a blast of wind accosting her, but she was used to the wind.

“He got the paternity test?” Natsuo asked in horror, and Fuyumi pulled on her gloves and charged for the door.

“Yes,” she bit out, and Natsuo got his own gloves on and hurried behind her. It was still light out, so they had a solid three hours or so of searching for him. That should be enough time.

“MORI!” she called, though she knew he was long gone by now, and started off down the gravel road. Natsuo hurried after her, and she viciously yanked the gate open and crunched her way down the sidewalk, coated in snow and ice. Her foot slipped, but she continued on nonetheless, stubborn and bullheaded as the snow started to come down harder and harder. It was a white blur, and Mori was somewhere out there in the cold. He wasn’t cold resistant like her and Natsuo. He wasn’t able to warm himself up like Touya and Shouto. He had rats.

She was so angry. She was so, so angry.

Mori was somewhere out there in the cold, and it was all Dad and Shouto’s fault. Why would they blame a four year old for what happened? Would Dad have even managed to find Touya without Mori being there? There was no way to know. Given that there was nothing but a jawbone left, she was doubtful. Touya had thoroughly self immolated, probably long before Dad got there. But, no. It was easier to blame a kid that was barely not a toddler. All he wanted was to follow Touya. He just wanted to follow Touya.

She was furious. She was spitting mad, and she was fed up with all of this.

Fuyumi marched through the snow, the white cloak over the city blazing and pale, and she could barely see in front of her face. They probably wouldn’t be able to find Mori like this, but she was going to try. She had her heat sensing. The rats had low heat signatures, but she could probably pick out them huddled on top of Mori for warmth. Dad had to know Mori was ripe for kidnapping, right? He had to know that. Mori had no defenses, no nothing backing him up, and he was five. This was infuriating. This was entirely infuriating.

“I can’t believe Dad got the paternity test,” Natsuo said, and Fuyumi glanced at him.

“He’s always been like that,” she said, and continued on through the snow as the wind howled. “Mori’s probably hiding out in an abandoned building. Let’s search those first.”

Gods. She hoped she found Mori.

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“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Dad asked as Fuyumi and Natsuo stepped in through the door, and Natsuo glared at him nastily.

“What, you stayed up?” Fuyumi bit out as she got out of her shoes, and Dad glared at them.

“It is midnight. ”

“We didn’t find Mori, for the record,” Fuyumi said loudly, and Dad pursed his lips. “Not that you would care, because why would you give a fuck about a missing five year old, even if he isn’t ‘your son’?”

Fuyumi was gearing up for a fight, and Natsuo thought to intervene, but actually? Nah.

“If you’re going to be out to look for Mori, you need to be home in time to cook,” Dad said. “The new maid and chef won’t be working until next week. Shouto needs to eat.”

“I’m not going to be Shouto’s surrogate mother,” Fuyumi bit out, and Dad frowned.

“We need to come together as a family right now.”

“Then look for your son, ” Fuyumi hissed, and Dad stood up from the couch.

“You have school tomorrow,” he said and turned for the hallway. “Make sure you get up in time. And go take showers.”

“Fuck you,” Fuyumi spat out, and Dad paused in the doorway.

“Excuse me?” he asked, and Fuyumi rose up to her full height.

“You changed his diapers. You bought him toys. You napped with him on your chest. You gave him baths. How could he not be your son? ” she demanded, and Dad twitched. “That is a child, a child you are currently responsible for, and you’re leaving him out in a blizzard. ”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Dad said, and Natsuo looked between the two of them.

“If he dies, it’s on your head!” Fuyumi cried. “Again.”

Dad froze, and Fuyumi angrily wiped her eyes.

“You killed Touya, and now you’re killing a five year old!” she cried out, and Dad whirled on her.

“I told him to stop! ” he thundered.

“All he wanted was for you to love him again! ” Fuyumi screamed. “Instead of cast him aside! Telling him to stop wasn’t love, he just wanted to make you proud and mean something to you again! ”

“I LOVED TOUYA!” Dad thundered, and Fuyumi wiped her angry tears.

“Well,” she said coldly. “I guess your love isn’t enough, then.”

With that, she fled down the hall, leaving Dad standing there. He leveled a glare on Natsuo.

“Well? Do you have anything to say?” he demanded, and Natsuo swallowed.

“Yeah. I do,” he said, because oh, he did. “If Mori dies, it’s on you. You’re going to be a murderer for a second time.”

With that, he angrily walked down the hall, his brain in a haze. Mori had been mute for six months, maybe more than that, now, and it was all Dad and his fucking golden child’s fault. Now Mori was missing. And Dad refused to be held responsible for it. He refused to be held responsible for it, and Natsuo was fed up. He was angry. Mori deserved better than this fucked up family. He deserved a lot better than this fucked up family.

