"Why did you bring me here?" Farrah asked after an uncomfortably long silence.
"I've already told you," Enji muttered irritably, releasing his death grip on the steering wheel.
"I was safe with Hawks. You know that," she said, leaning her head back against the head rest. "So why - "
"You're tired," he interrupted, not allowing her to finish the question. "I should take you inside."
Farrah exhaled the breath she had been holding after he got out and slammed the door closed. He was right. She was tired of his bullshit and did not want to argue. When he opened her door and reached for her, she pulled away from him.
"I can walk," she insisted.
"You can't. Let me carry you." He slid one arm her knees.
"No!" she yelled, lifting her legs and pulling at his arm.
"Stop being a child!"
"I'm not! It's just that..."
She had no intention of allowing him to pick her up in a bridal carry and walk her over the threshold into his house - the house he once shared with his wife and children.
Enji pulled his arm back, squatting beside the car. His big body filled the entire area in front of her blocking any chance she might have of scooting past him.
It would hurt like hell, but she could walk. She had walked out of Keigo's bedroom to confront Enji after all - which had been a mistake, but he had left her with no other choice really. Obviously he had no intention of leaving her there despite her being perfectly safe and well cared for.
"Fine," he sighed, turning his large body around by duck walking in a tiny circle. "Climb on."
Farrah stared at his wide back. God, he was huge. Enji was a giant in high school but with age and continuing to build his body he had only broadened and packed on more muscle. Extending her hand, she brushed her fingers across his unbelievably broad shoulders.
"I rather like this. Instead of treating me like a princess, you are treating me like a knight does his Queen," she joked, swinging her legs to the side.
She slid her feet through the small spaces between his arms and waist. Leaning forward, she put her arms around his thick neck, plastering herself to his back. She must look like one of those little green sticky frogs stuck to the side of tree.
"More like a noble steed," he joked in return, purposely jostling her as he stood up.
"Hey!" she squeaked, tightening her arms around his neck in a chokehold. "Don't drop me!"
"I won't," he wheezed. "But you gotta ease up before I faint."
"Oh, sorry."
Farrah relaxed her arms, pressing her cheek against the collar of his jacket. It was like riding a Clydesdale virtually doing a straddle split across his back.
"Why are you doing this, Enji?" she asked againas he took her up the stairs toward the front door of his traditionally architectured mansion.
She would continue to ask the same question until he answered honestly. She was sure Enji Todoroki had ulterior motives for bringing her here. He had never done anything in his life without having hidden reasons that would benefit him somehow. Even when he choose his wife and had his children it was all with a specific purpose in mind to further his status and career.
His booted feet pounded on the wooden slats of the porch like hooves. The muscles of his arm flexed against her knee and calf, keeping a tight grip on her while reaching into his pocket for his key.
"How many times are you going to ask me that?" he muttered, sliding open the door after unlocking it.
"Until you answer me and tell me what you are plotting," she replied bluntly.
"I'm not plotting anything," he assured her, flipping on the light.
Rather than being in a foyer, they were inside a large open room separated into two by the door. It was set up a like a living room on the left with couches and a massive TV. On the right it was a more sophisticated sitting room with wingback chairs and shelves full of books against the walls.
"So was it petty jealousy then?"
"Yes," he readily admitted as they entered the hallway.
His unexpectedly truthful answer shocked her into a stunned silence. He had thrown her away to marry a woman he didn't love. Then he tossed his wife and their children aside when he could no longer handle the burden of his guilt from his own selfish choices. He used people as they benefitted him then threw them away like trash. It wasn't fair. He had everything, carelessly ruined it, and still wanted more.
"You know, as the number one hero, you really shouldn't have me here. I'm a criminal after all," she reminded him because he had classified her as such himself. "I'm practically a villain. I've killed people. Lots of people."
"You had your reasons," he said, taking her to the end of the long hallway.
"We all have reasons for what we do. That doesn't necessarily mean they are good reasons," she said pointedly as he slid back the door to what would be her bedroom.
"Then we will say you're under house arrest if that makes you feel better," he said, taking her inside to the canopy bed surrounded by filmy white curtains. "You're under special protective custody due to extenuating circumstances."
Enji turned his back toward the bed, lowering his body until she could drop just a short distance onto the puffy baby pink duvet covering the mattress.
Farrah noticed a suitcase, her suitcase specifically, laying on the steamer trunk at the end of the bed.
"How did you get that?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the piece of luggage instead of the massive man presently staring down at her.
"I was in your hotel room while the police were conducting their investigation. After they left, I picked up some things for you. I thought you might need them. Here," he said, drawing her attention to him. His hand clasped in a fist was held out to her. "I found this too."
