Enji hadn't braced himself for the sight of his first born.
It wasn't that he didn't know Fuyumi was there, that he didn't realize that she was only three and tiny. No, the thing that Enji hadn't been ready for was the love in her eyes when she first saw him. The love and the worry and the joy.
He hadn't seen those emotions from any of his children in so long, he hadn't even…
But when Fuyumi rushed into his hospital room, she had called out, "Daddy!" and dove for the bed, scrambling up the sheets and to his side. Enji hadn't even thought to help the toddler climb up, frozen where he sat as his daughter threw herself into his side, tiny hands gripping at him and bright, teary eyes staring up at him.
And gods, Enji wasn't ready, not even a little.
His hands move without thought as Fuyumi throws herself into his side, ignoring the sharp flare of pain, to wrap around his daughter's (tiny! She's so small-) back.
"Hello, snowflake," Enji whispers, the endearment slips out without thought, as he runs his hand gently through his daughter's red streaked hair. "I missed you."
And by the gods, he had. When Enji had realized what he lost, standing across from four children who hated everything that he stood for, their gazes cold and accusing where love and adoration should have flourished. And then they had died in the war efforts, all four of them, at one point or another and-
Enji would not, could not see that happen again.
He'd die first.
As Fuyumi digs her little feet into tender hurts, scrambling to get closer, her eyes shining with tears, even as she babbles, "Daddy, Daddy I was so scared! You got hurt, are you okay?"
And Enji has to take a deep breath, until his ribs throb with it, and hold because he was going to cry-
"It's okay, snowflake." he breathes the reassurance, and no one says a word if his voice shakes a bit with it. "Da-" Enji's voice breaks, and his throat closes up. He has to clear it twice before he can finish the sentence.
"Daddy's okay," he says quietly, softly, tenderly, "I promise I'm okay."
He lifts his head, leaning back against the pillows and pulling Fuyumi up, towards him, into a hug. His hand is over her head, fingers tangled in her soft hair, as she nuzzles into his chest. He can feel her ear pressing against his heartbeat.
Enji doesn't fight the tears as they slip down his cheeks, staring intently at the ceiling even as the hand not cradling his daughter's head is rubbing her back, and tracking her heart beat.
Tiny fingers are gripping his shirt and he takes a moment to just breathe, coming to terms with the facts of his reality. Fuyumi is alive and safe in his arms. She loves him in the simple way a child loves a parent and he's done nothing to harm that image in her eyes. So he lets his daughter sob into his chest, hiccuping and sniffling, while he does his best to get his own emotions under control.
His gaze tracks slowly over the room, to meet the grey eyes of his wife, and she's staring at him, a hand over her mouth, and tears in her eyes.
Enji does nothing to hide the tears on his cheeks, to wipe them away. Instead he lifts the hand on his daughter's back and slowly reaches for her. He doesn't move, doesn't beckon, but he reaches out and allows Rei the choice. Her hand is still pressed against her mouth, but she takes a slow, shaking step forward and hesitantly reaches out with her other hand.
Enji tugs her forward, gently, into the hug, and closes his eyes as Rei tentatively tucks herself into his side. He takes a deep breath, and it shakes and shutters, but-
But the scent of his family is there and they are there, and they love him, he has not broken them, not shattered what could be, not yet, not ever again.
"Daddy's here," Enji whispers, reverent and awed, because he is allowed this, Fuyumi is not disagreeing, not moving away, not flinching from him. "Daddy's here. I'm here." he promises solemnly, "I'm here, and everything will be okay. Everything will be-" a deep shaking breath and he nuzzles into his wife's white hair.
"Everything will be fine."
He leans over and gently drops a kiss onto his wife's head. His greatest shame, a regret he never expressed, his sins undone, thanks to his once rival's successor.
Never again, Enji thinks viciously to himself.
He will make sure of it.
LINEBREAK
When Enji slips back into sleep, actual sleep, not injury or drug induced unconsciousness, Rei gently pulls herself from his arms. She hesitates over Fuyumi's form, tucked protectively under her husband's hand before she quietly sighs and stands up from the hospital bed.
She stops there, staring down at her husband and their daughter. Her husband, who still bares bandages and a cast from his fight against an unknown villain. Who has silvery scars she has never seen on him before, from greater wounds healed by those with quirks in this hospital, she is sure.
Rei gently tugs the blankets on the bed up higher and watches for several moments in silence, gaze carefully searching over her husband's slackened features.