The bath was running in Fuyumi’s bathroom, and he viciously yanked open his bedroom door and collapsed on his futon. Tears were stinging at his eyes, because they had been out for hours, looking for Mori, but he had well and truly gone to ground. He was gone. They had checked abandoned buildings, snuck into construction sites, looked just about everywhere, and run into several police officers looking for him.

He was nowhere.

Fuyumi had used her heat sensing, but she had a very small range. It had turned up with nothing.

Calling it quits for the night was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Where was Mori?

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Mori curled up under the blanket, shivering hard as the rats crawled all over him, desperately trying to warm him up. It was cold. It was very, very cold, and he missed the heated floors from the house. They had always kept him warm. He sniffled, snot pouring out of his nose, and wiped it before he sneezed, upsetting the rats and making them claw at his winter jacket. He wished he had leggings under his jeans. They weren’t thick enough to keep him warm. He was sleeping in his boots, and he was tired. He was really, really tired.

And hungry.

His rats had stolen some food for him, and he discovered that restaurants threw out a lot of food, same as always. He had a pretty strong stomach, but some of the food was questionable. He wished he had money.

Mori sniffled again, snot pouring out of his nose as the wind howled outside the abandoned building, and he craned his neck to look up at Sekoto Peak in the distance. The trees were growing back, and something about that made him sad. Life moved on, but it was… It was…

He closed his eyes and curled up even tighter under his baby blanket. Fuyumi and Natsuo would probably search for him. Dad probably wouldn’t. He was tired, but his feet were too cold for him to sleep. They were frozen stiff, and he was shivering lightly. The rats were doing their best to keep him warm, but snow was coming in through the broken window of the building, blowing all over the carpeted floor and soaking into the fibers. When it melted, it would probably be wet in here. Mom always worried about mildew, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it made you sick.

He had probably made his mom sick. Following her around all the time, reminding her that he was alive and Touya wasn’t.

Mom loved him, but he knew love wasn’t enough. Humans were a lot more complicated than rats. Rats were simple. He missed being a rat.

He thought he would matter more if he was a human, but he didn’t feel like he mattered. It didn’t feel like he mattered at all. Dad’s sole focus was Shouto, and Mom was gone. He was the forgotten youngest, and now he was homeless. He knew people were cruel to homeless people.

He sniffled again, his feet freezing in his winter boots, and wiped his nose. He was tired.

He should just go to sleep.

He needed to sleep.

Chapter Text

Enji sat in his office at the agency, going through the incoming merch details his team couldn’t make a decision on, as the clock ticked down the time. It had been two days since Mori went missing, and the cops still weren’t finding him. It hadn’t made it to hero channels yet that he was being searched for, mostly because there might be a leak, but it was only a matter of time before they were asked to search for him as well. Which meant Enji would have to go out there and look for the damned kid that wasn’t even his.

He didn’t want to. Mori was not his son, and the paternity test was going to prove it.

Ever since Mori had been born, Enji had felt like he wasn’t his. This wasn’t about the quirk. The quirk just proved it. He could look like him, but he wasn’t his. There was distance between him and the boy, and Rei had always thought he was crazy for looking at that child and insisting he wasn’t his son. She had always thought he was crazy, but now she was the one in the psych ward, not him.

He flicked through the papers on his desk before he sat back. He couldn’t make a decision. Both of the new action figures were equally good, and he was half tempted to send everything back to the merch team with the note ‘I don’t care, don’t bother me about this again’. He was sorely tempted, but he bit his tongue. They wouldn’t take to that well, and that may turn around and bite him in the ass later. He would just pick one at random. Or just tell them to put both out. Whatever. They probably didn’t have the money to produce both, so he would just pick…

He picked one at random, circling it vigorously on the paper, and rang his bell. His secretary opened the door, and he looked up.

“Take this down to merch,” he said bluntly, and he nodded and took the papers, settling them in his arms and heading out the door. Enji’s computer pinged with an email notification, but he ignored it in favor of rubbing his hand over his face and breathing out a quiet sigh. He took a deep breath in, let it out, and tried to focus.

Mori was… someone else’s problem. He was sure Mori was someone else’s problem. That wasn’t his son. He had just showed up, five months into the pregnancy, and it had made no fucking sense. You could typically tell it was twins at five weeks. There had been no extra heartbeat, no nothing. He just appeared, just as developed as Shouto, and everyone had been confused by it.

Mori made no sense, and he was still dead sure Rei had been assaulted. She always just let anyone touch her belly, and that was around the time she started showing. It was no surprise. Someone had used his wife as an incubator, and he didn’t understand why she wasn’t as mad about it as he was. The kids didn’t get it, but they didn’t have to get it. He knew Mori wasn’t his son. He could look like him all he wanted, but that… that… that thing was not his son.

With another quiet sigh, he opened the email on his laptop and stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

It was the results of the paternity test. And he felt like he was going to be sick.

