Youngblood - A 5SOS Inspired BNHA Fanfiction

Chapter 36

But you need it

Yeah you need it

All of the time

Yeah ooh, ooh, ooh

"I have some business to deal with and people coming over this evening," Enji said brusquely. "I figured that since the idea of sitting with me to a meal is off-putting for you, I would do my level best to make it up to you. And to do that, I have asked someone for help." Confusion and happiness are two emotions that don't often show well on anyone's face, but both Natsuo and Fuyumi wore those expressions very well the moment they saw their mother standing behind their father. Her beaming smile killed any other questions they may have had.

"I have arranged for your mother to be out for a couple of nights at the finest hotel there is to be had here," he said. "I would like for the both of you to accompany her, if that isn't too much to ask."

"Of course not!" Fuyumi shouted happily before rushing toward her mother and capturing the woman in a warm embrace. Natsuo said nothing, but the smile on his face indicated just how much he appreciated the gesture and how happy he was to see the woman before him.

It took a few moments for Endeavor to realize something very important: it wasn't just Shoto who had been separated from the woman who scarred him, it was his older children who also had to go without the most important woman in their lives. He stood outside the assembled family and looked on; the children were excitedly talking with their mother while she smiled and nodded where necessary, her arms wrapped around the waists of the pair while they told her how much they missed her and how much they looked forward to the weekend.

"For obvious reasons," Enji interrupted their reverie, "Sunday night your mother will go back to the hospital, but Shoto will be joining you all for the rest of that day before she returns. I presume this will be satisfactory?"

"Of course it will," Rei answered for her children. "It will be lovely for all of us to be together in the same room."

"Will you not be joining us, Father?" Fuyumi asked tentatively.

"Uh, no," he finally responded. "There will be a lot of paperwork to hand in on Monday after this meeting, so I'll be taking Sunday to get it finished, or at least partially so. This way Monday should go over fairly easily." What happened next was something Enji hadn't prepared for: Natsuo turned his body around to face him, his head down and his eyes on the ground the whole time.

"Thank you." Two words Enji hadn't begun to think he'd hear. Two words his son hadn't had reason to say. Two words he never would have asked his son for. Two words his heart would hear and hold onto in hopes of earning the right to hear them again.

The elder Todoroki was so overcome with emotion at that moment that all he could do was grunt in response. It was a strangled grunt indicative of just how much emotion he was attempting to hold inside, but a grunt nonetheless. Natsuo's response was to nod his head sharply, turn back toward his mother and rejoin the conversation he and his sister had been engaged in.

"Go get your things, children," Rei said happily. "and remember to pack your toiletries because you'll be staying with me for the next two nights." Her two children rushed toward their rooms to do as they were asked while she stood in the entryway with her husband.

"I hope things go well tonight, Enji," she said. "You have a lot on your plate with this one, but I know things will work out for the best."

"I have to admit I was shocked that Shoto came to me with it," he admitted sadly. "I know I'm not the easiest person to get on with and I have a tendency to let my pride interfere. Not to mention how poorly I've treated our children, and that's something I'll have to work very hard to get the children to understand that I am trying to at least be there for them. I will never be an excellent father. I haven't been and they'll never see meas such, and I've accepted that, but letting them know that I will do my best to be here for them is enough."

"It will be difficult, and with good reason," Rei remarked, "but it'll happen. With time anything is possible."

"To be honest, Rei, I've been thinking about all of this since All Might's retirement," the hero admitted. "I'm not even really seen as anything but cold and aloof to even my supporters. But when Shoto came to me with this problem, I believed for just a moment that I could be what my children, my family, needed. What you needed." Enji then took three steps back, dropped to his knees and bowed before his estranged wife with his forehead touching the floor.

"I sincerely apologize to you for everything I did. I will never be able to make up for it all, in this life or the next, but I will pledge to you now that I will do everything in my power to try to earn the right to be your husband from now on. So, would you please forgive me? Never forget, but just a little forgiveness? I'll earn the rest however long it takes, and that's a vow I will never again break."

The elder Todoroki's eyes were slammed shut the whole time as he subjugated himself before his wife, so he had no idea the two children were in the room and heard everything he'd said. Fuyumi, the optimist of the family, had tears in her eyes at the confession. Natsuo, however, was the more skeptical of the two. At that moment, he refused to make this easy for his father to sway him. Too many disappointments in his childhood made it difficult for him to take anything his father said at face value. But he would never tell anyone that he secretly hoped his father would sincerely try. Not just for his mother and siblings, but for him as well.

It did, however, speak volumes that his little brother did trust his father well enough to come to him with a problem. Shoto had been closed off ever since he turned eight, and he was never really allowed to spend time with them at all from the age of five, so for his little brother to open up to his own oppressor was something major he would take into consideration.

Rei saw her children standing there behind her husband. She saw the hopeful face of her only daughter and could tell her second son was hoping but wary. And as much as she wanted to forgive and forget, she knew she would have to play this out a little longer. If for no other reason than to make her husband take responsibility with all his children. With that in mind she knelt to Enji's level, reached under his head to lift it, looked into his eyes and nodded. It nearly broke her when she saw the hopeful look in his eyes, but she held fast. If not for herself, for her children's sake.

"Got everything!" Fuyumi called. She held back a giggle when she watched her rather large father try to scramble to his feet from the floor and nearly falling in the process, but instead walked forward with a smile.

"Let's go, kids," Rei said with a gentle smile. "And thank you again, Enji."

"Here's your key," he said as he passed over the card. "The room's written on the card. Room service is ready for anything you ask for. I've already arranged everything with the management to ensure you've got everything you need. And here's a card for you to go shopping on."

"What's this for?" Rei asked.

"You don't have any real clothing with you," Enji muttered. "This will let you get something new and spend some time out with the kids." His face had a decided red tint over his cheeks and his hand was behind his head while the look he wore was one that resembled a sulking child saying something that appeared to them to be obvious.

"Thank you," she said, a similar tint of red on her face appearing. "Let's get going, guys. Your father has to prepare for his guests, and I need some new shoes." The Todoroki children followed quickly behind their mother, ducklings in a row, out to the now waiting taxi. Excitement and cheerful words passing among them even as they disappeared into the car, Enji couldn't have been more pleased to see the scene.

When the taxi was finally out of sight, Enji returned to his hero persona. Endeavor would be in attendance this evening to deal with the traitorous girl who attempted to ingratiate herself into his family by lies, manipulation and outright assault. This is a position he held for way too long in his family, the family he was now trying to piece together again from the the remnants of paper dolls he'd strewn from one end to the other, and he'd be damned if he'd see someone else come in and destroy everything again.