Great big thank you to Schwarzwald The Reader for your review!

And a word of acknowledgement to the guest reviewer who got my hopes up for genuine feedback for this fic, only to deliver the message of "where runner ups cast list", DM me and ask me to my face, coward. Don't hit a story unrelated to Runner Ups with a demand for the cast.

III.

Every so often he would catch her crawling around, escaping Rei's sights and finding her way to him. Every so often he would pick her up, appraise her and nod approvingly, and he would take her back to her horrified mother. Every so often Shouto would try to follow her, and she had to exhaust herself to make sure he wasn't spotted as well.

Part of Yayoi was hoping that Enji noticed that she went to him specifically. That she had seemingly formed an attachment to him. Part of Yayoi wasn't sure if she truly wanted such a thing to happen just yet. All she knew for certain was that she wanted Shouto to go unseen, for all of the attention to be on Yayoi. As far as she knew, it was working.

Natsuo had been cast aside by Enji rather quickly after his Quirk emerged. Just like his mother's, just as much of a grasp as Fuyumi had. It was the one time that Yayoi ever actually saw Natsuo in person; Rei had brought him into the twins' room in secret, letting him help her take care of his siblings, and the shade of red his eyes took was heart-wrenching. At least Natsuo got out of it early, she reasoned as he held her. His grip was awkward and she had to squirm so she didn't cramp her legs, but he meant well despite the trauma of practically being disowned—yet still possessed—by his own father. It was the same for all of them. And hey, at least Natsuo would be able to call Enji out after he went to college. It was something to look forward to, the man's disfigurement and Shouto's nonchalant, "That's a nasty scar you got there". But it still felt so far away, just another fifteen… No, sixteen years at the very least to go for that catharsis.

God, she wished she was talking age so she could tell her siblings to hang in there. Even then she wouldn't be able to give them her first words; she had to save those for the goddamn asshole so he'd believe she was fixated on him. And in a sick way, maybe she was.

It was all for Shouto. It was all for her little brother.

Enji was just an obstacle.

Natsuo sniffled as he held on to Yayoi, setting himself down on the floor with her in his lap. Now this was a more comfortable position, and she could let her legs stretch out properly this way. "Do you think Father will—"

"Don't worry, Natsuo," Rei cut him off. Her voice was hushed, and Natsuo pursed his lips shut as though ashamed for speaking too loud. "I'm sure that—that Shouto and Yayoi will be okay."

Natsuo let out an uncertain sound. He'd seen the same happen to Fuyumi and Touya before his training had begun, so of course he had his doubts. Yayoi couldn't blame him. She'd be agreeing with him if she had the chance. He looked down at Yayoi, catching her gaze, and his eyes glistened as he noticed, for the first time, her red hair.

"It's red," he chirped. Rei held Shouto closer to her, visibly tensing at the observation. Just like Enji, she was no doubt thinking. She was going to see Enji most in her two youngest children. That was another thing to prepare for—the mental break, the kettle being thrown at Shouto as his left side peeked into the room in search of her. She'd want to defend herself from Enji, but Rei would wind up hurting the two children who looked most like him.

Rei sucked in a deep breath, almost frightened to agree with Natsuo and tell him she saw Enji in them too. But Natsuo went on, ruffling Yayoi's hair and making her flail about at his actions. "Like Touya-nii!"

Red like Touya. Not red like Enji. It was such a simple, innocent observation, but it was enough to bring Rei to a stop. A small rush of air sounded from her, a relieved sigh that she couldn't even hold back now. Yayoi pretended not to notice—she was barely a year old, she wasn't supposed to notice—and simply humoured Natsuo as he took her hands and waved her arms about with hushed cheers.

"Fuyumi, Touya, can you keep an eye on the twins while I cook dinner?" Rei was peeking around the room, paranoid, as she crept inside with the two toddlers. Fuyumi and Touya had been doing their homework quietly, still waiting for Natsuo to come home from playing with his friends, and neither had moved from the spare training room for a while. From what Yayoi could gather, Enji never used all of the rooms—he just let some of them waste away, only sweeping through the estate every month to make sure nothing was misplaced.