Congratulations, Mr. Todoroki. You are the father.

Oh… Oh, gods. What had he done?

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Enji called Hound Dog. He wasn’t a search expert, but Hound Dog was. He could sniff Mori out, and Enji needed to have this resolved swiftly. A blizzard had been pounding down on Tokyo for days now. Power had gone out. It was freezing cold, and his son was somewhere out in the cold and wet, and he needed to bring him home.

Hound Dog was invited in his home to sniff around Mori’s room, catch his scent and memorized it, and Enji stood in the doorway as he pressed the teddy to his face and inhaled deeply.

“There we go,” Hound Dog said. “He smells like rats.”

“Well, he has a rat quirk,” Enji said, and Hound Dog glanced at him.

“Not a fire quirk?” he asked, and Enji grunted.

“He’s a mutant,” he replied, and Hound Dog nodded as he set the teddy down on the futon.

“Well, it shouldn’t take long to find him,” he said and turned for the door, his nose twitching as he caught Mori’s scent. “Why did you wait so long to call me?”

“There were complications,” Enji said as Shouto’s door next to Mori’s opened and his second youngest son stepped out, shuffling out with a bleary eyed expression on his face. Fuyumi had already fed him, and he was clearly exhausted and ready for bed.

“Oh? Who’s this?” Hound Dog asked, and Shouto stared at him with flat, expressionless eyes.

“My second youngest,” Enji said. “Shouto. Shouto, go to bed.”

“Why is there a dog here?” Shouto asked bluntly, and Enji internally cringed at how rude he was.

“This is Hound Dog. He’s here to search for Mori,” Enji explained, and Shouto stared at him as Hound Dog took in the obvious bandage around his eye.

“Well, I better get going,” Hound Dog said and headed for the door, and Enji followed him. They got their boots on as Shouto’s one-eyed stare bore into them, and then they were out the door and into the cold. Hound Dog took a deep breath in.

“The trail is cold, but I should be able to pick it up again. You should have called me immediately,” he chided Enji, and Enji was silent, because he didn’t need to be told off by a fresh pro like this, but…

He probably should have called Hound Dog immediately. Hound Dog sniffed the air, and then he took off, Enji following on his heels as they made their way through the streets of Tokyo. They should be able to find Mori relatively quickly this way.

Enji hoped they’d be able to find him. He was not a man that often dwelled on the past, but for some reason, all he could think about was snatching his hand away like he’d been burned when Mori tried to hold it. He was five. Of course he wanted to hold Enji’s hand.

He didn’t like this feeling in his chest. He didn’t like it at all, but he didn’t know what to do about it, except find Mori. Fuyumi and Natsuo were somewhere out here, searching for him, and he dearly hoped his son had stayed put and not wandered all over the city.

He dearly hoped he had stayed put to wait out the storm. Which was still blowing all over the place.

Gods. Fuck. Enji had made a mistake.

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Mori had gone all over the city, because of course he had. Of course he had. Why wouldn’t he go all over the city, and they had been out for three hours now, with no end in sight. He had gone to a cafe to warm up, and the barista recognized photos of him, said he used coins to order a hot cocoa. It was fairly common in Japan for kids to be trusted to be on their own for errands, and the barista thought he was just running an errand, because it was fairly early in the day.

“He looked sick, though.”

That was sticking with Enji. He probably was sick, being caught out in snow like this, and had probably caught a cold or pneumonia. The clock was ticking, and Hound Dog’s nose was leading them to… Sekoto Peak.

“I know where he is,” Enji said as they trekked up the mountain, and Hound Dog looked around at the burnt trees and new overgrowth coming in.

“This is…?” he asked, and Enji was silent.

This was where Touya died. Of course he would be at Sekoto Peak. Enji should have checked here first.

The snow had died down, brushing the mountain in a paint of white, and Enji marched through the snow as they started to reach the lake.

There was a small figure huddled at the edge of the lake, wrapped in a blanket with snow on top of his head and shoulders, as if he had been sitting there for hours, and Enji held up a hand.

“Let me talk to him,” he said quietly, and Hound Dog stood back. Enji walked through the snow to Mori, who was staring at the lake like it was going to give him answers. Silently, Enji sat down next to him, the snow crunching under him. He sat there for a long moment, and, like always, Mori said nothing.

“You probably don’t remember, but you ran away when you were three,” Enji said. It took three hours to find him. “You were always like that. So independent.”

He hadn’t been independent since Touya died. He was always clinging to Rei, like she was his last bastion of sanity, and Enji didn’t know how to fix it.

“I didn’t even know you went up here to watch Touya practice,” he said, and Mori said nothing, as usual. “You were always his little shadow. I guess it probably hit harder than any of us realized when he died.”

