1,516 words. The original prompt is "flash", but I think a bit of modification to the prompt is acceptable, yes? Another bit of backstory for you all! All credit belongs to their respective owners.

Michael stared at his father, angry and confused. "You mean... that's why you left...?"

"Michael, you don't know the whole story..." Soul started.

"I've never known the whole story! You," Michael pointed at his mother, "you lied to me all these years! Dad was never traveling the world, was he? He was never on missions as a Death Scythe, was he? He was hiding! Just like Karma said, not man enough to own up to and apologize for his mistakes!"

"I didn't mean to lie to you, Michael..." Maka said, starting to cry again. "I just didn't want you to think like Karma-"

"She was right to hate Dad!" the boy shouted. "You're no father of mine, either!" He ran out the door, pushing past Soul. He didn't know where she'd gone, but he was determined to find Karma and apologize for never understanding. She had been right all along.

Soul and Maka stood there, stunned. This was not supposed to happen. Soul had planned on a warm welcome, not an intense screaming match. "Shouldn't have even come back..." he said, slumping into a nearby armchair.

"Nonsense. This is your home," Maka insisted, pulling up a chair beside him and taking his hand.

"I didn't know she hated me so much..." Soul placed his free hand over his face. "Now both Karma and Michael hate me..."

"I knew I couldn't change Karma's mind... But I didn't want Michael growing up to hate his father because... I knew you'd come back eventually..."

"Actually... I've been back for a while..." he admitted, turning away from his wife.

She was shocked. "What do you mean?"

"I've been living in Death City for the past few years. I just... couldn't find the courage to face any of you..." He turned back to her and placed his free hand over hers. "But then I ran into Karma at Cloud Nine. Seeing her, seeing how much she's grown, it gave me the courage to come back. I wanted to be a family again..."

Maka took back her hand. "Why didn't you ever call? Or write? Even if you weren't ready to face the kids, why didn't you try to see me? Don't you know how worried I was? I had no clue where in the world you'd gone! I raised our kids by myself, trying to keep a smile on my face while I kept thinking of you and where you were and how you were and if you were sick or healthy or in trouble or had left us for good! And it never crossed your mind to contact me?"

"Maka, I'm sorry! I was afraid!"

She walked away from him angrily without another word.

Soul held his face in his hands, his words muffled. "I don't mean to fuck everything up... I just do..."

...

"You can't hide here forever, Karma," Sayuri said, shaking out an old sleeping bag onto her bedroom floor. "You have to go home sometime."

"It isn't home if he's there..." Karma replied, stealing a pillow from the stack on Sayuri's bed. She had gone over to the Star residence with a story that Sayuri had begged her for a sleepover and must have forgotten it was that evening. Tsubaki ate the story up and began making dinner for four.

"You have to face him sometime. You can't just keep running from him," the meister said matter-of-factly. "And you can't keep up this lie forever. You really think Mom is going to believe we're having sleepovers for the rest of our lives? You need to tell Mom what's going on!"

"What's going on?" Tsubaki asked as she entered the room with a tray of tea. "Is everything all right?"

Karma stared at her feet for a moment, trying to come up with the words.

"Uncle Soul is back," Sayuri said for her weapon. "Karma doesn't want to be home right now, that's why she's here..."

"You're kidding me!" Tsubaki nearly dropped the tray. "He's finally back and you would rather be here?"

"Prison sounds better than home right now," Karma said, throwing herself facedown on the bed.

Tsubaki set the tray on her daughter's nightstand and sat next to Karma. "I understand why you don't want to be around him right now, but you need to forgive him. You don't know the whole story."

"That's what he said, too. But I'm tired of all the lies. The truth is he hurt all of us and left us. He doesn't deserve forgiveness. He deserves to hurt as much as we did and more."

"Revenge won't solve anything, Karma. You know that." Tsubaki took hold of Karma's hand.

The girl flinched away from the woman. "I knew you'd say that! None of you understand! I'm outta here..." Once again, Karma ran away, not really sure of where she was going. She kept looking behind her, certain her meister would come running after her to try to convince her that revenge was wrong. But nothing and no one would change her mind. Revenge had been on her mind for far too long.

Her eyes still set behind her, on the look-out for Sayuri, she did not see someone walking in front of her and ran right into them. Both fell to the ground, Karma lying on the young man's back. "Hey, watch where you're-" Karma snarled before seeing his face. "Tatsuya...?"

"Hey, Scar Face," the broadsword greeted. "Mind getting off me?" The scythe hurriedly picked herself off and brushed herself off. "Thanks. What were you running from?"

"Sayuri..."

"Ah. Makeover?"

"No, we're just... not quite seeing eye-to-eye on a particular subject."

"I hear your dad's back," Tatsuya said nonchalantly.

"How did you know that?" Karma asked, trying not to let her anger show.

"Michael's at my house right now," he answered, "really upset about your dad being back. He is currently eating me out of house and home, so I figured I'd go pick up some groceries." He pointed to the groceries sprawled out on the ground thanks to their earlier collision. "Want to chill at my place for a while? Two's company, three's a party."

Karma tried to hide her blush. "Sure. Something to keep my mind off of him I spose." The two began picking up the groceries in silence for a while until Karma spoke again. "Why is Michael so upset? I thought he was his hero, that he'd be glad to have him home."

"Said he'd been lied to all this time," he replied. "That everything he knew about his dad was a lie. I get the feeling you know the truth?"

"Yeah..." she whispered, touching her scar.

"So it's this story, huh?" he asked. "The story of your scar? I'm in for a treat, the story behind Scar Face."

Karma sighed. "Long story short, my old man slapped my mom, sliced open my face, then ran out on us. I haven't seen him since I was five."

"Wow..." was all the young man could say as they walked toward his home. He walked quietly for a while, thinking about what had just been said. "At least you have each other, you and your brother... I'm a bit jealous..."

"What do you mean? You don't have a family?"

"Sorta... I was born in Japan. Don't really remember my folks. They died when I was little. But I had a little brother, Sosuke. We lived in an orphanage for a long time, made a makeshift family with a few others there. We'd play hide and seek in the nearby woods a lot. But one time... Sosuke was gone for a long time. The rest of us went looking for him. Eventually, I found... his soul... You know how weapons and meisters can sense who killed a person by the soul that's left behind, if there is one at all? It was a witch, no doubt about it. My only brother, gone... I swore that I would kill the witch who killed him. He was only a little boy..."

"Is that why you came to Shibusen?"

"Yeah. The orphanage somehow managed to scrape up enough money to send me to the US so I could become a weapon. They didn't know about the revenge I had planned, they just knew that life would be better for me if I went to Shibusen. It was 'what I was born to do', all my old teachers would say." They stopped in front of the student apartment complexes as Tatsuya fished in his pockets for his keys. "I'll find that witch... even if it's the last thing I do..."

As they came to Tatsuya's front door, Karma said, "I guess we have a lot in common..."

"You're out for revenge too, huh?"

Karma nodded.

"So I don't have to worry about you telling me that 'revenge isn't the right way'?"

"No."

"Good."