Enji uncurled his thick meaty fingers to reveal the tiny delicate gold chain with the pink teardrop pearl pendant.
"Oh," she gasped, her face heating self-consciously.
"Or did you not want it to be found?" he inquired, turning over his hand to allow the chain to hang from his middle finger.
"Enji," Farrah said, slowly raising her eyes to meet his.
He surprised her again by looking hurt instead of angry. Despite being such a big, tough man, a paragon of physical strength and emotional vacancy, he presently wore a kicked puppy look rivaling that of an actual abused canine.
"Twenty-eight years," she scoffed, a bitter smile curling her lips.
His face collapsed into confusion, his eyebrows drawing together to meet over the bridge of his nose. The frown on his lips deepened as he waited for her to continue.
"I wore that necklace for twenty-eight years. I clung to a meaningless token of affection given to me by a man who didn't love me at all. God, how pathetic does that make me?" she asked what was not necessarily a rhetorical question. However, it was one she could not answer, and he certainly should not.
"Meaningless," he repeated, taking a seat on the bed beside her. "I did love you, Farrah. But..."
That was one big but. She really did not want to hear the rest because she already knew all about that but. She could hear his voice in her head making his excuses.
But I had to dump you. But I had to marry Rei and have children with her because she had the quirk I wanted to breed the perfect children to eliminate my quirk's fatal flaw of overheating. But I had to send my family away to protect them. But I had to bring you here to protect you. But I'm all alone now. But I need you so you can't be with him.
"Oh, my God," she sighed, rolling her eyes.
Her head ached suddenly so she closed her eyes and lay back on the bed. Surely Enji would see that she wanted to be alone, assume she was tired then get up and leave. But he didn't. He stayed. Right by her side. The ambient heat from his large muscular frame radiating out to her like the warmth coming off of a nice cozy fire on the hearth. Or a campfire which left unattended could set off a blaze that would burn down an entire forest.
"I wore that damn necklace for twenty-eight years because I couldn't let a man go who had so willingly pushed me away," she said, allowing the anger to creep into her voice.
"You took it off...because of him," he added in a low voice.
Both of them knew damn good and well to whom he referred with the vague him.
"I did," she readily confessed, hoping it was like a dagger in his heart.
Enji Todoroki deserved to feel pain for all of the hurt he had dished out. Pushing up on her elbows, she glared at the man who sat beside her looking as if the air had been let out of him. Slightly deflated like a leaking balloon, his shoulders had slumped and folded inward. His chin dropped toward his chest. His hand hung lifelessly between his knees, the pendant swinging gently on its chain like a pendulum.
"I finally decided to move on and there you were to pull me back...to reclaim me when you had lost everyone who should have meant everything to you in this world."
Anger swirled in her gut like acid, eating away at her insides until thought she might scream. Sitting up, she glowered at him so hotly he had to feel it on his face. She stared at the scar pondering how scarred he must be on the inside to do the stupid shit he did. She did not feel pity for him nor should she.
Apparently, he felt something after all when he started rub the back of his neck. He still refused to look her way though. Could he possibly be feeling shame along with his regret? He damn well should.
"How dare you, Enji Todoroki," she demanded in a furious hiss. She punched him in the arm. "How dare you!"
Farrah punched him in the bicep again, harder. It was like slamming her fist into a brick wall. But she did it again and again despite her aching knuckles. When he seemed unfazed, taking each wallop with only the occasional rocking of his body, she opened her hand to smack him across his face.
There is something particularly humiliating about a slap that is not imparted by a close fisted punch. After the popping sound and subsequent sting of her palm hitting his cheek, his head snapped to the side. He could have given himself whiplash with the speed and intensity he turned his head back to glare at her.
"Fuck you, Enji Todoroki, you insolent, egotistical, insensitive bastard," she snarled at him, spittle flying from her lips in the manner of a mad dog frothing at the mouth.
"Don't hold back. Tell me how you really feel," he said in an almost frightfully calm voice.
Although the anger in his eyes burned as hot and bright as the fires of hell, he did not hit her back or unleash his flames to incinerate her. He sure looked like he wanted to though. With only the lift of a pinky he could torch her and rid himself and the world of the problem she had suddenly made herself by coming here and committing crimes.
"You want to know the worst part, the absolute most stupid thing that makes me hate myself so much?" Farrah asked him, receiving an almost imperceptible nod of his head. "I can't hate you. I want to. I've wanted to for years. But no matter how hard I try, I can't stop..."
I can't stop loving you.
"I can't stop..." she repeated trying to finish but her voice dissolved into a hoarse whisper not allowing her to utter the rest of her sentence.