Mori had suffered the most. He was completely wrapped up in the blanket now, but Enji was intimately familiar with the scars that stretched across his body. He wondered how true it was when Rei said Touya was careful with him.

“You do need to come home, though,” Enji said, and Mori looked over at him, finally. Enji wondered where all the rats were. Probably in his shadow. He seemed like he just wanted to be alone right now.

“I---” Mori whispered, his voice hoarse from disuse, and Enji bit back the urge to startle. “I got Touya killed.”

Enji was confronted with reality in that moment. He was confronted with reality, and he realized something very, very important.

It was easy to blame Mori, but he probably wouldn’t have been able to find Touya.

“No, you didn’t,” he said, and swallowed. “I did.”

The funny thing about death was there was never someone around to apologize to. Enji couldn’t apologize to Touya for lighting a fire under his ass and abandoning him. He was gone, and Enji was left with the pieces. Just a broken family, and he didn’t know how to cobble the pieces back together, anymore than he knew how to build a bridge to reach All Might.

Mori was silent, and Enji stood up and picked him up. Mori sneezed, his broken and freshly reset nose red and runny. Enji silently walked back to Hound Dog, and Hound Dog turned.

“To the hospital, then?” he asked, and Enji nodded. He probably had pneumonia. He had been out in the snow for days now, and Enji knew his lungs were fragile after the smoke inhalation. He carried him down the mountain, and Mori let his head thump against Enji’s shoulder, staring with sad eyes as the snow began to fall again.

It was January, and Enji couldn’t rely on Rei to get him in a new school. He would have to do it himself. There were a million and one things to do, and he didn’t know where to start with them. He didn’t know the first thing about getting a kid signed up for a school, didn’t know the first thing about cooking, and he still needed to call Rei’s parents to let them know she was in the psych ward. He needed to call his mom, too, inform her of the events that had transpired.

Rei’s parents would blame him. He knew that already. They would blame him for everything, completely forgetting that Rei was a grown woman that had agreed to all of this, and they had gladly taken the money. Then again, her father had been battling cancer at the time, so maybe not gladly, but fairly well.

He hefted up Mori higher, and Mori buried his freezing cold face into Enji’s shoulder.

He thought the paternity test would solve the problem, but he still didn’t feel like Mori was his. It felt like he was carrying someone else’s child. There was a gulf between him and his youngest, and he didn’t know how to cross it.

He didn’t particularly want to cross it. He had Shouto, and Fuyumi and Natsuo could manage Mori just fine. He didn’t need to grow closer to him, and he wished…

He wished things were different, but they weren’t. They weren’t different.

He shifted Mori in his grip as they trooped down the mountain, and Mori curled his little hand in Enji’s hero uniform, folding the fabric in his grip. His fingers were blue, and Enji turned up the heat, just shy of catching fire, just to warm him up. He forgot Mori didn’t have the capabilities of catching fire.

Fuck.

He had to hire a cleaning lady and a chef.

Chapter Text

Moriatsu had a cold, so he was bundled up in his bed with the blankets tucked around him tight. Fuyumi was making something to eat, and he was tired. He was very tired. He wanted to go to sleep, but his stomach was rumbling in a concerning way. He had spent all day on Sekoto Peak, and intended to fall asleep there, so he hadn’t eaten anything.

His room had been cleaned up while he was gone. Toys were put away, and when he came in, the blanket had been folded at the end of his bed. Someone had cleared out all the packages of food he had hoarded in his room, too, finding all of the nooks and crannies he had shoved them in, and he didn’t know why they did that. He felt a little off kilter, like everything was out of control. He kind of wanted to cry.

Dad was in bed. It was Saturday, so Fuyumi and Natsuo didn’t have school tomorrow. He was not sure if they’d fuss over him. Sundays were Dad’s days off, so he would be home, too, though that time was typically dedicated to training Shouto. So, Mori wouldn’t be seeing him.

Everything was off kilter and out of control. He was scared, though he didn’t know why.

He missed Touya. It was easier when he was on the streets to pretend Touya was alive and back home. The second he set foot in this house, he could feel the Touya-shaped hole. It was stark and more than apparent, and Mori hated it. He hated it.

He curled up under his blankets, hugging his teddy to his chest. It smelled like Hound Dog, and he rubbed his cheek against it to get his scent on it. He could smell the sweat from Hound Dog’s palms and his muzzle on it. He sighed quietly in his chest, and his door opened. Mori looked up, and there was Shouto, standing there in silence.

His twin stared at him, and Mori stared back at him. A long silence unfurled, and then Shouto made his way into the bedroom and sat down across from him. Mori stared up at him and then sniffled and sneezed, and Shouto stared at him.

“Mom said you didn’t talk because you were upset,” Shouto said, and Mori wiped his nose. Did he want to speak?