Enji had apologized.
More than that- he had looked her in the eye and meant it.
It's like she's looking at an entirely different man, and...well. Rei feels a little guilty at the relief she feels, but if this is the result of someone injuring Endeavor to the point where his life was in jeopardy, if Enji has been changed so drastically by this attack...Rei is glad. She's so glad. So very relieved and happy and just-
"...I wanted children, I already knew, but that was just a vague concept until I met you and imagined them."
Rei's breath catches again as her husband's voice echoes in her head, shaking and strained, but ringing with truth.
She...she hadn't thought...Enji had been pleasant enough while courting her, showing her family he would be a good match for her. He'd been up front about choosing an arranged marriage candidate with the intent to strengthen his quirk, but he'd also said he wanted someone he could get along with. That he may have been looking for a wife that could help his children be stronger, but he'd wanted more than that. He'd been a bit...cold, yes, but...not cruel.
Still, once she had married him and spent time with him, it had become obvious to her that this 'more' he wanted in marriage was not the 'more' that Rei had wanted. It seemed to her that he had lied about that to her parents and to her. That it really had been nothing more than a Quirk Marriage to Endeavor. And yet...there were times, there were moments, that Rei thought maybe she had it wrong. That maybe he really did desire more, when Enji did something that was out of his way for her, something more. They were rare moments, but present, and occasionally he had reached for her in a gentle and warm way that just…
It had been what kept those embers of hope for more alive.
Those moments had been fading, and his temper occasionally spiked after a particularly bad day at work. He had never struck her, or their daughter, but he'd been growing colder by the day. And Rei had worried endlessly about their daughter, about her own marriage, about….everything.
And then she had seen the news. And her heart had dropped to her toes, and Fuyumi had started crying, and all Rei could think about was that she hadn't been feeling well in the morning for the last five days, she'd been extra tired, and it was very familiar, and what if she was right and Enji never met his second child-
She'd rushed to the hospital as soon as she knew where her husband was staying.
And now...now this.
Enji had woken up and laid his feelings out for her, spoken aloud in a way he never had before, and for the first time in years Rei wondered if they really could make this marriage of theirs something great.
Endeavor was already known for his poor socialization skills. He could coordinate with fellow heroes, command sidekicks and he was very good at his job, but she couldn't recall a time in which he simply relaxed and talked with someone. If all this- this tension, these issues between the two of them had been because of miscommunication? Poor social skills? Such simple things to correct, but things were beginning to paint a picture that concerned her.
If Enji saw no problem with his actions, until now, than in what kind of household did he grow up in? What example was he basing their own marriage on?
Rei's chest felt tight, and tears stung her eyes. She had to take deep breaths, and close her eyes to fight the swell in her emotions. It had been years since this vague sense of hope in her chest had been anything more then embers.
She breathed quietly, pressing her fingers to her mouth.
She would...if Enji was willing to talk to her, to change his reactions, than Rei...Rei would reach back. She'd help him.
If...if the reasons that Enji had such poor socialization skills, such a hard time interacting with people versus commanding them for the reasons Rei was beginning to think he had?
Frost spread down her arms and over her hands, and Rei had to focus on breathing through the rage, to ignore the cloud of steam escaping her mouth, and focused on the image of her husband curling protectively around their daughter.
She would protect...this. This fragile piece of what could be, with everything that she had in her.
Rei reached out, carefully cradling her husband's face, and trailing her thumb across the new scar under his eye, following the newly healed skin towards his temple. Even asleep, Enji leaned into her touch, nuzzling into her hand lightly before he settled.
Rei's chest tightened again at the subtle show of trust from her husband, that he had not awakened at the touch, nor with any of her movements. He'd always had a hair trigger when it came to his reactions and instincts, and that he hadn't reacted here was a sign of both how exhausted he had to be, as well as a sign he trusted her.
Even with hospital drugs in him, unless specifically meant to knock him out, Enji would still react to outside pain relievers he had pumping into him now were not enough to keep Enji down if he did not want to be. His body was relaxed and sleeping. He wasn't reacting to her presence.
Rei breathed.
This man on the bed was not the same man who had gone to help control a fire, but he was her husband, the father of her child, and he was sorry. She would give him this.
And if, in the process, they could possibly find that more of theirs, the more they had both wanted…?
Rei was willing to give this- them- a chance.