The tears she held back also clogged her throat, strangling her as if his hands were wrapped around her throat. Wanting to cry further humiliated and angered her. The last thing she wanted to do in this moment was seem more weak by bawling like she did the day he told her there was no future for the two of them. But here they are caught in this ridiculous situation in a future neither one of them expected.
"I know. I couldn't stop loving you either, but - "
"NO!" she shouted, slapping him again to prevent him from saying the rest. "Don't you dare say it. I don't want your excuses."
"I wasn't going to make any excuses," he sighed defeatedly. "I don't have any left."
"Damn right you don't. No matter how you've justified it to yourself over the years...everything you have done, every word you said...every action you took against your wife and children has hurt them in a way that has left a lasting scar that will never heal."
"I know," he agreed, turning his head to stare at the wall straight ahead of him. He toyed with the necklace still held in his hand. "Why do you think I sent them far away from me for their own good, hmm? I can't imagine how much it must have hurt still having to see me, be reminded, all the time of...everything."
"It's funny to me that you have a fire quirk and married a woman with an ice quirk, but you're the one who has had the heart of ice all along deep inside of you. Obviously, in your own fucked up way, you loved her and your children or you wouldn't have let them go. I suppose it's good you finally realized you can't keep doing these things, keep hurting people over and over and over, without it having lasting and horrible consequences."
"I won't let you go. I won't take you back to him." His eyes swung back to her. Their teal depths held no emotion whatsoever now. "I refuse to put my subordinate at risk for someone like you."
"Someone like me," Farrah repeated in offended disbelief.
"You're too much of a liability. You said it yourself, you're a criminal. You're under house arrest, Farrah Calvin, and will remain in my custody until further notice."
"You really are an asshole, Enji Todoroki," she growled.
"Yeah, and right now I'm your asshole so get over it," he muttered, standing up. He placed the necklace on the small square nightstand beside the bed. "I'll leave you to get some rest. You're free to roam as you like. The kitchen is straight across the hallway back where we came in if you get hungry or thirsty."
"Thanks, warden," she retorted smartly as he went to the door.
"I didn't want things to be this way," he said standing in the open doorway without turning back to look at her or walking out.
"Oh, yeah? How did you want them to be?" she challenged.
"I don't know...but not like this. I'm sorry."
"For what?" She glared at his broad back as he stood tall and broad but refusing to face her.
"Everything I did to you. And the most important thing I didn't do," he added, stomping away before she could demand to know exactly what didn't he do.
She wondered if he made an apology like this to his family. She could not help but think he had expected her to go rushing back into his arms, to be his comfort here in his time of need.
"Fucking asshole," she muttered, scooting around to lay against the bank of pillows piled against the headboard.
Remembering she was wearing Keigo's hoodie, Farrah pulled in her neck like a retreating turtle, pushing her nose into the soft jersey fabric to inhale his scent deeply. Sunshine and strawberries. Goddammit. Here she is stuck with fire and brimstone. Shoving her hands into the pouch in the front of the shirt, she found something. Pulling it out, she saw that she held a small black flip phone. A burner phone.
Flipping it open, she saw one number had been programmed into the contact list but no name. She hit the green phone button because why not? How else would she know who the phone number belonged to? One of Keigo's most adoring fans perhaps?
"Hey there," she heard Keigo's flirtatious voice purring through the phone. "You found my little going away present huh?"
Farrah inhaled sharply.
"So you knew he was coming for me?" she asked.
That would explain his sudden amorous attack before Enji arrived. Seems like he was trying to stake his claim by nailing her at least one time before Enji took her away. It also explained why he did not act surprised by his boss's appearance either.
"You're not too mad at me are you? Besides, it's not like I could tell him no. Don't forget I do work for him," he reminded her unnecessarily. "He's not wrong, you know. You will be safer there with him."
Will I? Will I really be safer here?, she asked herself. Safe from the men he wanted to kill her without a doubt but not safe from her own feelings. It was incredibly dangerous for her emotional well being living in forced proximity to Enji Todoroki. Not to mention, he was going through his own shit, a disaster of his own making, but still, he was an emotional wreck himself. Fire with fire and adding the fuel of heightened emotions. A dangerous and deadly combination.
"Farrah, are you listening?" she heard Keigo asking her after spacing out.
"No, I wasn't. I'm sorry," she apologized after her brutal honesty.
"It's okay," he sighed sounding like it was not okay at all. After a long silence, he asked, "Are you okay?"
"No. I'm not," she confessed, twirling a lock of her hair around her fingers as he mind attempted to wander off again. "Things haven't gone well since I got here."
"I didn't think they would. Why don't you call me back later? That's why I gave you this phone. Contact me any time you need me."
"Thank you, Keigo," she returned.
"Any time."
He ended the call without a good-bye. Which was good. She hated good-byes.