Speaking, overall, seemed a useless endeavor. He understood why other people did it, but he didn’t want to. It was… it was mostly because there was nothing to say. Or maybe too much to say. He didn’t know. He just didn’t want to talk. He hated talking. It was painful and only upset him, and he had nothing to say to defend himself. It seemed to stress everyone else out, though, so maybe he would talk.

Gods.

Things hadn’t been this complicated when he was a rat.

“Why did you run away?” Shouto demanded, and Mori sniffled again. “Was it because of what I said? I--- I said I was sorry. ”

Mori hugged the teddy closer to his chest and stared at the bandage over Shouto’s eye. They were both burned now. It seemed like a silly thing to have in common, but they were both burned now. Mom had just… Mom had thought he was Touya.

Mom had thought he was Touya.

Mori didn’t understand why she thought like that.

Shouto’s lone eye was filling with tears, and Mori opened his mouth and shut it. Shouto perked up, scooting closer, and then---

Mori finally spoke.

“I don’t…” he trailed off, not sure of how to phrase this. His voice was hoarse from the sore throat, and gods. He had never resented Shouto for being the golden child, but that was back when he still had Mom. He didn’t have Mom anymore. “I don’t…”

Shouto stared at him, and Mori’s eyes filled with tears.

“I don’t like you,” he said, because he didn’t. He didn’t like Shouto. Shouto had made him feel terrible about himself, and it was because of Shouto that he went silent for a year. It was all Shouto’s fault, but it also wasn’t. There were a variety of factors in Mori’s silence, and he didn’t…

“I wish things were different,” Mori whispered, and Shouto stared at him with tears streaming down his cheek. “But, they’re not.”

Things weren’t different, and Mori was tired of being the scapegoat. Everything was his fault, and for the first time, he started to feel some anger.

“You’re my twin. We’re supposed to be together,” Shouto said, and Mori stared at him with pained eyes. They were supposed to be together. They were supposed to be playing in the garden together, going to school together, being at each other’s side. But, they weren’t. They weren’t at each other’s side, and Mori wondered if there was ever going to be a reality where they could be at each other’s side.

Maybe in a better one.

Gods. He missed being a rat.

“Go to UA with me,” Shouto suddenly said, and Mori blinked. “Be a hero with me.”

Mori squinted at him, and then he asked the obvious question there.

“With rats?” he asked, and Shouto nodded.

“With rats,” he said ferociously, and Mori swallowed.

With rats.

He thought to his final moments. That desire to matter. Shouto only mattered because he was going to be a hero. Maybe, he could matter, too, if he decided to be a hero. He would have to train the rats. Make them smarter, somehow, but he thought he could manage. For rats, they were already pretty smart. He could talk to them, understood them in a way no one else did, and he was grateful for that. His past life as a rat made things so much easier.

He could do it. Rats were useful. They had really good noses, and he could be a rescue hero with them. He could find people. He could…

He couldn’t find Touya. Couldn’t save Touya. But, he could find other people. He could save other people. He could do that. He could…

He could be a hero like that.

“Okay, I’ll be a rescue hero,” he whispered, and Shouto smiled through his tears.

“Okay,” he said, and then he shuffled over to crawl under Mori’s blanket and curl up against him. Mori let him, and Shouto curled against his chest, barely breathing. For a long moment, the two of them laid there like that, until Mori’s eyes started to slip shut. He was tired. He wanted to sleep. His nose still hurt from getting kicked in the face, and he was still warming up, but Shouto’s burning left side helped.

It was like when they were little, crawling out of their respective cribs so they could sleep on the floor together. He still remembered that. He had a feeling that even as he got older, he would remember everything.

Mori curled up tighter and rested his forehead against Shouto’s, and Shouto snuggled up closer to him. The rats all started to lay down on top of them, and Mori let them. Silence passed, and then, slowly, the two of them started to fall asleep.

Mori was home. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to be home, but he was home. At least he had Shouto back, for all that he would be gone in the morning. Dad would probably be upset they slept in the same bed, but Mori didn’t really care.

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Fuyumi stirred the zosui as Natsuo sat on the counter and watched her.

“You sure you got the recipe right?” he asked as he took a bite of apple, and she hummed.

“I think I got it?” she replied and tasted it. “I mean, it doesn’t taste as good as Mom’s, but it’s fine.”

Natsuo let his head thunk against the cabinet and stared up at the ceiling. Mori was back. Dad had finally gone to look for him, and he was fine. He had a cold, but that would clear up in a few days, and then he would be starting at a new school. Natsuo didn’t know what to do with him, honestly, and he was half tempted to go check his room to make sure he didn’t run again.

He drummed his heels on the cabinet, and Fuyumi glanced at him.

“Dad’s going to get the new maid and personal chef in here Monday,” she said, and he snorted.

“So, that’s it? Mom’s gone?”

“Yeah,” Fuyumi said quietly. “Mom’s gone.”