While Fuyumi was anxious, Touya was dutiful and jumped to his feet immediately, taking Shouto from Rei's arm and nodding for Fuyumi to do the same with Yayoi. Her elder sister was scared, obviously looked like she was doing something wrong and knew it, but her shaking hands still took Yayoi from Rei and held the toddler close.

"Please don't let them out," Rei begged, voice hushed. "Yayoi's been crawling all around and—and he keeps finding her."

Fuyumi gave Yayoi a pale-faced stare. "O—Oh…"

"We'll keep an eye on them," Touya told Rei. "Father never comes in this room anyway."

Rei let out a relieved breath. She slid the door shut behind her as she left, and soon enough the twins were set down on a cushion each. Touya and Fuyumi exchanged glances; while one was still uncertain, the other was grinning excitedly.

"She's gonna be trouble," Touya bragged, nodding to Yayoi as he did so. Yayoi scrunched up her face at him, though his refusal to elaborate suggested he'd talked about this with Fuyumi before. How often did they gossip about the babies?

"That's not a good thing, Touya-nii," Fuyumi hissed. "Father's going to hurt her if she causes trouble." She pursed her lips and pulled her glasses from her nose. Fuyumi tugged at the bottom of her uniform and began wiping harshly at the lenses. Yayoi didn't know that was a nervous habit of her's. "He's going to hurt us for being near them."

"You worry too much." Touya shifted around and sat behind the twins. Much like Natsuo, he wasted no time ruffling both the toddlers' hair with each hand. "We should be making the most of this chance. When their Quirks show, we won't be able to see them as much. Maybe even before then."

Fuyumi let out a whine that clearly stated she didn't see what there was to make the most of here. Yayoi had to agree, if only because she knew how much Fuyumi regretted not being around for Shouto more in the future. No matter the reassurance, she was too scared of Enji to go against his orders. Touya continued to muse now that he was done ruffling their hair, looking Yayoi up and down appraisingly—not like the way Enji did, but more in a joking manner.

"They could get lucky like me and have a weak constitution," Touya joked. He pointed at Yayoi with a grin. "I crawled before you and Natsuo did. Yacchan might not be able to handle her Quirk. Ah, but Shoutan is another matter…"

"You're giving them nicknames already?" Fuyumi shook on the spot.

Touya tilted his head at her. "Are they bad?" he asked innocently. He gave Shouto and Yayoi a quick nudge, going on, "Hey, hey, are those bad nicknames?"

Though Yayoi was quiet, Shouto raised his arms and gave Touya a curious, wide-eyed look. "Dah!" he tried to shout.

"Oh! Shoutan likes it! What about Yacchan?"

All Yayoi could do was scrunch up her face at him. He was awfully chipper for someone whose life was a massive mystery. For all Yayoi knew, the theories about Dabi were true and Touya did go down that route later in life. He was hard to get a read on, to tell if he was being genuine or not.

"She doesn't like it!" Fuyumi insisted.

"She doesn't? Then what do you think she'd like?"

Fuyumi went red in the face. She'd just walked into that headfirst and even the toddlers knew it.

"Y—" Fuyumi pushed her glasses back up her nose and hid behind her bangs. "Ya—Yaya."

That was worse than Yacchan.

Yayoi finally piped up, adamant on not being called Yaya again. She looked at Fuyumi with her face scrunched up even more, and she was as loud as she could be as she yelled back, "Baahhhhh!"

Panic gripped the Todoroki siblings in an instant. Touya picked Yayoi up, hurriedly putting her into a soothing position and patting her back. Fuyumi began hyperventilating, pure terror on her face as she tried to figure out what to do—cower away, or rush to Shouto and soothe him before he began screaming too. Yayoi was used to the panic shown by Rei, especially when she herself acted up and earned attention from Rei's least favourite person, but this was the first time she was seeing her own siblings in such a panic. The way Fuyumi tried to fight back tears as she finally picked up Shouto and held him like Touya held Yayoi; the way Touya tried to steady his breathing as he spoke, yet the shaking of his voice gave away his fear and desperation; this was how her brother acted.

This was how her brother would look and act when their parents came home from work. How her brother would cower and shy away every time the chance of them turning their anger to him came up.

Yayoi caused that fear.

She shut up immediately, clinging to Touya as though he would understand it was an apology. She didn't think—she hadn't thought to consider that despite the siblings' carefree lifestyle, Enji still haunted them and held some kind of weight in their lives. He may have deemed them failures, but failures still got punished. How could she have been so stupid?

"Don't worry Yacchan," Touya cooed, the tremble in his voice still present. "Fuyumi isn't the best with nicknames. We won't call you Yaya again."

In the forty-five minutes it took for Rei to come back and collect the twins again, Fuyumi and Touya didn't dare relax once.

"Wh—What?"

"Are you deaf? I said I want the twins in my office while I work."

Rei sucked in a deep breath as the maids entered the room, moving for the twins as they sat in their high chairs. Shouto was already dropping his plastic spoon in surprise, intrigued by so many people he didn't recognise, but he still noticed the way Rei tensed. The way she feebly tried to insist naptime was after this. Yayoi noticed too, but unlike Shouto she made no effort to reach for Rei as the maids picked them up and carried them to Enji's side. She had to make it look like she favoured Enji. Had to make it look like she wanted to be around him.

Her attempts were ignored, for the most part. Grim, stony-faced maids carried the twins in silence, unaware of Rei's weak protests. Or perhaps uncaring—if they spoke up against Endeavour, who knew how harshly his gaze would fall on them next? Yayoi could understand their reluctance to listen to their boss's wife, but it really hammered home just how much power the man had in this estate. How little everyone else mattered as long as Endeavour ordered it.

The order was quick and without a hint of affection: "Make sure the failures don't sneak into my office."

So that was what this was about, Yayoi realised once she was set down in a playpen. Shouto wiggled over to her side immediately, tumbling on top of her and knocking her over with playful babbles, and Yayoi just let him have his fun. There were practically no toys in the playpen, just a few soft blocks and the like to spell their names. For now, Shouto only had Yayoi to occupy him. But was Enji truly so angered by his other children spending the smallest hints of time with them? It wasn't like Touya or Fuyumi or Natsuo were able to impart biases on them. Hell, Shouto wasn't going to be remembering the silly nickname Touya had given them by the time they were isolated from their siblings.

Yayoi had assumed the order would last a week. It didn't. Every day, when Enji wasn't out at work for the agency, they were escorted to his office where they would sit in a playpen and idly keep themselves busy. A week turned into two. Two turned into three. Before she even knew it, a month had passed them by in that office with Enji paying them half the attention Rei ever did.

"Mariya," Enji said one day, barely looking up from his paperwork. It was a rare day his flaming beard burned brighter than usual, a sign Yayoi came to associate with his annoyance. A hot-headed man was just as easy to read as his flames. "Why are the twins not improving in their development?"

One of the maids, designated their nanny by this point, bowed before Enji as she stood by the playpen. "With all due respect, Todoroki-sama—"

A sharp glare from Enji as he set down his paperwork. Mariya bowed lower and waited for him to scold her, anything, but he leaned back in his chair and, without restraining his distaste for her upcoming opinion, gruffly said, "Continue."

"Shouto-sama and Yayoi-sama only have each other to stimulate their growth. And with no one to teach them and no toys to give them creativity—"

"They don't need to be creative," Enji scoffed. "They just need to be successes."

"Success and imagination are not mutually exclusive," Mariya said matter-of-factly. And then, pointedly, she added as an afterthought, "Or so I am told, Todoroki-sama."

Enji clicked his tongue. The flames grew brighter. Yayoi wasn't sure what the deal was with Mariya yet—but whatever it was, she had more courage than the rest of the staff to speak back to Enji like that. To be such a smartass and be so confident of her lack of punishment. Yayoi liked Mariya.

"Get them some toys to play with, I don't care what." Enji picked up his paperwork again and began scribbling things down hurriedly. "Just keep those failures away from my children."