Natsuo was quiet. That was Dad’s fault, too, as far as he was concerned. He had heard their arguments. He refused anything to do with therapy for the whole family, and he was a dick about it. Mom had begged and pleaded, but it had fallen on deaf ears, and now she was fucking hospitalized. For a whole year.

She would be back soon, he was sure, but he didn’t…

Did Mom even want to be in there, or did Dad force it? He didn’t know. Might never know, because it wasn’t like Dad would admit to it. He had no idea how long she was going to be in there or what she was going to do while she was in there. He didn’t even know why she poured water on Shouto’s face. It was all a mystery to him, and she was…

He could see that she was cracking, though. She had been cracking the whole time, and it was what it was. She had lost a son, and it had done a number on her. He still remembered that first fight with Shouto and Mori, where Shouto froze Mori out and Mori bit the hell out of him. They both had to go to the hospital for that, and Shouto walked away from that with stitches.

Frustrating.

It was frustrating.

With a sigh, he lolled his head over and looked at Fuyumi, who was ladling out zosui in a bowl for Mori.

“Do I get some of that?” he asked, and she looked in the pot.

“I think I made too much…” she said, and he slipped off the counter to walk over to look in the pot. Oh. She did make too much, okay.

“Well, we can make something of it,” he said, and she nodded.

“I’ll go get Mori,” she said, and set the bowl on the counter to go walk away. He ladled out his own bowl for a very late dinner, and then he got another bowl down for Shouto, too. A third bowl was ladled out for Touya, and then Natsuo… froze.

Something pinched his heart, and he put his hands on the counter and took several deep, calming breaths as tears pricked at his eyes. It had been six months, but for some reason, he had thought he was over it. Mori running away like this, nearly dying, had done something to him, apparently. All those old memories were surfacing. He stared down at the third bowl of zosui, the rice soup sitting in the porcelain bowl, and a tear dripped into it. Without a word, he dumped it back into the pot, because he wasn’t about to feed Dad with Touya’s portion, and started washing the bowl to hide evidence of his crime. The bowl was dried, and he put it back in the cabinet before he slumped to the ground, back against the cabinet, and buried his head between his knees.

He breathed, slow and low, trying to fight back tears. He was eight now. It was fine if Mori and Shouto still cried, but he couldn’t be crying. Mom was gone, and he longed for her cold hug that settled all the feelings in his chest and made him feel better. He was alone in the kitchen, and Fuyumi came back in, ushering in the sleepy Mori and Shouto.

“Natsuo?” she asked, and he looked up. She was staring at him, and he stared at the bandage over Shouto’s eye.

This was Dad’s fault. It was Dad’s fault Touya was dead, and it was Dad’s fault Mom had cracked. All of it was his fault, and Natsuo was sick of this house.

“I’m going to take a walk,” he said and came to his feet, and Fuyumi paled. He stopped, and then he looked down at Mori, who was hugging that ratty teddy to his chest and staring up at him in silence.

Right.

They were all still sensitive from Mori running away.

“Never mind,” he grumbled, and then he took a deep breath in. “Soup?”

Mori shuffled forward, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape, and then he set the teddy down and held out his hands for the bowl. Natsuo put the bowl in his hands, and he stole back to the table, moving like the rat he was to sit down and start eating without even saying ‘thank you for this food’, not that he ever said ‘thank you for this food’.

The four of them all sat down at the table to eat, and Natsuo picked at the food. It was a little too hot to eat, but Mori didn’t seem to care. He was just chowing down, and Natsuo stared at him in silence. His nose was runny and gross, and Natsuo picked up his napkin and reached forward to wipe it. Mori reared back, and Natsuo ignored him as he wiped it.

“No,” Mori said, and everyone froze.

Mori… could talk now?

“What---” Natsuo trailed off, and stared at him. Mori was talking now? It took---

It was hilarious. It took him running away for him to start talking again? Seriously? It took all of this for him to speak again?

“So, you’re talking now?” Natsuo asked, and Mori fell silent, staring at his bowl of soup. “Mori.”

“Everyone was upset,” he mumbled, and Natsuo stared at him. He didn’t know what to do with this. He did not know what to do with this.

“Well, don’t call attention to it,” Fuyumi said, and Natsuo looked at her in disbelief.

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” he asked, gesturing wildly with the snotty napkin. “He’s talking again!”

Mori sneezed hard, a long line of snot hanging out of his nose, and Fuyumi wiped it up before it could hit the soup.

“Gross, Mori,” she said, and Mori wiped his broken nose with the back of his hand.

Mori was talking again. Fucking finally. He had refused to learn JSL, refused to write out his thoughts, and barely communicated what he wanted. He had been a mess, and Mom…

Mom wasn’t here to celebrate it, Natsuo realized.

She wasn’t here to celebrate it.