Yayoi really liked Mariya. When Mariya was told he didn't care what, Enji had no leg to stand on when all manner of Pro Hero toys were brought into the room within the hour. His flames burned even brighter, licking their way up his face as he rose from his chair and began bellowing at Mariya. And Mariya just opened the All Might toy's packaging and dropped it lazily into the playpen with the other toys.

Shouto looked through a few of them, intrigued, and his first instinct was to chew on a Cementoss toy that squished and bent like soft plastic—probably to mimic the cement he could manipulate. Yayoi was a little intrigued by the toy. How old was Cementoss again compared to Enji? Almost half his age? Maybe by now Cementoss was a sidekick starting to make his mark. Either way, he was doing pretty good to have his own toys already. Yayoi half-expected Shouto to beeline for the All Might toy, but the big blond tufts of hair went ignored. All Might just laid sadly beside a very censored doll of Midnight, sadly neglected by his future number one fan.

Well. Number two. Three, at best. Hard to forget how hardcore Deku was and how much a certain explosion boy adored All Might.

Yayoi waited a few moments, staring down at the toy. Most had cutesy faces that made it easier to tell they were cartoonified for children to like better. But All Might… Yayoi knew he was specially off-model and more… Whatever the hell he was. This toy, though? This was too much. She picked up the All Might toy, scrunching up her face as she did so, and stared down at the heavy shading on the toy's face. This thing was more teeth than anything, and that smile—did those manufacturers really think kids wouldn't find this scary? Honestly, he looked less like a hero and more like a boogeyman.

She chucked the doll as far as she could. It bumped the edge of the playpen and fell onto the floor, out of both her and Shouto's reach. Mariya, ever dutiful, picked up the doll and dropped it back into the playpen.

Yayoi gave Mariya her scrunched up look and crawled for the doll. Once again, she chucked it over the playpen and out into the office.

"That's no good, Yayoi-sama," Mariya chided her, kneeling down at the edge of the playpen with All Might in her hands. She held him up and waved him around like he was actually animate, and in a deep voice she went on, "I'm your friend and the Number One Hero, All Might!"

"Mariya."

In her same mimicry of All Might's voice, Mariya replied, "Yes, Todoroki-sama?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

Mariya just sighed and stood back up, dropping the All Might toy into the playpen once more. Yayoi wasted no time throwing it out again. God, that unholy face was going to give her nightmares if she had to keep looking at it. Which dumbass board member greenlit this toy's design?

"She keeps throwing one of the toys out," Mariya reported. As she said this, she picked up the All Might toy again and held it up for Enji to see. "Maybe she wants something else. Should I go get something better to occupy her?"

All it took was a glance, just one glance from his paperwork, and then suddenly Mariya had all of Enji's attention. He cast aside his paperwork, and turquoise eyes landed on Yayoi in an instant. A shudder ripped up her spine. Oh, she had his full attention right now. Enji leaned forward, and without looking at Mariya, he muttered, "Drop the toy back inside."

All Might landed right in front of Yayoi. Despite the way he was staring at her, Enji was the least of her concerns compared to this demonic visage of All Might being shoved in her face. Yayoi picked it up, face scrunched up, and almost threw it out of the pen again—only to stop short when she realised what she was doing. Who she was doing it in front of.

She was rejecting All Might right in front of Endeavour.

"Give the toy to Shouto," Enji ordered Mariya. Before Yayoi could recover, throw the toy out once again, All Might was pulled from her grip and dropped in front of Shouto.

Cementoss was old news as soon as buff Demon Might was dropped in his field of view. With a trail of spit coming from his mouth, Shouto tossed aside poor Cementoss and picked up All Might, rocking back and forth curiously with the toy. Enji waited with bated breaths, as did Mariya, and all Yayoi could think was how happy Shouto looked as he took in the toy's appearance. He didn't seem to care that the toy was so horrifically off-model that it couldn't be human, even compared to most Mutation Quirks. He just fell forward, on top of All Might, and giggled.

No rejection. No disdain. Just toddler sounds that anyone would've expected when giving a child a toy.

Enji was quick to rise from his chair. Yayoi flinched, falling onto her back as she did so, and Mariya righted her as Enji approached. The order, just like a month ago, was swift: "Take Shouto back to Rei. Yayoi will stay with me while I work."