Chapter Text

Moriatsu Todoroki stared up at the gates of the small city. A chill February wind was blowing through, and it was cold.

Fuyumi was the number three pro now. She had clawed her way up the ranks with blood, sweat, and tears, and Mori.... Mori wasn’t aiming for the top ten. He wasn’t aiming for anything, really. He just wanted to be at Shouto’s side.

Shouto had taken the recommended exam, and he had gotten in. Mori had been there when he got his letter announcing that All Might was working at UA, and Mori kind of didn’t want All Might to be his teacher, but it was fine. He would survive if he was. Probably. He wasn’t sure. All Might was everything Mori would never be in a hero, and Mori just had to deal with the reality. He would never be a powerhouse like his siblings. He knew that. But, didn’t that just mean he had to try harder? He didn’t know. All he knew was that he was at the starting line.

“ALRIGGGHHHTTTTT START! YOUR! ENGINES! AND GOOOOO!” Present Mic screamed, and Mori jogged into the city and looked around. Students were streaming past him, and he let all of the rats crawl out of his shadow and charge into the city. They leapt onto the first one pointer they saw, chewing through the wiring and making it collapse, and then they swarmed the next two pointer.

Mori set a standard pace through the city, letting his rats do the work for him, and he knew he wouldn’t get many points, but he was going to try. He would just get enough to eek his way in, and that would be the end of it. He probably wouldn’t even get placed in the same class as Shouto, he thought bitterly, and he struck out through the city as his rats swarmed over another three pointer, chewing through the joints and making it collapse into a pile on the ground. The robots were cheaply made, nothing impressive, and he found that he was quietly grateful for it. It would have been very difficult to destroy them if they weren’t just cheap aluminum sheets. His rats could eat just about anything, but, still.

The wind caught his hair, ruffling it in the air, and he turned to walk down the street. Students were struggling to find robots that weren’t already destroyed, and it was rapidly turning into a shitshow. He didn’t mind the chaos, but he needed to get further into the city. With a whistle, he called off his rats and broke out into a run. He could feel vibrations through their little feet, and he headed towards the source of them, into a city square that was just crawling with robots. The rats charged forward and swarmed over a robot, and he leaned on the wall and checked his phone.

Shouto: Are you doing well?

Mori: It’s going pretty okay. Is Dad still mad?

Shouto: Yeah. He went to work, though, so it’s just me at the house.

Mori hadn’t done a bait and switch like Fuyumi had. He had simply set the paperwork on his dad’s desk and stared at him until he filled it out. Dad hadn’t kicked up a fuss the way he did with Fuyumi. They had fought for three straight days when he found out she got accepted into the hero course, and it had been a fucking disaster. Quirks had been brought out, Dad’s clothes lit on fire, Fuyumi hit him in the face with some gusts of air and knocked him over, it had been a whole thing.

Mori had been... eight at the time? And now he was fifteen, and she was in her twenties and projected to overtake Dad as number two in the next two years or so. Mori hoped he was uncomfortable. He hoped she lit a fire under his ass, because he thought she deserved it. Fuyumi was all tightly wound rage. She was a menace. He loved her, but he worried about her. She was nothing but anger, burning in her gut, and he felt sad when he looked at her.

The robots in the square were all destroyed, and he pushed off the wall and looked around. There was about one minute left, and the ground rumbled. His eyes went wide, and instinctively, he had his rats about face and rush back into his shadow as the ground rumbled a second time. A large shape overtook the sky, blotting out the sun, and he craned his neck back to look at it. It was... a zero pointer, and it was huge.

Panic welled in his lungs, and he turned and bolted down the street. His shoes pounded on the asphalt, and he swung around a corner and nearly crashed into someone, pinned under a fallen beam. The boy was grunting, trying to push the beam off of him, ash blonde hair hanging in angry red eyes, and Mori didn’t even question it. He let the rats pour out of his shadow and they swarmed the boy, who went very, very still, not even daring to breathe, and the rats chewed through the beam and freed him.

Mori grabbed him and dragged him to his feet, and the boy pushed him off with a hiss of annoyance.

“I didn’t need help, ” he swore, and Mori nodded.

“Of course you didn’t,” he said and took off, running away from the zero pointer. “I assume you’re fine to run?”

The rats streamed after him, leaping into his shadow, and he slid around a corner and reached the end of the city as Present Mic started to scream a countdown. He slid to a halt just outside the doors, not sure if he could leave the testing site before the countdown was done, and half a dozen other students ran past him as Present Mic reached one.

“DONE!” he screamed, and Mori worked out his sore shoulder, wondering when he jammed it, and made his way out of the city. The blonde boy walked up to him, red in the face and panting, and then—

“I didn’t need your fucking help! ” he screeched, and Mori blinked.

“I’m getting on the bus,” he said and turned aside, but the boy grabbed him by the arm, and Mori reacted on instinct, punching him full in the face with the vestiges of adrenaline running through his veins.

“WHOA!” Present Mic screeched as Recovery Girl approached, and the boy went down, bouncing on the ground and looking stunned.

“Don’t grab people you don’t know,” Mori snipped and shook out his hand, and Ri, at his feet, bared his teeth at the boy. All of the students around them looked stunned, and the boy stared up at Mori, looking somewhere between perplexed and pissed.

“Did you just punch me? ” he demanded, and Mori tilted his head.

“Yes, and? You grabbed me,” he said, and the boy turned bright red and lifted his hand, but Present Mic popped up out of nowhere and grabbed his outstretched arm.

“Okay, let’s not fight,” Present Mic said, his voice high and cracking. “Calm down, both of you.”

“I am calm,” Mori deadpanned, and then wondered if that would affect his chances of getting into UA. Well. There was always Ketsubetsu, and he already passed the test for it. He got his acceptance letter yesterday.

With that out of the way, Mori turned and climbed onto the bus, flopping into a seat at the back and pulling out his phone to text Shouto.

Mori: Might be going to Ketsubetsu.

Shouto: ???

Mori: Punched someone in the face bc he grabbed me <3

Shouto: ?????????

Mori: I’ll be home in a bit. See you soon.

Gods. Fuck. He shouldn’t have done that. Oh, well.

The students were all climbing onto the bus, and he looked out the window as Recovery Girl kissed the boy better. He was glaring at Mori, and Mori blew him a little kiss. He turned even brighter red and flipped him off, and Mori put up his knees on the seat in front of him and fiddled with his phone, putting in his headphones and getting on TikTok. The bus slowly filled up, full of crying kids, and the blonde boy came on last, freezing at the sight of the only seat being open being the one next to Mori. Slowly, he made his way over and sat down next to him, and Mori ignored him and the blood on his face. He shouldn’t feel so entitled to people’s bodies like that.

Shouto: No, seriously, what??

Mori: Lol he just had to sit next to me. Loser.

Shouto: Mori what did you DO

Shouto: Fuyumi gave you a talking to and everything!

Mori: Eh it’s fine. If I don’t get in, I don’t get in.

Shouto: But I WANT you to go to UA with me.

Mori: You’ll be fine without me.

Shouto: No I won’t I hate people

Mori: Do you actually hate people or are you just homeschooled

Shouto: Shut

Mori: <3

Shouto: I can’t believe you did that.

Mori: Well he shouldn’t have grabbed me.

Gods. What did the teachers think about that?

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“I think 1-A, for both of them,” Nedzu said as he tapped the pages together until they were just so.

“You want to make that my problem?” Shouta asked, and Nedzu smiled at him.

“You can handle it.”

“That kid’s got a mean left hook for someone with a rat quirk. What’s the name?” Vlad King asked, and Shouta looked down at his tablet.

“Uh... Moriatsu Todoroki,” he said, and then he paused. “Wait...”

“Oh, it’s little Mori!” Hound Dog said. “Wow, he sure grew up, didn’t he?”

“You know that kid?” Shouta asked, and Hound Dog nodded.

“Had to track him down when he ran away from home a few years back,” he said. “Endeavor called me in to find him.”

It took Shouta longer than he’d like to admit to put two and two together, and when he did, he turned three shades of red.

“How the fuck did Endeavor make a rat quirk? ” he asked, and Hound Dog shrugged. “And why wasn’t he recommended? He recommended his other one...”

Twins? In his class? He wasn’t too sure about that.

“I think Endeavor mentioned it was a mutation,” Hound Dog said, and Shouta stared in disbelief at his tablet. The kid was the spitting image of Endeavor, now that he was looking at him. Red hair and gray eyes... He had those same chiseled features, wide, with a proud nose and heavy eyes. If you put a flaming beard on him, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“Jeez,” Shouta muttered.

“Should we even allow him in?” Nemuri asked. “He assaulted another student.”

“That student grabbed him, which also qualifies as assault,” Shouta pointed out. “I think it’s fine. It was kind of funny, actually. He should get a pass for being funny.”

That other boy got zero rescue points, and probably needed to be knocked down a peg or two. Besides, with a quirk like that, the boy clearly needed to grow up with the ability to hold his ground. His siblings were likely all power houses. Frostbite was in the top ten, and he had seen his brother’s quirk in action. That poor kid probably had a lot of complexes. His siblings were all virtually gods, and he had... rats.

Poor kid, Shouta thought again as he scrolled through his documentation. Still, he had the potential to hit top ten. Maybe not dominate, not like his siblings, but he had the potential to hit maybe seven in his prime? Shouta just had to train him well enough.

He would knock those insecurities out of that kid, for sure. He just had to be patient with him. He had to be very, very patient with him.